Yen Ching

The worst place to eat in Santa Barbara! I Came in for dinner Monday February 22 at approximately 7pm. Our party of 3 decided on the buffet, unfortunately the food was cold and unappealing. When I complained about the food being cold, the owner said I should come in earlier if I wanted better quality of food. I replied by asking her if what she was saying was, «if I come in earlier I’ll get better food yet, I’m still expected to pay the same price now?» She replied by saying «sorry» and walked away. We were given a bill for 54 $ for serving ourselves a plate of cold food that we never ate. As we walked out, (after paying the 54 $)she had the audacity to say to me «next time come in early» I am outraged that she wouldn’t try to at least meet us half way, and give us a discount for the low quality of food that her restaurant was serving. Her actions made it very clear she has absolutely no consideration for her customers. We were forced to walk across to presto pasta to have dinner. I will never come back to this place again. There are so many wonderful restaurants in Santa Barbara that will be happy to serve a hot meal. I will also make sure that my friends never walk into this place to face the same awful experience. How this place is still operating is beyond me.

First off– The Won Ton soup is AMAZING. ALWAYS. If for nothing else, I’d go for that.
WHEN the buffet is being stocked with new food, this is a great buffet. There’s a lack of buffets in SB and we appreciate this one. Two people dine for about $ 35 if you do it. I’ve never ordered food from the menu, so I can’t speak for that.
The best time to go is 6−7pm. Anytime after 7 they tend to stop making new food for the buffet (they close at 9 usually) and you’ll be stuck with older food or nothing at all.
I enjoy the egg rolls– so crunchy and wonderful inside, the crab rangoons though they could do with adding more filling.
The waiter here– I always have the same one– is so wonderful and nice. The service is good from him. The booths and such are a bit worn, overall the place is actually somewhat intimate, it has never been loud. Only twice have we ever gone and its been so full that a single family has emptied the buffet before we got anything. It’s a small buffet, and essentially fills one wall, so slow business is the best business if you want to go and get decent food.
If you catch it at the wrong time, it isn’t worth it, it pains me to say. When fresh the food is terrific, I can’t stress that enough. However, when we go, it feels like we are gambling.
When we lose, its sad, and when we win, its great!

We go to Yen Ching because the service is excellent. We love their string beans and hot and sour soup. Margarito is the best waiter ever.

A-​ok Chinese food. I ordered by phone to pick up. The restaurant was big and looked quite nice to dine in. Plenty of parking. Service was good. Lady on the phone taking order was concise, waiter who gave me the food was friendly.
I ordered the sweet n sour pork, Szechuan shrimps, and twice cooked pork…
Sweet n sour pork was a bit porky tasting and could be fried more. I needed the crispiness to last a tad longer after pouring the sauce over.
Szechuan shrimps were slightly overcooked, not as springy and shrimpy as I’d liked, though the veggies mixture was good.
Twice cooked pork was the most decent, pretty good.
Overall… BLEH.

I love this place!!! The crab was a lil bland tonite but, this almost never happen here so it’s all gravy.

The buffet is fair but not a lot of variety. I especially don’t like that they rush you out, even tho they’re nice enough… They huber over u & watch u. They also have a big sign that says they’ll charge u extra if u don’t finish ur plate… With children this does not seem family friendly. It’s also not a place where they want ur children serving themselves. Seems like adults only, unless u want 2 get sat right by the bathroom which I don’t. Very expensive, over charge for children & the drinks are not included, plus they charge for refills! Sorry but a return customer nor would I recommend it.

STOP. Do NOT come here. Most horrible Chinese restaurant I’ve ever been to! All you can eat is NOT all you can eat if they don’t fill up the trays? Seriously! My party of 5 decided to have lunch here around 130pm. Bad idea! The food that is left in the buffet area is all you get. They don’t refill the trays and the food that actually tasted good you couldn’t even get more of because it was all GONE! Disappointing. On top of that there’s a 15% gratuity they add on to a party of five or more but the waiters didn’t even refill our drinks. Then the cherry on top. I paid the lady at the desk 80 $ for a 77 $ tab only for her to be like, you only gave me $ 60?!! So I took another 20 out. When we got to the car everyone swore I got ripped off cuz I knew I gave her $ 80 the first time. Went back into the restaurant to look around to see if I dropped it. It was on the counter! I grabbed it and the lady asked me for my ID?!! I walked out. Prob my worst experience ever. Do NOT come here. This place needs to shut down (:

This place is not worth more than one star. My family and I came to the restaurant at least an hour before they closed and there was hardly enough food out. I never expect much from buffets, but this was by far the worst one I’ve ever been to. The beef and broccoli was good, as far as the few pieces I had. You can tell their food had been out for a while. We had sodas and weren’t offered a refill, but asked if we wanted water. Stingy much? They also charged 15% gratuity for bad service. Never coming back here again!

Horrible! our party of five came at 1:30pm this site says its open til 9pm, however at the restaurant they closed at 2:30. Knowing we were going to eat a buffet they didn’t have the courtesy to let us know that they were no longer bringing out more food or that their closing time was near. Above the limited food selection, the service was God awful. I never got a refill of my drink, the cooks gave us a bitter look upon request for more food. I mean we are paying customers, and the lady handling the cashier could not calculate our money. Don’t even try to eat here.

The people who work here are nice enough and usually pretty quick and accurate with my orders. I’m not faulting them for customer service, it’s actually pretty good. Their food is the reason they get a 3 star review from me. Sauce is usually way too sweet and their fried food never stays crispy. It’s usually mushy by the time I get home with it. I go here because it’s close, not because it’s the best.

I’ve had better Chinese food at an Airport Food Court. I wouldn’t even feed it to my dog.

I’ve been going here since… forever. Hands down the best Chinese buffet in SB! Full disclosure, I come here for the fried chicken. If you love delicious noodles, fried chicken, scrumptious egg rolls and everything in between then this place is for you. Funny enough, my fiancé’s family has been coming here equally as long or longer than my family has. A Santa Barbara staple for sure!

The buffet is hardly a buffet, really only liked 2 of the 10 items they had available. Everything was incredibly greasy, and some of the items had the lingering flour taste.
Service was great, the food not at all

The last time we went there, we had a party of 5. I guess they automatically add 18% gratuity with a large party, but since we all had the buffet, adding that much gratuity was entirely inappropriate. I won’t go there again.
貪心

When the wonderful Bangkok Palace went out of business across the street I thought I would give this place another try.
I got the buffet for $ 11 and was rather disappointed. Ming Dynasty in Goleta has a real selection of quality offerings as well as the fresh Mongolian Barbecue for the same price.
Yen Ching offers just a few items in the buffet. The chicken is bland and a low quality cut with fat and gristle. At least some of the vegetables were fresh.
This place might be OK at $ 6.99 as cheap food in a hurry. But at $ 11 it is overpriced and disappointing.

When youre going for the buffet, you really want to reconsider the variety AND quality that you are paying for (we paid $ 10.50 per person for lunch). There was like literally less than 8 selections to choose from and each selection was either overly salty or just greasy. I decided to expand my limitations and went for the seafood soup to somehow redeem for the other let-​downs but quite frankly, I was let down once more. Just bland and cheaply made. Waiter wasn’t as friendly as we hoped for. Not nice. Not mean either. Just ehh… watever. We should have just gone to Denny’s.

Best Chinese buffet in Santa Barbara, absolutely.
That being said, it’s not incredible food nor is that an appropriate expectation for a buffet. I haven’t tried the regular menu yet so I’ll have to clarify I’m rating the buffet experience. The staff was generally friendly, and the buffet had a lot of options. I was pretty pleased with the quality, I would definitely come back if I wanted to have another buffet session.

My family has been coming to this restaurant for over 20 years. I started eating here in a booster seat and now I pay the bill haha.
The all you can eat buffet is pretty cool. The crab, shrimp, and the chicken selection is fairly decent, but what makes me give this place 5 stars is the amazing server who has been here for THE ENTIRE TIME. He is outgoing, friendly, and very at tentative. He might as well be my uncle since I grew up with him over the years. Thank you for the amazing memories, good food, and good company. We always order tea to have with our fortune cookies. I guess it’s a tradition that I can’t break. I will be back! Thank you Yen Ching!
–Tej

Kim Cameron, Valencia, CA
I love a good Chinese buffet. Yen Ching is the best Chinese buffet you will find in Santa Barbara! I’ve been there, at times, when the food is not-​so-​fresh. If you go during a busy hour (like at 6:00 pm on a Saturday), the food is always fresh because they are constantly switching out the trays. And when the food is fresh, it’s delicious! My favorite part of the buffet: the crab legs!!!

I rather like this place. I primarily order for take out, and on occasion I will go here to have beef noodle soup which is delicious. The mamas here are always so nice to me.
I have not tried the buffet, i always just order off the menu and have had my expectations met.