New China in West Melbourne, FL

On one of the first colder evenings of the fall, I decided some soup sounded good. I was in Melbourne and found a Chinese take-out called New China. I went in and ordered a quart of wonton soup. The soup was good, although a little on the salty side. There was plenty of wontons and each dumpling had a good amount of meat inside. No shredded pork at the bottom of the soup though. Overall, it was pretty average as far as Chinese take-out soup went. Not the best, but not the worst either.

Eastern Chinese Restaurant in Tallahassee, FL

I went camping a few weeks ago up in Tallahassee. When you sleep in a tent around a bonfire, I hear you're supposed to make dinner yourself using primitive cooking techniques. What's 200,000 years of human evolution and the invention of the internal combustion engine good for if we still need to make food the same way as our ancestors? We decided to make full use of our human achievements and drove to the nearest shopping center to pick up Chinese take-out rather than cooking over a fire...

We ended up at Eastern Chinese Restaurant in a Publix Shopping Center. I started with some Wonton Soup.

I also had some Vegetable Lo Mein. These noodles had plenty of mixed vegetables, although the lo mein was sort of bland tasting. Some soy sauce and spicy mustard fixed that...

Just to get the most out of my camping experience, the next night I had a grilled venison steak and corn on the cob, all cooked under the stars. Honestly though, I preferred my Chinese food...

Hong Kong Chinese Food in Sanford, FL

I picked up some takeout from Hong Kong Chinese Food in Sanford. I ordered wonton soup and a small vegetable lo mein. It was about a ten minute wait for the food. As I was sitting there waiting, I witnessed two separate people come in and order something, then get on their phones to start complaining about how horrible it is that they are being forced to wait ten minutes for their crab rangoons. Really? Ten minutes is too long of a wait for some freshly made food? My ten minutes went by rather quickly thanks to the unintentional entertainment, and soon enough my food was ready.

The wonton soup was good. It didn't have any shredded pork at the bottom, but it still had tasty wontons and a nice flavored broth.

For a small order of lo mein, the portion was huge. I would be scared to see how humongous a large would be! The noodles were mixed with broccoli, cabbage, onions, bean sprouts, carrots, and mushrooms. Not the best lo mein I've ever had, but it was still tasty. I'd get food here again...

Jade Palace in Longwood, FL

Jade Palace recently opened in Longwood along 17-92. The restaurant was formerly a KFC, but Jade Palace did a good job renovating it. I guess since the restaurant is relatively new, it smelled somewhat like fresh paint, but I decided to overlook the smell and try Jade Palace anyway.

Hot tea was brought to the table first. I love my hot tea, so I really like it when Chinese restaurants do this and automatically serve you the tea. I really can't think of any other Chinese restaurants in the area that do this.

Wonton soup came next, filled with the Chinese dumplings, pork, and scallions.

I had the Chicken Broccoli combination for my main course, which came with rice and an egg roll. Almost every time I've ordered a meat with broccoli dish at a Chinese restaurant in the past, it is always served in a brown soy-based sauce. Jade Palace served the chicken and broccoli in a white sauce. I'm not sure what to call it, possibly Lobster Sauce. It was different, but was still tasty. For $7.95, Jade Palace gave plenty of food and I really had no complaints about the meal!

Asian Express in Altamonte Springs, FL

A new restaurant called Asian Express opened in Altamonte Springs in the building that was formerly occupied by Wonderful Chinese Express. For a fast food Chinese, I always thought Wonderful was pretty good, so I decided to give the new place a try.
I ordered a Kung Pao Chicken dinner combination which started with wonton soup. For whatever reason, I've noticed many local Chinese restaurants have stopped putting the strips of roast pork in their wonton soup. It used to be that the pork was standard in wonton soup, but now it seems I see it rarer and rarer in the soup. The soup at Asian Express had plenty of pork...

The soup was followed with the Kung Pao Chicken, brown rice, and an eventual egg roll that was initially forgotten. The chicken was chopped into small chunks, with green and red peppers, zucchini, mushrooms, scallions, and peanuts. The Kung Pao Chicken was tasty, and I'd gladly get it again!

China Star in Sanford, FL

There are several Chinese take-outs in the various strip malls that surround the Seminole Towne Center mall in Sanford, FL. Out of all of them, China Star is my favorite. They have the tastiest food for the most reasonable prices. On this visit, I ordered a shrimp with black bean sauce combination. It came with wonton soup, fried rice, an egg roll, and the shrimp.

The shrimp came in a brown sauce with black beans, carrots, onions, and huge mushrooms, maybe portobello? Mushrooms are one of the few foods I really dislike, so I could have done without them. Besides from picking out the mushrooms, I enjoyed my food!

Pine Garden Chinese

I was doing some shopping for a birthday present in the Waterford Lakes Town Center outdoor mall and started getting hungry. After wandering from store to store in search of a giant Pez dispenser in the horribly designed mall, I stopped by the Pine Garden Chinese Restaurant. I ordered the Kung Pao Chicken lunch combo, which included wonton soup, rice, and the chicken. I wasn't too happy with the food. Everything was pretty much tasteless. The soup tasted like oily water with wontons floating in it. Kung Pao chicken is normally somewhat spicy, but Pine Garden's chicken was very bland. The price was good, but I don't think I would return to Pine Garden any time soon.

Shrimp with Chinese Vegetables from China Wok III

I ate Shrimp with Chinese Vegetables and wonton soup from China Wok III in Sanford, FL. I'm not sure what differentiates between Chinese Vegetables and Vegetables (both were on the menu), but my shrimp were good! Bok chow, snow peas, carrots, water chess nuts, and mushrooms were all served with many huge shrimp, all topped with a white sauce. Steamed rice came on the side.


China Wok III is definitely one of the best take out Chinese Restaurants in the area!

Szechuan Chicken from Imperial Dynasty

I returned to Imperial Dynasty in Longwood, FL and ordered the Szechuan Chicken early bird dinner.

Wonton soup and an egg roll were the included appetizers. Similar to my experience on my last visit, I found the soup to be a bit too salty. Everything else about the soup is good except for the saltiness. I had no complaints about the pork egg roll.

Szechuan Chicken was a good choice. I wanted something spicy, and this dish definitely provided that. The chicken was cooked with carrots, cabbage, scallions, and onions, and was served with brown rice. I'm sometimes disappointed with chicken dishes in Chinese Restaurants, but I had no complaints about this Szechuan Chicken!

Chicken & Eggplant from Imperial Dynasty

I ate at Imperial Dynasty in Longwood, FL for lunch. I ordered the Chicken & Eggplant with Garlic Sauce lunch special. It came with the chicken, rice, and a choice of a side.

Fried noodles were served first.

They were followed by the side. I went with some Wonton soup. In the past, I've always been happy with the soup from Imperial Dynasty, but on this visit I found it to be way too salty.

The soup was followed with the main dish. The Chicken & Eggplant was pretty much what the menu described it to be. There was lots of chicken and lots of Chinese eggplant, and not much else. There was a side of brown rice, but I felt the meal needed more variety. There was way too much of the same thing, and it would have been better if there was some other types of vegetables in with the chicken and eggplant. Just something to mix up the monotony of the meal a bit.

It did taste good though, so I guess that's all that matters for the most part.


Like Sanford's China Wok, Imperial Dynasty also had posters hanging up to be one of the Top 100 Chinese Restaurants. The 2008 contest is over, it looks like Imperial Dynasty made it into the top 100 on the winners list. I don't see China Wok...

Chinese Food from China Wok III

I returned to China Wok III in Sanford, FL and ate Vegetable Lo-Mein and Wonton Soup. The lo-mein was filled with broccoli, snow peas, scallions, carrots, onions, and more. Everything was tasty leaving me with no complaints about my dining experience.


The restaurant had signs all over telling their customers to vote them as one of theTop 100 Chinese Restaurants. I would have voted for them since they asked, but that website wasn't very user friendly. Besides from the '404 File not Found' errors that I kept on getting, I couldn't find any place to vote for the restaurant. Sorry China Wok III.

California Earthquake from Imperial Dynasty

I ate at Imperial Dynasty in Longwood, FL. I noticed one of their sushi specials on the way in was something called a California Earthquake. It was described as a California Roll topped with baked fish. It sounded interesting, so I ordered the roll and a wonton soup.

Imperial Dynasty has good wonton soup. Unlike most other Chinese restaurants, they put lots of good vegetables in their soup. Besides from the standard wontons, pork, and scallions, Imperial Dynasty also put cabbage and carrots in the soup. Adding more vegetables to a soup is never a bad thing in my opinion.

As for the California Earthquake, it wasn't exactly what I was expecting, but it was still really tasty. The sign with the specials said the California roll was topped with baked fish, so I was expecting actual big pieces of fish. Instead, it was more like a fish salad. The fish was broken up into small pieces and mixed with other ingredients (it said something about eel sauce) to make the topping for the roll. All of this was topped with crumbled tempura batter and decorated with some radishes carved into flowers. I would definitely get the California Earthquake again.

Wah-Luck Kitchen

I ate Chinese food from Wah-Luck Kitchen in Franklin Square, New York. I picked up the take out, which consisted of scallion pancakes, wonton soup, and Szechuan chicken. The pancakes were a tasty treat since there are no Chinese restaurants in Florida that serve this menu item.

The soup tasted like normal wonton soup...

The chicken was a disappointment. Compared to other Szechuan chicken dishes that I have ordered elsewhere, the sauce was very thick and tomato-paste like. The sticky sauce got stuck on the food and was way too overpowering. I should have gone with lo-mein. You can't go wrong with lo-mein...

China Wok III

Szechuan chicken, fried rice, and wonton soup from China Wok III in Sanford, Florida. It was all very good, but I didn't realize the lunch special that I ordered came with rice. I would have definitely gone with steamed rice rather than the fried rice. Otherwise it was all good. The chicken was nice and spicy with lots of veggies, and it was under $5 too!