Completed the on-line order for a delivery and discovered at the end of the process that I was .27 miles beyond their delivery area. So I did a pick-up (about 12 miles round trip) which just added to the entire miserable experience. There was no...one in the place around 9:15 on a Saturday night...not a good sign.
The Hot and Sour soup was neither hot nor sour but instead had a very strange taste unlike any hot and sour soup I've ever had (and Hot and Sour is one of my favorite soups). Added a bit of vinegar which helped but the base taste couldn't be eradicated. The soup was also very sparse...not a lot of any of the traditional ingredients.
The house special Lo Mein with shrimp, pork and chicken had a distinctive unpleasant smell when opened and I suspect that one of these ingredients was 'off'. Other than that there was nothing special about the Lo Mein.
The Kung Pao chicken was the real surprise of the night! On opening the lid to the container the dish emitted a foul and nasty odor of spoiled food (I suspect the chicken was bad). My wife sitting about 10 feet away actually said: "What is that smell?" upon opening. Against my better judgement I put a couple of spoonsful on a plate to try it and the taste confirmed my sense of smell. Simply inedible! Preferring to write off the $9.95 rather than get sick, I dumped the entire dish in the garbage.
The Lemon Chicken was small pieces of soggy breaded chicken with a 'just ok' lemon sauce. I suspect it was taken from a separate batch of pre-made chicken pieces that were not part of the Kung Pao chicken. Edible, but not something I'd order again.
So, we were able to eat a cup of the Hot andSour soup, a bit of the Lemon Chicken, and a bit of the Lo Mein along with some bland fried rice and white rice from our $30 order.
As a lover of good Chinese food (Hunan, Cantonese, Sezchuan, etc) I'll continue to search for a decent Chinese place in the Stuart area. China Star, however, is off the list for good! Horrible food that was not fit to be served!More