China Spice Chinese Restaurant

I was hesitant on coming at first too especially after reading some reviews online but it was polar opposite from what I was expecting.

Ever since they got a kitchen staff and management system, things have been pretty excellent.

Location: It's opened, reminds of a traditional Chinese restaurant that you'll see all around New York City. It definitely carries an authentic vibe.

Food: *** The good stuff isn't with the buffet! It's with the Dim sum and Dine In. I have always loved Seafood dishes but China Spice really does it well. My absolute favorite so far would be the Lobster with the Rice Noodles. Whenever my wallet allows, that's what I always get and every time I finish, I want more. It is soooo good. My other favorite would be any of their Salt and Pepper dishes whether that be Pork Chop or Squid.

Staff: Friendly and attentive. I personally never had an issue. I have two younger sisters and little cousins that would run around a lot but never had an issue here.

Would come back, it's always impro

One of the more authentic Chinese restaurants that just opened in Austin I've been too. The best part about the food is how clean and low oil the food is. Chinese food tends to be greasy but this is my 3rd here and my first review.

The best dishes are the 4 styles of lobster, to me Hong Kong and sweet tamarind style are the best. The vegetables and fresh, the sauces are clean, and the service is better than most Chinese restaurants. Big banquet hall, plenty of lighting, fresh clean restaurant. They also serve dim sum too.

Lobster, crab, calms, razor calms, all the seafoods are here. Very strong mandarin style of cooking. Prices are reasonable too.

We came here during Saturday lunch time. We were here for regular order menu not the buffet.
The place is big but not a lot of customers. We specifically came here for the seafood and it actually made us wonder if their food will be fresh or not. (Normally restaurant that doesn't have continuous traffic will have a hard time keeping their ingredients fresh).

I peeked at the buffet, they actually do not have a lot of selection to offer but the food looked full and fresh.

The food we ordered:
1. Spicy tofu
The dish looks different from the one on the menu. It actually looks more like salt and pepper tofu than spicy fried tofu.
2. Eggplant
3. Salt and Pepper Soft Shell Crab
The soft shell crab smells a bit fishy but it is crispy. The seasoning is also on point
4. Golden Sand Lobster (Jin Sha Long Xia)
THIS IS THE STAR!! This is NEW and not the on the menu yet. The sauce is so freakin tasty, it is made of salted egg yolk that is in trend nowadays. The lobster are fresh and juicy. We lick clean all the sauces on the lobster.

There was actually an incident, so our chili oil has mold in it. Yeah it is very gross. I told them to change it for us. The waitress actually apologized and gave us 20% discount. She then went on and checked every single chili container on each table. Mistake does happen and we are okay with it because they acknowledge their fault and compensated us for that experience.

This restaurant trully has an amazing food, i hope people would be willing to give it a try. I will definitely come back to try their other menu.

I've been looking for authentic chinese restaurants since I move here earlier in this year. I think I've found it. I tried their steamed tilapia, roasted duck, chicken feet, fish maw soup and stir fried green beans.

Tilapia was great. No fishy smell at all. The sauce compliment the fish well. This was the reason why I went there. I've been craving this dish and they satisfied my craving.

Roasted duck had crispy skin and their duck was really big. the meat was juicy and flavorful.

Chicken feet wasn't the taste I was looking for but it was still melt off the bone and easy to eat.

Fish maw soup was the clear broth with fish maw, eggs and maybe crab clumps. It was just a basic soup. Nothing extravagant. I ended up adding hot oil and vinegar to it.

Side note: they got all you can eat buffet that doesn't have the seafood and their dim sum menu.

My parents were in town for a visit and we felt like eating Chinese food for dinner. It was Christmas Eve and unfortunately the place we wanted to go to was closed. We called up China Spice and they were open, so we decided to try it after seeing their menu online.

The place was moderately busy. We noticed that there was different seating for those who ate at the buffet and those who ordered off the menu, probably to make things simpler.

The decor in the restaurant definitely made me feel that I was in a Chinese restaurant. They had a large projector playing a video of what appeared to be the Grammy's in China or something.

We ordered the abalone, sea cucumber with vegetables, fried oyster, steamed sliced pork with mei choy, fish maw soup, steamed fish, and choi sum. The food did take some time to come out, but it was worth it. I felt like I was back in Hong Kong eating real authentic Chinese food. The cooks brought out the taste of the seafood in the seafood dishes.

The food was excellent and definitely authentic. The buffet doesn't do it justice and you have to order off the menu if you want to eat the best stuff here. I'll definitely come here again!

My girlfriend and I were visiting Austin this past weekend and I love dim-sum, so of course I searched some places up in the area and found this one.

So, parking is plentiful and staff is all very friendly and polite. They're happy to answer any questions.

Now the food, eh. The buffet is VERY limited and when we arrived, (we were the first ones) it looked like the food had been sitting out for a while.

The hours on the yelp page are also incorrect, they say the place is open at 10am, but it doesn't actually open until 11am.

The dim-sum was very limited as well. The whole menu has changed and they only offer a select few of the options they previously did. I was so disappointed, but I didn't want to be rude, so i went ahead and ordered the "fresh meat bun" which was not very appetizing either. This was basically a meat ball in a doughy bun. I don't think i'll be back here, but the staff was amazing

Decided to take the leap of faith inspite of the major bad reviews on yelp, and I couldn't be happier with my decision. John and his new crew truly deliver!

Ordered the classic chinese dishes (mostly seafood) and some dimsum stuffs. And let me tell you - the food taste awesome and the seafood is fresh!

I dont normally write a review and I'm very picky with food especially since i was born and raised eating some of the best homecooking chinese food, but this place deserve a recognition. Give them a shot if you have not already!

Disgusting.

Live lobsters. Dead fish.

Let's start by saying I was not expecting much from an all you can eat $7.99, especially from this part of town. Rundberg and Lamar...
My expectations were even lower when I walked past boarded windows and was surprised to find the door open.
The staff was nice and accommodating. That is where the positive stops. But based on other reviews, I probably should have ordered off the menu instead.
I walked past the Tilapia tank to find 3 of them dead and belly up. Gross... Especially for a seafood restaurant. So I decided not to eat any fish.
Hot and sour soup. Inedible.
Yellow curry. Horrible
Literally everything i tried was left on my plate after the first bite, even the Lomain. How do you mess up lomain???

I decided to just eat some fruit, drink my tea and eat a few crab rangoon.

I wish I ordered off the menu, but I seriously doubt I will give this place that opportunity.

I went there for Friday dinner because I heard they have special price on lobster. When I got there, they said the promotion price $25 for lobster is only for Mon to Thu, not for Friday. Disappointed. Then I wanted to order the big crab. They told me they sold out the big crab. So I said I will switch to steamed fish. Then they told me they sold out the steamed fish. I was so disappointed. So I randomly ordered lobster, soft shell crab and sea cucumber from the menu. The lobsters tasted good. But soft shell crab is fried with flour. It tasted so much bread than seafood. Couldn't taste the seafood at all. The sea cucumber is very salty. My friend and I were unhappy about the dish quality.
They recently added dim sum to their menu. And service got better.

New restaurant on Lamar. You can do buffet or order straight from the menu. Came on a Thursday and it was pretty busy - service can be slow since there's only two employees running about, but they are friendlier than your average Chinese staff. Food is pretty good too. A little oily but that's a given for Chinese food. Ordered lobster, oyster pot, veggies, beef ribs and a soup. Portions were huge and our group was stuffed after.

Worth stopping by and giving this place a try!