The best place to get Chinese food in Santa Barbara! Green tea is also delicious! Use your axxess card for a deal!
Julia H.
Classificação do local: 5 Bakersfield, CA
This place has the best Chinese food you can get in SB hands down. The restaurant is clean and the staff were kind and welcoming. My friend and I enjoyed everything we ordered. I don’t think there was anything negative to say! If you want authentic Chinese food, come here. I had such a nice experience that my fiancé and I plan to host our wedding rehearsal dinner with them in May!
Lani P.
Classificação do local: 4 Glendale, CA
The place is located near State St. close to other restaurants and shops. I would have given them a perfect rating if not for the long wait for ordering and getting the food. We came in on a lunchtime Saturday after New Year’s day. The place was not really packed but it seems that there were only 3 servers doing all the tables. They were doing dimsum but the family wanted to do the regular menu(maybe that’s why the order took long?). But it’s was all worth the wait. Food was great!(servings are smaller though compared to chinese restos in LA). We ordered the shrimp dimsum and black bean pork ribs(yummy)… and the staple fried rice, spicy fried pork and seafood noodle soup which we all shared. And for the dessert — yummy mango pudding! It was a nice way to end our weekend trip with the family before heading back to LA. :)
Daniel L.
Classificação do local: 5 Santa Barbara, CA
I go here for takeout and get the chicken Kung Pao and it’s the best I’ve had in Santa Barbara.
Linda D.
Classificação do local: 4 Los Altos, CA
The food is pretty good. Kungpao tofu and Hongkong style beef were pretty good. Bokchoy was over cooked and the walnut prawn is okay. This place is big with nice décor but for the number of table this restaurant is very under staffed. Service is friendly but a bit slow, again this is due to low ratio of table to waiters. Overall, experience is pretty good.
Jonathan B.
Classificação do local: 1 Santa Barbara, CA
We read a few reviews before going here and decided to give them the benefit of the doubt as we got the impression that most criticism was directed towards the service and not the food. We went on a Monday night, typically the quietest night of the week for restaurants, and the place didn’t seem to be too busy. Our problems started immediately… First off it took about five minutes to be greeted by anyone as we stood awkwardly at the entrance as members of staff came and went by us, not one taking the initiative to ask if we were being helped. Finally the hostess approached us and seated us, however she didn’t seem to be too organized as other disgruntled customers waiting at the front were left waiting when it appeared they had been waiting longer than us. The hostess sat us near the back of the restaurant, which is where we sat for twenty minutes without anyone asking us for drinks, let alone the food. Having read previous reviews we decided not to waste any more time and leave! I’m sure the food could have been good but the staff were just useless. I wouldn’t waste your time, if you want a good Chinese in SB, Madame Lu’s on upper state is the place, good food AND good service.
Justine R.
Classificação do local: 5 Santa Barbara, CA
I’ve only been here once and ordered take out. But the customer service was very friendly. I called a few minutes before they opened unsure if they would take my order, but the girl in the phone was super polite, took my order and told me it would be ready a few minutes after 5 since that’s when they open for dinner. I arrived at 505 expecting to wait but the food was ready. She gave me chop sticks soy sauce and a ton of fortune cookies. I ordered the generals chicken and the Orange peel chicken. Both were AMAZING. And the rice was good which for some reason lately when I order rice somewhere it’s been undercooked. 0 complaints and I will definitely return for more take out and probably dine in.
Robert S.
Classificação do local: 4 Goleta, CA
This place is a high end Chinese restaurant. The options are plenty and the food is pretty decent! I got the Kung pao which was terrific
Rudy M.
Classificação do local: 4 Santa Barbara, CA
This is one of my favorite take-out places. Good portions and good food. It is a bit pricey, but well worth it. Service is really friendly as well.
Greg W.
Classificação do local: 4 Goleta, CA
Great tasting Chinese food at China Pavilion. There were hits and there were misses but overall I would recommend. The hits: Silver Sprout Duck Soup — Wooow! Google won’t help much with this dish as it is a Chinese Pavilion exclusive. But I took a chance on it and it was great. Broth is like hot and sour but the duck takes it much further. I was under the weather but this soup cradled me like a mother. I only wish the bowl was bigger! Spicy Basil Ginger Beef — The name says it all, and the dish is exactly what it promises to be. And it is so so good. The miss: Crispy Prawns with Garlic Weird batter, overall just underwhelming dish. The batter is just weird, see the picture. Interior and service = solid.
Kristoffer P.
Classificação do local: 4 Santa Barbara, CA
The food is one of the most authentic Chinese food placed in SB. Extra bonus, they accept Axxess cards here. They also have dim sum as well. Kind of expensive, but well worth it.
Steve W.
Classificação do local: 1 Westlake Village, CA
This was maybe the worst experience I have had at a restaurant in very long time. To start with, when we arrived, the man behind the front desk did not even raise his head to look at us. We found the dining room to be about half full, and about three minutes later, or young lady finally came over to greet us. The man that was there still never once looked at us. Instead of seating us right away, we had to wait another few minutes, for what reason I do not know. We finally got seated, and someone left a menu at our table. It took several minutes before anyone came back to check on us. No water, no Tea, nothing. Several minutes later, when someone finally did come back, we immediately placed our order and asked for both water and hot tea. We waited and waited, and even saw other tables the receded after us immediately receive both iced water and hot tea. Yet we were still waiting. It was at this point, we made the decision just to get up and leave. Yes, we had already placed our order, but if the rest of the evening’s service was going to be like this, we figured it was just best to cut our losses. As we walked out, the person who had seated us just minutes earlier give us a very nice thank you for coming. How crazy that they couldn’t even figure out that we were leaving before we were served. Maybe the food here is good, but with a horrible experience like this, I will never go back, and I would urge other people to find a better Chinese restaurant than this one.
Star K.
Classificação do local: 4 Santa Barbara, CA
I’m going to have downgrade my review. The food is still tasty, but I’ve noticed with seafood dishes, they kinda go stingy on you. I ordered a shrimp dish and for $ 15 I’d expect more than 7 pieces(medium sized) shrimp! Lots of veggies and I had to dig to find the shrimp. This is what I originally wrote: I’ve been here multiple times for dinner and have always enjoyed the food. It’s also Zagat rated, I believe. The food is very tasty, and the servers have always been very attentive. Trust me, better than other Chinese restaurants I’ve been to(side note: I think that happens because they don’t speak English well). The noodle dishes are good(Beef Chow fun) and the chicken dishes are yummy(General’s Chicken, Kung Pao). Sizes of the dishes are generous, always have some leftovers to take home(and the bf is a big eater!). Yes, it is pricier than what you might find down in LA or Bay Area, but it’s worth it. I have to mention, too, that I like the peaceful ambience and tasteful décor of the restaurant, much better than most of the Chinese restaurants in the area which are not quite as nice
Gregory P.
Classificação do local: 4 Goleta, CA
This was a last-second decision to go here and boy am I glad we went here. The menu choices are awesome and would fit anyone’s desires. I went with Kung Pao chicken add my mother went with the crispy walnut prawns. The Kung Pao chicken was the exact level of spiciness I need in a dish like that. The chicken was perfect and the buts and other ingredients added a great mix of texture. My mom’s prawns were fried perfectly and came with a solid amount of walnuts. The sauce seemed mayonnaise-ish w/a kick of lemon. The rice for both dishes was also spot-on. We also received free desserts of almond gelatin and tapioca pudding. Both were not overly sweet and very light. Tea is also complimentary and delicious. This is a great place with excellent and attentive service.
Super D.
Classificação do local: 1 San Antonio, TX
This is one of the worst Chinese restaurants I have ever been. I do not expect much service in Chinese restaurants but this place is something else. I came here for reception after my mother-in-law’s funeral service. We were packed into a little room with no air conditioning. Servers were downright rude to say the least. Older people in my table wanted to have some tea and every single server I asked for tea ignored the request. They were just«too busy» to bring the tea. I finally asked one of the servers and he gave me a dad attitude and brought the tea begrudgingly mumbling complaints. My brother-in-law was afraid that he might have spit into the tea and he did not touch it. Food is so so at the best. I would avoid this place like a plaque.
Ashley W.
Classificação do local: 3 San Diego, CA
The food is pretty decent considering Santa Barbara doesn’t have a lot of Chinese restaurants. However, being from Los Angeles and having access to restaurants on areas like Monterey Park and Arcadia as well as growing up in a Chinese household, I can’t say it’s the best I’ve ever had. The food is a little on the salty side and pretty saucy. They have a wide selection of dishes catered more towards Western palettes, such as General Tso’s Chicken. The service is very friendly and offers suggestions of you have specific dietary needs. My mom is a vegetarian and our waitress recommended a variety of vegetarian dishes and also mentioned a lot of their meat dishes can be made vegetarian.
Michael J.
Classificação do local: 2 Santa Barbara, CA
Lunch special was $ 8.95. Soup arrived, it was hot and corn starchy. Salad was a mound of brown lettuce and they even included the core! Kung pao chicken had a strange chemical after taste. Fried rice was good. Service was nice.
Jonathan M.
Classificação do local: 1 Santa Barbara, CA
3 strikes and China Pavilion is out!!! This used to be the best Chinese restaurant in Santa Barbara. I have tried to hold on to hope… but it all boils down to this: BUGPROBLEMS!!! Bugs in my food. Straight up. Bugs flying around everywhere. They need to clean the windows and turn the air conditioning on too. There are dead bugs in the windows. The place is hot and festering with insects. Go to Empress Palace or Szechuan on the Mesa instead. China Pavilion is doomed.
Jonathan C.
Classificação do local: 3 San Francisco, CA
Shoutout to our waitress! She was super sweet to my family and me.(Sorry I didn’t get your name.) The food is decent for Santa Barbara Chinese food standards, the cooks seems really slow, food portions are a bit small, but the dining area is clean. We ordered around 6 – 7 dishes including a soup. My family ate more than usually which is a good sign, but it could also be because we didn’t have lunch. I would say the highlights for us are the Baby Bokchoy with Shittake Mushroom and Capital Spareribs. Unfortunately the Peking duck wasn’t very good since it was wrapped in a tortilla rather than a traditional bun. It ended up being very dry. I just ate it with the tortilla. I think it’s worth a try if you are really craving Chinese food.
Russ K.
Classificação do local: 1 Santa Barbara, CA
I’ve liked China Pavilion(except for their lunch salad) until lunch there today. My fiancé got the sweet and sour pork and I got the Hong Kong style noodles. My fiancé found a giant bug in hers, and when I looked in mine, I found 3 smaller bugs. There were no doubt more, but we left after this. Please see the pics. I told the guy next to us to check his food and he said he was OK with eating bugs. If you are also OK with eating bugs, go for it. But you may want to look at the pics again and think if you’re OK with eating that.