waterloo star in Waterloo

This place is mid. Mystery box is offered is a friendly price. However, their beef briskets/tendons tasted really burnt. Tomato + fried eggs is worst dish that I have eaten inside the place and it is also the worst one I have eaten in my life.

Food is expensive and taste is below average, not recommended

Try to go different places for meals, too slow to serve the meal

Tongdeyuan, you are so confused...the newly opened menu has made me no longer even interested in eating there. After all, I have paid wrongly these past few years...

The Waterloo Star restaurant has closed and has been replaced by Dine Stination Chinese restaurant.

Tongdeyuan, you are so confused...the newly opened menu has made me no longer even interested in eating there. (And the poor man s package is so much more expensive) After all, I have paid wrongly these past few years...

Had lunch on Sep 6th, good. So come back on Sep 12th, ordered same dish. This time the rice and pork is half cold, giving me a feeling that rice is overnight. Soup is barely warm too. Had diarrhea in the afternoon. Wont go again.

The soup is really salty

Food was delicious, great service, and quick. Tried the meat balls for lunch and they were cooked to perfection really amazing. Great value for a delicious meal.

great place for authentic northern style Chinese dishes

My BFFLs and I fangirl over Waterloo Star. If you re a student in Waterloo with good taste, it s a must go. We almost wanted to gate-keep, but here we are enlightening the general population. Stay blessed, stay cute. Peace and love always. Kid-friendliness: Would bring my kid here.

Good food

How should I put it? It is not an exaggeration to say that it is the most unpalatable and unauthentic dry-fried beef river I have ever eaten in my life. The rice noodles are wrong, there is no pot flavor, and the side dishes are actually soybean sprouts.

Quick to serve the dishes, it only took 5 minutes and was the fastest serving of any restaurant Ive been to. Recommend to you if you also want to save time like me.

Food was okay. We ordered seafood fried rice, to our surprise it came only with eggs and shrimp. Although, the photo of the seafood fried rice on the menu had so much variety of seafoods. Waste of money.

The food is SUPER salty and their servers are very rude.

Lunch specials are very affordable

I had a Singapore mein Feng with extra chicken and was the best tasting mein Feng Ive had from any place. I absolutely loved it! 5 stars!

After changing the chef, the quality of the dishes dropped and the service was poor.

Bring me back to my childhood. I am tearing up as I am writing this, for the food is so gastronomically superb. I nearly cried eating here. The atmosphere, service, vibes, and food are perfect. Come here for authentic Chinese that will bring you back to your mothers kitchen. Simply sublime. Waterloo Star leave me with happy heart and full belly !!! Food so good almost make me cry when eating because it so good . I highly recommend Waterloo Star to anyone who eats food.

Came for lunch and got the braised pork lunch special they have on weekdays. Great food for a good price!

Amazing hot pot. Will definitely go back for more!

Dined in for their lunch specials that included a soup and soft drink. Soup was really bland and cold, all of soft drinks were flat, watered down and the 7up tasted like sparkling water. We got the chilli chicken and rice and a braised pork and egg on rice. Chicken was really sweet and was very gooey and bland. Braised pork and rice was very oily and very salty. Both dishes could not be finished.

Bad service, terrible food. Never come back this place.

Great place for Chinese food. The food tastes a little more authentic and less catered towards Western tastes as compared to some other Chinese restaurants. The portion sizes are excellent for the price, and the lunch special is especially worth it.

Pretty average - wish the service was a little more attentive.

horrible service.

Pretty average Chinese food

Nice spot for some great food. Had the spicy chicken and black pepper beef fried rice. Had me looking like a gremlin w my baguettes de bamboo . Strong 7.

I ordered a bowl of rice. nmd gave me half a lunch box. Are you kidding me?

Bad service.that Middle age woman make up like a gho* *.

The food was 7/10, pretty good and tasty.However there is a middle-aged woman who is very rude. Hitting the machine to us and act like we owed her money. I won t come back again until she s fired

Food consistently good, timely. But -- check your bills that you have been charged properly, do not hesitate to ask for english translation if mandarin is not your strong suit. They have an oh so small sign on the right side of the cash register that let you know they will charge a bit more for credit. It is hard to miss. Note: When ordering rice, it is charged by headcount for the table and they will serve bowls plus a shareable larger bowl of rice, which is refillable. They also do not have extra plates so ask for extra bowls if you need extra dishes for whatever reason. Just plan ahead and set expectations before going for the least frustrations. : )

Terrible. Chicken wasnt cleaned - lots of bones chunks and barely no chicken. To top it off, the rice and vegetables had lots of tiny bones in them. Couldnt eat the meal at all and it cost around $15.

Spicy vegetable dishes are really good

Most authentic Chinese food i ve tried in KW!! Tastes just like the food my mom makes :) I would recommend the green bean with shredded pork dish, and any of the eggplant dishes. My favourite restaurant in the plaza!

Very good food And good prices too Not complain at all Food : 5/5

Consistently great food and great prices! love their fried rice so much!

Very good food, fast and the best thing is a quiet place

Their lunch special is really good value and tastes great.

Its too bad. This chef should either change or use fat meat to make the shredded pork in Beijing sauce. If you dont have the right meat, dont make it. Its a profit after making this dish. I was so disgusted after just one bite of this dish that I will never do it again. Went to this store .

The food was really poor no taste..or seasonings. I was quite disappointed and felt sick all night

I ordered more spicy Mala Xiangguo. It tasted great and the portion was generous. Recommended

Really good food but portion sizes are small, especially compared to other Chinese restaurants.

The cooking style is not overpowering like some of the other Chinese restaurants in the plaza that tend to be too salty and greasy. The owner is nice and always there, but the servers sometimes just bury their faces into their phones or are just straight up blind.

This has been the best chinese restaurant at the UW plaza for multiple years now

Before I didnt like authentic Chinese food. This restaurant is the reason why I now love Chinese food. Now I eat here everyday. The owners and the restaurant workers are very polite and I genuinely feel good after eating here. Reminds me of home

Food is OK, but the service sucks. The waiters are rude and once even forgot to give us water and ask us for our order.

Memories. Food is still great and very generous portion size! Taro rib. My go to dish back in uni days.

I don t know if their chef has changed or something. I ate it often when I was a freshman and thought it was okay. Now I just ordered a braised beef brisket and a minced meat braised eggplant. The food is really not delicious. The braised beef brisket didnt even come out, it just smelled like the braised beef brisket in the cooking bag. Eggplant-made Shuigu Nangji, I thought it was a stew at first glance I remember there used to be a chef in Shenyang who was pretty good, but now this dish is just mediocre and not as delicious as the cooking bag.

Only Chinese restaurant in the area with enough choices to keep me satisfied. But a couple times Ive gotten dishes that are not super fresh

today is my first time to order, find piece of steelwool in the dish.

Delicious food and very accommodating staff! I m a proud Asian!

The food tastes pretty good, but the service is subpar. When I asked for 10% of the purchase price when I checked out, the waiter who took the payment immediately made a face. It really affected my mood.

The radish in the lamb casserole was bad. Very nauseous after eating

Dirty washroom, more the half-hour wait for just tap water The dishes were not clean, ask the server to change them, pretty sure she bring back the same one. and both two female servers are really rude and ignore you on purpose

Went here a few years ago and the food was amazing. Now .. not so much. Maybe they changed chefs. Worse food + smaller portions + more expensive = No thanks, will not be returning.

Really good food and respectful staff. I loved it every time I ate there.

I just loved.

Likes

Decent Chinese food

Very good authentic Chinese food. Me and my girlfriend love eating here and the staff is reasonably polite.

I vomited after eating it twice. I havent vomited since middle school. I felt uncomfortable twice after eating this food. . . . .

Great service and loved the food the lamb was so good and the short ribs

Very good chinese foods

Used to be my go-to restaurant until they changed chefs

Its not bad, its very similar to what you can make at home, but sometimes the waiting is just too long. If theres a guy in there whos pretty good, Ill give him one more star. The main reason is that there is really nothing delicious nearby, and Waterloo is too deserted... By the way, I have eaten plastic at Yu Xiaoshan. If this didnt happen, I would recommend that restaurant.

Great food at a great price

Snowy bean paste is super delicious! ! The Guobao Pork tastes very authentic, but the meat slices are too thin! Basically you cant see it, there is no meat at all in some slices, just flour. I wish the meat could be thicker and the price could be a bit more expensive!

Might be the best restaurant in GTA area. My girlfriend and I went to Waterloo to do business found this place to have lunch together. She was graduated from the university. She knew the place like the back of her hand. Price: cheaper than Toronto. Dish: two peoples portion. You can take out the rest. Taste: those people know how to cook. If I live in waterloo, I will come back every week. :/

cheap price and large variety of good food

Good food, but I think they might ve recently changed chefs. Been going to them for years now, but recently had a change in taste, not for the better.

I got sick eating a vegetarian casserole dish here. Guessing it wasn t ordered often and the veggies went bad. If you want to be safe, only order the popular dishes!

I often buy my aunt s steamed buns and dumplings! I ate dine-in once and it tasted pretty good!

Food is average but inexpensive. They also offer lunch combos. But the quality of the food is not that great and the environment is not really clean.

Good food and good service

Great Chinese food. The Lamb casserole and Mapo tofu are good

Extremely quick service, wonderful food, amazing prices for the size of the portion (the portions are really big!). Very nice, calm atmosphere in the restaurant and very authentic tasting food. I extremely recommend everyone to come eat here whether it be alone, or with a group of friends.

Hygiene is worrying, food is OK

I visited with a group of 6. Food was decent but the portion sizes were a bit on the lower side. When we ordered rice, the waiter assured us that we ordered enough to fill 6 bowls. We only had enough rice to fill 4 bowls. When we asked the waiter about this, he told us to purchase more rice. We didn t get any service after we ordered our food.

Good Chinese food. Very enjoyable atmosphere and pleasant staff.

Very good food and reasonable price Need to improve service though

Best in University Plaza

Their xiang guo is to die for, but wish there was an English menu for it. As of now, you can only ask for the xiang guo (Mala is the best option) if you can speak/read Mandarin, so a lot of people dont know about the best thing they have to offer!

Just common chinese restaurent in university plaza.

Food is undercooked, spicy is not a concept for them, and they never get the right order. Both times I have went, and order has been mistaken.

Great food

Too salty and not tasty

Service was pretty slow. It took awhile for someone to take out order but the food came at an appropriate time. Interesting atmosphere - Chinese food, Korean music, and Japanese anime on the three TV screens. Price was okay, a little-wee higher than other Chinese restaurants. Food was also okay. The big plus is that this place opens later than most of the restaurants in the area, great for late night feeding.

The service is actually not too bad, considering they just have some your kids doing service. But the whole place is not well-maintained and the bathroom is dirty as well. The beef plate we ordered is mostly just egg/tomato and doesnt taste good either. Not a good experience there at all!

Amazing food

Probably the best place for cheap, authentic, and filling chinese food for lunch

Not good

TL;DR Horrid boss, food wasted I usually love coming here with my boyfriend for hotpot. However, I wont step in to this place again because of what happened tonight. My friend and I went for hotpot and had left over. The portions were big so we had half of the uneaten meat, veggies, etc. still boiling in the pot. We didnt want to waste it so we asked for a container to take the rest home. Mind you, we have done this at this place before. The kind young man who served us gave us a bag and container but the older gentlement (maybe the boss?) told him, in mandarin (I think he didnt know I could understand as I was speaking to my friend in English), that we couldnt take the food home because we had too much left over. He said it right in front of us and the young man apologized and said it was company policy. I told him no worries. The old man kept a close eye on us for the rest of our time there and even inspected our table before we left. We felt like we were being surveille the entire time. What a horrible experience! We had left food over that could have been eaten the next day and we had paid for it! He is such a horrible person! He even said to the young man serving us to make sure we didnt leave with any food. Date night is going to be someplace else next time.

The grilled fish is live fish to order and is genuine.

Ordered a takeout and waited for more than half an hour when the restaurant is almost empty. Even people came after had already finished. And they didnt even bother to apologize. Guess I will never eat here. And will NOT recommend to anyone unless I really hate him.

Affordable restaurant for students

This is the real deal, went with my Chinese buddies and had enough awesome food for a week.

Food is reasonably priced and tasty. This is my usual late night go-to spot for Chinese food. In my most recent experience, the staff were way more friendly than usual which made my experience that much better. The only thing missing is better English translation on the menu and more dishes!

I didnt have much hope and tried it once. After the trial, I was not disappointed. It was really not good. This kind of cooking can only be obtained by KW with national food stamps. Chef, can you make some snacks?

I bought beef rice bowl twice and the bottom of the rice was mushy. I didn t know whether it was rice or rice paste.

No service..

By far my favourite place for Chinese food at Waterloo. Their prices are good too, especially during the week day lunch specials

I ordered a lunch special (sliced beef on rice) and tried their free soup / fountain drink. The soup was cold and tasted bad, there was no gas in the fountain drink machine. The food was very bad quality (smelled bad, tasted bad and was too salty). Its the first time in Waterloo I couldnt even eat it and just gave up on the plate. Staff refused a refund and acted arrogantly. I think its the worst place to eat in plaza. Very disappointing

Reasonably priced food in the place. I like their steamed fish, its tasty and fresh. They have free pop at lunch too.

Inexpensive place for lunch

Love the food and the prices! Visited almost every week

Food food. Very crowded at noon. Great place for student to grab cheap lunch.

Never ever over the years have I had stomach issues after eating here, this place is the place to go if you want sanitary Chinese food. Place is pretty average overall, has a few decent dishes and price is not cheap. But at least I can come here, eat, and move on with my life not worrying about when the next explosive diarrhea is going to hit. For that alone, being in university plaza, deserves five stars. Thank god this place exists.

Food is nice. Free drinks are awesome!

Service was a bit slow, though it was pretty busy

Great for groups that like to share dishes! Good variety of dishes, many of which are spicy. A must try is the crispy chicken! They also offer unlimited white rice refills as well! Fairly priced for the portions and taste. Service is good but it helps a lot if you dine with someone who can read Chinese because the menu is not well translated. Other than that, Ive never had any issues!

Tastes like good food.

Stri fri

One of the best chinese places on campus.

The food was above average in the plaza. Service is the best among all Chinese restaurant in the plaza.

The food and service both good. It is much better than other Chinese restaurants in plaza. The large plate of chicken casserole and grilled fish are both delicious.

Good food, decent prices.

First time to eat here. Decent price, foods are okay-not spectacular, service is okay. Atmosphere needs more lights during the night and toilet is dirty and needs more lights as well.

Does its job for the price. Nothing impressive. Cheaper but portions are kinda smaller too.

Like the fish-flavored shredded pork

Decent Chinese food with large portions at a great value. Service is just okay and food comes out quite quickly. The restaurant itself has an inoffensive atmosphere and is not too noisy. They also open pretty late so thats a plus.