Tao Yuan Chinese Restaurant

I had to give it one star to post this. I have eaten rotten, expired food before, I will eat pretty much anything, my gut is lined with steel. I have never felt so close to vomiting after eating before. If you like grey undercooked old chicken that has been under an lightbulb (yes I said light bulb no heat lamp). Soggy meat (I’m not sure exactly how meat can be soggy but it was). Some sick experiment using spagetti noodles and Asian,… You know what there isn’t really any way to describe just how disgusting this place was. Here is the best part we leave within 3 minutes of sitting down and they don’t even ask if everything was ok i.e. The food. I should have said we weren’t paying but I was worried that they may not give me the antidote to whatever they poise we me with if I caused any trouble. And I’m sorry I didn’t warn the men that came in as I was leaving, if you are reading this I hope you are still alive. I’m pretty sure I’ll be taking my wife to have her stomach pumped now.

Tao Yuan has been serving up Classic Cantonese Style Chinese food since the late 1980s. I have eaten at this buffet off and on for the last 20 years and, although not the best Chinese buffet I have had, it certainly is not the worst and can be counted on for an inexpensive satisfying fill-​up.
Service has always been congenial, prompt and timely. The food typically does not change in quality, variety or freshness, which is to say that it is consistent. There are around a dozen entrée offerings on any given day which includes tasty soups, two rice offerings, a noodle option and stir-​fried vegetables along with classics such as Sweet & Sour Pork, Chop Suey, Beef & Broccoli and a tasty Lemon Chicken along with a decently made Egg Roll.
I actually prefer the approach of having a smaller selection at an Asian buffet; offer just a few tasty options, do them well, prepare them often, cooked by just one chef who can personally monitor what is on the steam table. Oftentimes, at the large buffets, there are so many offerings that I find that they more or less taste similar and, therefore, variety comes in size, shape, color and sauce all at the expense of flavor, seasoning or spice. At Tao Yuan, you know going in what food will be offered and can anticipate what it will taste like. In many ways this place reminds me of Mike Kwan’s Golden Coin Buffet back in the 80s: There were only 10 slots on the steam table, but what else could you expect for three bucks and change?
Lets just say that inflation has yet to hit this place and it is a cheap fill-​up for six bucks and change. If you are nearby, really hungry and want to get in and out quickly, this is your place.
Overall Rating: 3.5 Stars
Food: 3.2 stars
Service: 3.8 Stars
Cleanliness: 3.1 Stars
Atmosphere: 2.9
Price/​Value: 4.1 Stars

Stopped in here for lunch. The place was empty (around 3:30pm). Granted we were in late for lunch. The buffet is small, 15ish items. We tried everything thing they had out and everything was really good. We will definitely be back. Was $ 16 with drinks for the two of us.

Good food and cheap.
I prefer getting something off the menu over the buffett. Sometimes they have only a few things i like at the buffett and one time before closing, some of the food was dried out at the buffet. But that is not typical.
The décor is… well, there really isnt any décor. Cheap tables booths and chairs, a few cheap fans on wall, and brown paneling. If you need to use the restroom, its down a Willie Wonka type hallway that just keeps going and going. Eventually you get there and it does the job.
Also the buffett is $ 6.15 for lunch now.
So I just get a meal off the menu that is $ 5.15 and I get what I want. Plus a cup of soup comes with it.

Best Chinese food I’ve ever had. Cheap and tasty. I tried the all you can eat buffet before, delicious and only 5 bucks and some change. Tonight though I ordered to go and the food was just as good. Sesame chicken, orange chicken, fried rice, lo mein and eggroles. Gosh their eggroles are heaven. You get so much food for the price, I got the smaller combo and oh boy it wasn’t small at all. So so so good! The owner Judy is so sweet too, great service! I’ll be back :)

$ 5.85 all you can eat chinese lunch buffet? sign me up. The food was good and the woman running the place was very polite and attentive. this is not the huge selection like the super buffets, but honestly what you should expect from a chinese restaurant.

This place should really have two reviews, one for eating in and one for take out. My take out experience is much better, the food is fresh and palatable, but still has a ways to get close to the better Chinese restaurants. The lunch prices are reasonable for what you get, though, so I still order out regularly.
If you eat in, however, the buffet food is mostly soggy and you will have to search through the trays, plates, and bowls to find clean ones. This makes me worry about the cleanliness of the kitchen. Overall, the place has potential, but it currently gives the impression that the owners don’t care too much, unfortunately.

Tao Yuan aka «Judy’s» to my son & I who have been coming here for over 6 years. The buffet is small but the food is delicious! We used to frequent the restaurant at least once a week, now that we have moved farther away we try and stop by once a month. The dumplings that you order off the menu are super yummy! Great food, low price. who can complain?! Thanks Judy! :)

BEWARE BEWARE BEWARE!!! Normally I give fairly kind reviews but this place is AWFUL!!! If you are diet conscious, eat here! You’ll have zero appetite after the first bite. YUCKY food!!! Waitress extremely nice and decent atmosphere but the food truly is inedible!!!

I will never return to Tao Yuan ever again, which is a HUGE disappointment. I’ve returned many times with family and friends and their food was always delicious and consistent. However, my last visit couple of weeks ago has me warning others.
My husband and I went for a late lunch and it was the only thing we ate that day. By 2 a.m., I was hugging the porcelain throne and my husband was in the other bathroom, miserable himself. We were both hit with food poisoning and suffered for days. Since it was the only thing we ate, there is no doubt it was the food from Tao Yuan.
This was the first time we both had food poisoning and can’t say it was fun. Since all our other experience was great and the owners are fantastic, I can’t rate one star but after that experience, there is no way we will be returning.

I was a little bit scared to eat at this place but I was pleasantly surprised. I got the chicken egg foo yung and boyfriend got spicy shrimp. The portions were humongous and it was very delicious. The Buffett didn’t look very appetizing. I would definitely only order from the dinner menu. Can’t wait to go back. Food is dirt cheap and so delicious.

Great little place! Owners are super friendly. Buffet is small but delicious. Menu looks amazing. We will be coming here again soon. Can’t beat a $ 6.55 dinner!!!
Buffet had steam white rice, fried rice, egg rolls (DELICIOUS!), lemon chicken, sweet and sour pork, egg drop soup, egg foo yong, chicken chop suey, lo mein, and peppers with beef. Food was all warm or hot– great!
Also has a pretty extensive menu that is cheap. Will be eating here again.

A little hole in the wall, yes. I finally stopped here one night after work because I did not feel like cooking and it is located very close to home. The restaurant is nothing to look at but the food is delicious, the service is good and the prices are reasonable. We have returned many times and have never been disappointed. I have ordered teriyaki chicken, chop suey, chow mein, and various other dishes. All were good.

This was probably the worst Chinese food I’ve ever forced down. The server brought out the fried rice first and my first thought was, «Wow, they used a lot of pepper.» Well, it wasn’t pepper. It was burnt. My guess is that they burned something in the wok before they cooked ours and didn’t clean it out. The lo mein was the same way and my wife couldn’t eat it. We had to send it back. Later that night my wife was in pain from the food. The price was reasonable for good food but this was anything but. If I could give less than one star I would.

This restaurant got the one star for friendliness but holy cow the food deserved less than a star. I read all the previous Unilocal reviews and thought «ok, so one guy had a bad experience» that happens. But Kyle H. had it right ~ it was awful.
My husband and I have spent some considerable time in the Asian countries so we know good Chinese food. However we also understand that we get the Americanized version here and so we go into it with low expectations. We haven’t found a good (lot less great) Chinese restaurant here in the valley and after eating at Tao Yuan’s restaurant the search will continue.
I ordered take out and it was a little bit of a hassle that the restaurant didn’t have a website so we could see their menu and call in our order but I figured I’d just suck it up and wait the first time and then get a menu for the next time (little did I know at the time that I would throw away the menu with the food later). I ordered Kung Pao Chicken. It was flavorless and mushy. The meat was slimy and tasted like it might have been out of a can with no distinguishable difference between the white and dark meat — assuming there was actually white meat in here somewhere.
My husband ordered Shrimp Low Mein and the noodles were overcooked and the dish was fairly bland. I also ordered Vegetable Fried Rice hoping I could have it for lunch the next day. When I couldn’t eat the Kung Pao Chicken I started eating the rice only to find it overcooked and mushy. How can you possibly screw up rice for goodness sake? It was inedible. And to finish it all off I had a Spring Role that after taking one bite I spit it into my napkin. We took the whole dinner and threw it in the trash.
See what I’m saying? If you spend your hard earned money to buy food it shouldn’t be in your napkin and in your garbage can. This is a disastrous eating establishment. Think twice before eating here.

We are fans of this little local place — but we are not fans of buffets (just our own personal preference).
We order off the menu and usually take it to go and we have never been disappointed. I get the Buddhist Delight vegetables that comes with rice, their pork fried rice (which has always been very good) and a large wonton soup. The food is so hot that even when we get it home we still have to let it sit for a few minutes! I love that.
NIce lady that takes our order and keeps things running. We eat here whenever we are back in Mesa.

I really hate giving one star to a restaurant unless I have just a really horrible experience, but the food here is too bad to give it any more than that. This place is a hole in the wall at Greenfield and Main at the end of a strip mall. I was hoping it was one of those type of places where the restaurant looks terrible but the food is amazing– I was wrong. I went in there at lunch time and the place was packed with seniors. I figured with a bunch of old folks there, it was bound to be good and cheap, but evidently it caters more to the set that doesn’t have many taste buds left. It’s hard to imagine a meal costing just over $ 5 not being worth your money these days, but I really felt this was not worth the little that I spent. Granted, I did get the lunch buffet– which had a very limited selection. I know often times the food off the menu is better, but I can’t honestly see how it could be too much better at this place. The pepper beef was virtually tasteless, and the beef had more of a consistency of tofu than a cow product. another entrée, honey chicken, tasted very little like honey, and the chicken pieces tasted overly fried. The spare ribs were very small, and was predominantly sauce, which was almost sickeningly sweet. The fried rice was ok, I suppose it’s hard to screw that up. The white rice was very sticky. With hot tea and tax, my meal came to a total of $ 6.06. I don’t think I have ever eaten so little at a buffet. They do offer a menu, but I don’t think I will be back to try it. There are way too many Chinese restaurants out there to waste another meal at this place.