China Yuan Restaurant

Ok… I have been to China Yuan for Dim Sum several times, and loved every bit of it. I have always wanted to try them for dinner. Tonight I did… and that was after reading all the Unilocal reviews So I would have some ideas what to order.
I ended up with a combo, Honey BBQ pork and Crispy Skin pork. With Rice and some lovely baby Bok Choy.
New favorite… the Honey BBQ pork is phenomenal, tasty, smokey, tender… so very good! I let my girlfriend have a bite of it, and I thought she was going to jump up and wrestle me for the rest of it. She really like it also! (Thank Coty… you are right, it rocks!)
The Crispy Skin Pork is something I also love, and even make it at home occasionally. Properly cooked pork belly is a thing of beauty, and this was definitely a pageant winner! Succulent, tender, with a dusting of five spice powder, and just a thin layer of ultra crispy pork skin… YUM! Girlfriend was not as fond of this… a texture thing for her, although she loved the flavor.
Rice was good, and the Bok Choy was yummy with a drizzle of some sauce over it, not sure what it was, but good.
Girlfriend ordered Sesame Chicken… and enjoyed it! It was very good, although severely lacking in spicy heat (and yes, it is supposed to be spicy!) But they had some good chili oil on the table, fixed that right up!
We had ordered Jasmine tea also… and it was very good.
Services was excellent… the lady who waited on us was wonderful. I even got fortune cookies (see a earlier review for another place to see why I say that!) :)
All in all… great Chinese (Cantonese) food, and I even ordered a large portion of the Honey Pork to take to work with me tomorrow, to share with co-​workers! They are in for a tasty surprise!
After we left China Yuan, we wandered to the Chinese bakery that is nearby, and I got a sausage and scallion bun, a crispy pork bun, and a butter cream bun to go. Ate the Butter Cream bun for dessert, and will have the others for breakfast tomorrow.
Highly recommended!

Saw a couple things that skeeved me out today during dim sum. First, a waitress (not mine) came over to say hi and took my water to refill it. So far, fine… Not 2 minutes later I see the same waitress come out of the bathroom, teary-​eyed, sneezed into her hand, coughed into it then picked up 2 water glasses, brought them to the server stand, filled them and brought them right back. I was watching for a hand wash, some purell… Nothing. I looked at my still full water like yeah, right. So, I’m finished eating at this point. Go to pay. As I’m waiting for a cashier, I notice a giant metal bowl with whole chickens resting in ice water. That’s fine, but it was UNDER the ice machine and had cockroaches crawling on the rim! I love the dim sum here, and have close to 20 check ins, but I think I’m done… I don’t know how I’m gonna eat my leftovers, I can’t get that outta my head.

We found what we were hoping would be a local gem for Chinese food cravings. Sadly, it was nowhere near what we were expecting.
Ambiance: Expectations were low in this area based on other reviews we read. Therefore we were only slightly surprised. The dining area was moderately clean. The entire right side of the restaurant was set up for the family’s use and storage the live dinner selections like fish, crabs, lobsters. The family area is fine — whatever floats your boat. But the «creature feature» smelled dirty. The water in which they are kept is cloudy and most likely perpetuated the awful smell. The tanks were also packed full which looked like the creatures were lacking sufficient facilities to keep healthy. We have a new rule — family area visible to the public and/​or dirty creature storage = leave before being seated. Next time we will follow this rule.
Service: expectations were moderate in this area. Another unfortunate occurrence though — we got wwaaaayyyyy less than we were expecting. The couple seated at the family table were friendly and seated us quickly. However, a couple tables away, one of the waiters was napping sitting up agains a wall. Also, after our server dropped off the food, we never saw her again. When we tried to ask the server questions, she did not seem to be able to give the answers we needed and possibly did not convey our requests to the kitchen. Definitely a language barrier. None of this was good considering my food wasn’t even good enough to be called disgusting. More on that next.
Food: ok, so we were expecting a slightly rustic experience. Rustic would have been welcomed compared to what we got. One companion ordered a noodle dish — this was actually ok. Not something I would return for, but ok. My two other companions ordered a fried chicken dish spiced mild. The spice was much more than mild — one ate it due to hunger, the other ate a little mixed with a lot of rice and took the rest home and will probably toss it. The pieces of chicken had large fatty deposits that were not cooked and were rubbery inside the fried coating. We were afraid the food was not cooked properly. I ordered soy sauce chicken. This was supposed to be ½ of a chicken cooked with soy sauced. If the dish were at least warm, I may have slightly better things to say. However, the food hit the table cold. Like it was served a couple hours ago and no one put the leftovers away and left it sitting under an ac vent cold. The fat was congealed, skin rubbery, and the bone impossible to separate from the meat. I was unable to eat more than my first bite. Again, due to temp, I was worried about food safety. As our server never came to check on us, we could not ask for help. Instead, when she dropped the bill, she asked if I wanted to take it home. I told her no «it was yucky & I could not eat it». I was still charged for it…
Due to service, food safety issues — both live food and dead, and low food quality, we will not be returning. Hopefully if you decide to give it a whirl, you will have a better experience.

Disclaimer: Eating at China Yuan is not exactly a 5 star dining experience BUT excellent Chinese food is SO hard to come by and the food here is about as good as it gets in the states outside of California or NY.
I’ve been here several times, as my family and I make sure to go every time we’re anywhere near Tampa. I’ve had dim sum here, lobster, fish, meat dishes, vegetables dishes, soups. pretty much everything, and it’s all delicious, fresh, light and reasonably authentic with enough sugar, salt, and flavor to please most palates without excessive oil or MSG (although we do request all our dishes MSG free). Vegetable dishes are especially impressive because (apparently) they grow a lot of their own vegetables. I’m pretty sure the bamboo shoots and water chestnuts are fresh, which is super rare!
The service is so-​so. Some of the waiters/​waitresses are friendlier than others, and it definitely seems to help that my mom speaks Mandarin (although many of the servers only speak Cantonese). The ambiance is zero, but we absolutely come for the food.

A friend and I had been wanting some Dim Sum. We decided to give China Yuan a try. Lucky for us it is right around the corner from our new office, and we are excited to return again!
We really appreciated the Dim Sum menu with pictures!!! This made the ordering process very easy for us. We ordered a combination platter, as well as choice dumplings, roast pork rice paste, and one other item. We wanted to try the pineapple rolls, but hose are on the weekends only.
The staff was very attentive. Our water glasses were always full. They have live fish and shellfish in tanks there. They were fun to watch!
Their prices were really reasonable, Both my friend and I had lunch for under $ 25. And went home with left overs! We can’t wait for our new office to open now that we have a great Dim Dum place near by!

There shouldn’t even be a star here. The food wasn’t bad… not as good as Yummy House. The server was the worst server ive ever had. The app came out last and server said we should’ve told her we wanted it first? The meals came out at different times. The server was so unkind and argumentative, I’ll never go again. If I want a 5 star meal, I’ll go to Yummy House every time.

Authentic Chinese food, like what you find in Los Angeles. The crispy roast duck, shrimp pan fried noodle, and clams in black bean sauce are delicious! We drive 30 minutes to this restaurant about 1 – 2 times a month because of how good it is. I also love the plaza that it’s in. You can visit the Fortune Bakery and Chinese Market after you’ve enjoyed your meal. We never go to Yummy House after discovering China Yuan.

Great place to grab dim sum. The dim sum here is delicious, about average price for dim sum. I like the fried shrimp balls, stuffed tofu, shrimp paste, basically anything shrimp. It all tasted fantastic. I haven’t tried the regular menu items, I only come here for the dim sum.
The service here could be better, they are all friendly but a little slow on the orders and sometimes can feel bit awkward, maybe because of language barriers. All the times I’ve gone here, it was empty, so there was no wait for table or anything.
Overall, if you want dim sum, come here! They offer a good variety and it is all tasty.

Well, I believe that we have finally found the best Chinese food in Tampa… and not too far from our house! Yay! True to the other reviews, you know you are in a good Chinese restaurant when the clientele is predominantly Asian… that is a very good sign! The restaurant was packed!
The reviews are very accurate. The food is wonderful. We started with crispy pork belly and shrimp won tons for an appetizer.
The pork belly was plentiful and delicious. The won tons were large (4) and accompanied by a sweet sauce. These to, were delightful!
We really wanted to try different things so we ordered the shrimp won ton soup, and Singapore Noodles and Bamboo fungus with chicken.
The shrimp won ton soup was delicious– and reminded me of the soup served at Hong Kong Harbor in Atlanta… though the HKH soup is better, this comes in second. I enjoyed the mini bok choy in the soup!
The Singapore noodles were a bit dry but overall pretty tasty. Unfortunately I have had better but the dish was ok. My partner enjoyed the Bamboo dish. He loves the consistencies of the vegetables and the «fungus». I was not brave enough to try.
Overall the food is really great and the portions are large. The staff was very helpful and accommodating and the service even with a packed restaurant was fast!
I also wanted to mention that though they cook with MSG, we asked that or entrees not be cooked with it and they were happy to oblige!
We will definitely be back!

Despite living within walking distance for over a year, I made my way over to China Yuan for the first time today. I guess you could say I’m a late adopter. Even going before noon on a Sunday, the restaurant was completely full and there was not one empty table. We decided to order carryout instead of dining in.
There are a variety of lunch specials available from 11:00am to 2:00pm. I ordered the roast duck and chicken on rice (L1) and my boyfriend had the triple BBQ on rice (L10). We also decided to share the beef braised noodle soup (#175). The portions were enormous; we will have more than enough for dinner left over! The soup came in two containers: one for broth and one for the beef, noodles, and vegetables. I found that very thoughful and wouldn’t have considered it myself. The duck in my lunch was really crispy and delicious. I think this is the first time I’d ever had duck and I was impressed. The chicken was good as well, although both meats were filled with bones. so be careful not to eat too quickly! I’m not sure what kind of veggies came with the meals, but I didn’t eat any. It appeared to be some sort of cabbage? The meal was all on a bed of white rice and came with two small containers of sauces. I didn’t try those either, so I can’t comment on them.
I know a lot of people compare China Yuan to another popular Chinese restaurant in the area, but I found the two to be very different. China Yuan seems to offer more authentic cuisine. Both restaurants are good in their own way, so it really just depends on what you’re looking for in terms of which restaurant to pick.

One of my top two favorite Chinese restaurants in Tampa. The restaurant is large with plenty of tables, and plenty of space to accommodate large parties. Some round tables have a lazy susan in the center to make sharing easy. Servers are always efficient.
I love that you can go here any day of the week and have a dim sum meal from their dim sum menu. No waiting for a cart to make laps around the restaurant, leaving you stuck with what everybody else doesn’t want.
My favorite items to order here are steamed dumplings, Singapore style rice noodles, salt and pepper tofu, and chicken noodle soup. But really, everything I’ve tried is great.
One caveat though — we brought some non-​adventurous eaters here, and we could tell they were a bit thrown off/​horrified by the dead ducks dangling in the windows, and the fish tanks all along the wall chock full of fresh seafood to eat. Fortunately, they both managed to scarf down the ‘safe’ beef with broccoli, so all was well.

I’m overjoyed to have found this place so close to home! Coming from MD where sit down Chinese joints are on every block, I have never been so excited to see Sea Cucumber on a menu before. Of course I didn’t ORDER it or anything (shudder) but to me that’s an indicator that we are in a legit Chinese restaurant. :p
Everything was delicious and the price was perfect. I can’t wait to go back for dim sum. And to try even more dishes.
They lost half a star only because it’s a little trashy looking on one side of the restaurant– which I think could be easily improved with just the tiniest bit of effort. And the pork in the congee was fattier than I like. I will definitely be back here for my Chinese fix!

I’d come back here often if I lived closer! I drove about 25 minutes here from mid-​Tampa just because I haven’t had Chinese food in the longest time! Being from California, I know what I was looking for when it came to Chinese food. I ordered the fish and bean curd hot pot because that was what I was craving at the time and I have to say, it went really well! I will definitely come back when I am in the area. The customer service was quick and nice also.

It has been years since I’ve eaten at China Yuan. I went back again this week and now I remember why it’s been that long. I ordered the Roasted Duck on Rice, which I wasn’t that impressed with… the duck was too daffy (ba-dum-ching!)…It was actually very fatty, bony and a little too salty for my taste (saltwater duck perhaps?).
Maybe I just ordered the wrong thing. They do have an extensive array of dishes to choose from. Also, the service was smiley and the restaurant was clean. But it may be another 5 years before I return. What’s that? The Year of the Pig? Put me down for roasted pork in 2019.

The best place to get dim sum! It’s delicious and really cheap too. They have all the main dim sum dishes from shumai, chicken feet, tripe, sticky rice, and so on. My mom loves going to this place so that means it’s the real deal.
I’ve always come on the weekdays so I never experience the weekend rush, which I don’t mind. I always never have a problem getting seated and served right away. The dim sum is very good and it’s all served hot, hot, hot. I highly suggest trying out the stuffed tofu which is my all time favorite from China Yuan.
We did try a tofu and vegetable dish from their menu/​off menu and was a little disappointed. It was $ 12 for a little dish of vegetables and it was on the salty side. Meh, I’ll stick with the dim sum! The BBQ pork and peking duck is pretty good too.
The service is just alright, the ladies are nice and very talkative, but sadly never refills my water… But they do add to the authentic Chinese feel.
The best part to finish off China Yuan is of course, to walk over to Fortune Star Bakery for some Chinese baked goods. YUM!

Best chimes food outside Chinatown!
Clams with black bean sauce
Extra fried dumplings
Tofu with string beans

We are here this weekend with the family. I love this restaurant. A true gem in Tampa. The dim sum is fantastic, as are all of the meals we have tried. The honey pork… Yum. If you haven’t tried China Yuan you are missing out… Seriously.
The food is always good and consistent. From the dim sum to the beef chow fun to the Singapore noodles, egg foo young, chicken with Chinese broccoli. All are delicious.
The restaurant is always packed, so if you have a large family or group, I’d recommend calling ahead.

This is by far the best Hong Kong style Chinese restaurant in Tampa! It’s located in a small strip center but don’t that that fool you. If you plan to go with a group, call ahead and make a reservation. They have great tables for groups with a lazy Susan in the middle of the table. We normally have each person pick a dish, then share everything. I recently discovered their dumpling soup. It has the wonton soup base, but with steamed dumplings in it instead of wontons. I have 2 other ultimate favorites: the Bean curd in garlic sAuce and the Beef Chow Fun. The bean curd is on the crispy side And green peppers and eggplant in a yummy garlic sauce. I’m not a vegetarian but it’s sooo good! The Beef Chow Fun has wide noodles and onions and is a most try. We haven’t had anything bad here. Way better than Yummy House in my humble opinion.

It’s Chinese New Year, so what better time to review China Yuan. Should I say OPA, or Aloha, or Arigato. Nope, How about I just say Happy New Year to all!!!
Going to China Yuan and meeting a few great friends, I knew I was up for a treat. China Yuan is different. The menu is huge and diverse. We ordered a mix of dim sum items, which are small portions like dumplings, buns, etc. We also ordered some entrees as well.
Here were my favorites:
1. Sizzling Pork Chops
2. Snow Pea Tips
3. Fried Shrimp Ball
4. Fried Calamari
5. Stuffed Tofu with Shrimp on Top
There is a number of dim sum options, and if you go on
, or on the China Yuan website, it is nice that they give you pictures to get an idea of what you would like.
The service is pretty good, and they bring the food out as it is ready. On the large tables, they have a lazy susan so you can spin it around, and try everything, and see what you like the most.
I really liked the flavor of everything I tried, but above were my favorites. I look forward to trying out more of their dishes including their hot pots, sweet and sour fish, pineapple buns, other tofu dishes, and Peking duck.
If you are looking for good Chinese food, or some good dim sum definitely check this place out. The serving sizes of everything is quite large. You will be having leftovers for days.

I’m so excited and happy about this place.
I dreamt about beef chow fun recently. I woke up and felt sad because there is nowhere in south Tampa that I can get beef chow fun. However, a Unilocal search showed me that if I drove north, I could find the dish of my dreams at China Yuan.
China Yuan reminds me of every Chinese restaurant of my childhood. There’s the fish tank with fresh seafood, the red chopstick holders, the same smell of cleaner and grease mixed together.
I had an awesome bowl of jook with fish. It had the right amount of ginger to warm my soul. I also had some good radish cakes that were just a tiny bit under seasoned. And I ordered my beef chow fun (dry, who needs the gravy?). Oh, it was everything that I had been missing about living in San Francisco, real comfort food.
And the best thing? No MSG headache that I associate with Yummy House.