The China Star

We ordered two dishes: shrimp and broccoli and chicken and broccoli. The shrimps smelled a little bit strange and tasted very fishy and salty. The broccoli was not fresh and some parts were already yellow… We did not finish the dishes because the quality seemed not to be okay.
The delivery was estimated by 30 – 45 min. We called the restaurant after an hour and they told us the delivery should be arriving in the next few minutes … The delivery arrived after 90 min.
Finally: the food was not good and we will not order again!

They delivered to Chelsea in an hour, not bad. Unfortunately, portion size is too small for the price — got a small roast pork with veggies — maybe 5 pieces of pork and it’s over rice which takes up 80% of the container boo. Too bad bc the cold sesame noodles are really good!

Won’t order from here again. Order shrimp and broccoli w/​1 small rice and large rice. The shrimp looked as if they hadn’t been washed and due to horrible smell the broccoli wasn’t all that good … I didn’t have any shrimp @ all. Smelled fishy. Ew

Look… you’re reading these reviews for The China Star to determine if you can safely satisfy the urge for sodium saturated fried protein doused in ladles of your favorite Chinese-​esq sauce without having the consequence of being on, or hovering over, the toilet all night long. That’s basically why you’re reading the reviews of a $ Chinese take-​out restaurant on Unilocal… amiright?
So, I’ll just cut to the General Tso’s. The China Star is a 100% satisfying experience for quick, delicious, hot Chinese take-​out. I ordered from this establishment twice during my stay in the Financial District last week. The China Star is located in East Village. By bike, this is a 15 minute trip to where I was staying. Not only was my order delivered in around 20 minutes, but I was surprised at how hot the food actually was after I took it upstairs to my room. That’s quite impressive in my book.
My order consisted of General Tso’s style chicken, white rice, and the «recommended» crab rangoons. This was probably close to the best take-​out Chinese I’ve ever had. Chicken was lightly breaded but fried perfectly, with little to mostly none of that «doughy» breading you sometimes get with Chinese fried chicken that you only realize when you’re half way through your meal and realize the disgust you’re shoveling into you mouth. Rice was hot and sticky, just perfect. Crab rangoons were also great.
Now, The China Star is a bit pricey for take-​out Chinese… and I didn’t really have much to compare this to considering I ordered from The China Star twice during my stay.
Overall, if you’re looking to satisfy yourself with some traditional, great tasting take-​out Chinese grub, The China Star is 100% recommended winner in my book. Will be a go-​to next time I find myself in the area.
Four star review based solely on my personal belief that traditional Chinese take-​out that is a $ — $$ cannot be «as good as it gets». If a five star is what you’re looking for, take the family down to your local P.F. Chang’s.

this place kicks ass.
I’m hesitant to give it a 5 star review, but only because its 3.5 star rating is part of its charm. It’s small, dingy — possibly the most unpretentious and utilitarian décor in all of the east village. The food as far as American-​Chinese fast food goes is tastier than average, and cheaper than average (always an appealing combination) and to top it off the portions are huge. I paid $ 8 for a general tso’s that could’ve fed a family of 3.
It caters to a specific clientele, a dying breed of New York. If you’re a stuck up and squeamish suburban transplant you’ll probably be grossed out by this place, so don’t bother (basically, know thyself). if you’re looking for nuance in taste, this place isn’t it. However if you’re poor, high, drunk and/​or have a palette with the sophistication of McDonald’s, dollar pizza and canned chili– welcome!
(basically, you need to be able to enjoy sloppy, sweet, greasy food that is produced in questionable cooking conditions)

Cheap. Fast. Good Chinese food. Usually order from them once every two weeks. Order the wonton soup and pork dumplings. Pickup is way to go.

Overall: 2 HOUR LATE DELIVERY and be warned of METAL IN FOOD.
Very disappointed. Like most of the reviews on here — my delivery time was shocking. I placed my order and it gave me an estimated time for one hour later. Debating on canceling my order cause of the long wait, the delivery guy didn’t even show up until an additional hour after that! I hate writing bad reviews but this is necessary. The food was pretty good too. until I found a wavy piece of metal (*which I now noticed is in another review). Sorry, won’t be ordering from here again.

So not worth the wait or the price. Did not even include a noodle for (cold) soup or cookie. which probably would have been the best part of the meal. My fortune does not include China Star.

We wanted «hood» Chinese, and this wasn’t it. First clue was that there was no oil or grease seeping through the bottom of the bags. Also, no sauce had spilled out and was messily covering the entire inside of the bag. No plastic bags wrapping the outside of the styrofoam entrée boxes (to try to help with the inevitable mess), and no cardboard dividers to divide the orders and keep the sauces from mixing.
This was all nice and neat.
Tasted ok. Sweet and sour chicken was pretty good actually, if a little dry. Save your money on the crabmeat fried rice– it’s not what you think it is.
Ordered from GrubHub. They said an hour, got here in about 45 mins. Delivery driver asked for a tip. We were going to tip, of course, but he asked. I don’t like that.

For the price I paid, the dishes were extremely stingy. Half of the Chicken and broccoli dish was just rice, which wasn’t even mentioned as being part of the dish in the menu. Also, the most frustrating part was the «chicken fried rice» I ordered wasn’t even fried rice! It was a box of steamed brown rice with 5 pieces of chicken on top. TERRIBLE!

We love how they separate the sauce from the chicken in their sweet and sour chicken. Keeps the chicken crisp. And food is good and hot all the way into my tummy!

Never got my refund… this is fine as they have lost my business.

We ordered through GrubHub and were told it would take around 50 minutes. An hour and forty minutes later the food showed up. GrubHub were good about the delay. Anyway, the food wasn’t overly cheap at $ 60 for two mains. They messed our order up a little bit, giving us white rice instead of fried when we’d asked for that specifically. They also gave us soda that was out of date which wasn’t great. The beef curry wasn’t nice. Beef wasn’t of a great quality and didn’t really eat it. The orange chicken was delicious though and the fried rice we did get (one instead of two) was also nice. Wouldn’t order from there again, but could have just been an off day.

UTTERLY VILE!
This may very well be the worst meal I’ve ever eaten. We ordered five different dishes and one was more disgusting than the next. Truly, deeply awful food that took an hour and a half to arrive cold. So gross! Never, ever, ever again.

This review for delivery:
We were feeling some American-​Chinese food so I looked for a decent, inexpensive place. This one looked about right and we ordered via GrubHub… an hour and a half later the food finally arrived (it should have taken 30 – 45 mins based on the estimate). They apologized for putting in the order wrong, which we definitely appreciated, but our first-​world-​problem bellies were less understanding.
As for the food, we got chicken and broccoli and chicken in garlic sauce and both were solid – just what you’d expect from a typical neighborhood takeout. Half of my meal made it to lunch the next day. Minus the delivery kerfuffle, the place is a solid 3 – 3.5 stars, but I couldn’t in good conscience omit that detail.

It was pretty good. Me and my sister enjoyed it. The lo mein was a little dry but we did order our food close to closing so that could be why. If we get lazy again im sure well order earlier and see how it goes!

Around lunch time, we ordered some food to keep our work attitude going and we got two dishes of the beef w/​mixed vegetables and a bunch of different spring rolls. First off, the spring rolls were dry and huge, not only that, they were not what you would expect in terms of taste.
Now, the worst part. The beef. There’s no way this was beef. It didn’t taste like beef, it didn’t have the consistency of beef. Frankly, it tasted a bit old (eek) — and to add to it, there was like 3 small pieces of it.
Nope, never again.

It’s not the best but it will do. It’s average enough to satisfy my hunger and the prices (for the EV) are decent. I’ve never had any issues on the food. Nothing was ever too oily and the portion size is good.

I ordered from this place recently and was highly disappointed. This is just another in a long list of Chinese Restaurants that have highly disappointed me.
I ordered a very simple order one night. It consisted of an egg roll, a pint of ribs and black bean sauce, and a soda.
First off let me start off by saying after 2 phone calls to them because my delivery took an hour and a half to make it a few blocks away, and them lying to me saying he had already left after waiting an hour.
When the food got there The egg roll had no taste, but at least it wasn’t an oily mess like some other places. The ribs in black bean sauce had almost no sauce at all and the ribs for some reason were red. This is a dish I have eaten in many different restaurants all my like and this is the first time I have ever gotten it like this. Not to mention the meat was hard and the parts that were not were fat after a few bites I had to throw it out. The over whelming taste of star anise they seasoned the meat with was too much. The best part of the meal is something they didn’t even make the sprite I got with my order was excellent.
Needless to say I will not be ordering from this restaurant ever again.

General Tso’s Chicken is my favorite food and this is the best it gets in the East Village.
Cheap, reliable, fast.