food a solid 4 or maybe a 5 - carry-ot service is problematic. Tonight after a movie we ordered 2 stir-fried dishes and were told it would be a 20 minute wait. We finally got our food after 35 minutes - this is not a place where you want to spend 35 minutes - and they weren't crowded. The food stands out - salt and pepper eggplant, a scorching diced chicken dish that brings beads of perspiration to my forehead. I'd avoid the carryout and enjoy a few beers waiting. read more

I love this place. They two eggplant dishes. One is the usual greasy spicy that characterizes Sichuan cooking, another is a dry cooked dish that I haven't seen elsewhere. That to me is a mark of the ability of the kitchen. Aside from the eggplant, one of my favorites is the wintermelon soup. I'm so disappointed that it was not available the last time I went there. For the people who gave this restaurant four stars, what Chinese restaurant earns five?? read more

Update: We ate in again it was fantastic! So i've changed my review from 3.5 to 4 stars, we again listened to our servers reccomendation and everything was excellent!!! We've gotten take out twice and not been happy, but a couple of nights ago we eat in........WOW what a difference, excellent. We told our server what we like about Chinese food and don't like, then listened to her recommendations and it was EXCELLENT. The odd thing was we had some leftovers which we took home, they didn't reheat so well. So highly recommend for eat in, not so much for take out. read more

I was expecting so much better, unfortunately. And I might give them another try, but basically it boiled down to almost everything being a bit underdone. Egg rolls and springs rolls needed to be cooked a bit longer as they were doughy inside, the fried dumplings were very doughy and the meat was pink in the very center, so we didn't even eat those just in case, and even the fried rice was rushed as the onions were still too raw. The exceptions: the spicy wontons and the crab rangoons. The spicy wontons although ordered 'very spicy' were just a little spicy, but very good. The crab rangoons: while the filling was good, the dough was thick, bland, and way too overcooked - we ended up removing as much of the overcooked dough and trying to enjoy the filling part of them. So, the good: the spicy wontons, and the garlic soy sauce for the friend dumplings was delicious. The bad: for delivery at least the cooking was rushed and most of our items were undercooked and unpleasant. read more

Ok first people need to know exactly what real Sichuan food is, IT IS SPICY AND GREASY! so don't complain if that's what you get Having been to China and tasted real Sichuan cuisine, I can easily say that in this area this is probably the best I have tasted around here, Honestly in comparison to the food in China this is probably around 2-3 stars but in an area dominated by tasteless and overly westernized (I mean seriously if you went China and ordered some General Tso they'd probably ask wtf is that?) Chinese fast food joints, China Star is easily the closest to authentic taste. So if you like spicy foods, stick to the traditional menu they offer, and be prepared to dish out over 10 bucks per entre (and seriously it's worth it compared to that nasty take out). read more

What to order when it's the first time since pandemic started...so many options?! Our choice was China Star and it was worth the wait. Delivered quickly, food was hot and delicious. Always a fan of more meat and veggies than sauce and China Star provided exactly that AGAIN! Consistently good makes this take out menu a brilliant choice. Thank you, China Star! read more

Really didn't like it at all. I'm really shocked it got 4 stars from a number of people, because the food was just horrible. When I see reviews like the ones this place got and then I go over there and it tasted as bad as it did, either I got the cook on a bad day or the people giving the reviews were friends of the owners. Anyway, I ordered the fried rice and orange beef. The fried rice looked cheaply made and was greasy. They were very skimpy on the vegetables and really a bland tasting rice dish. I didn't like the ambiance so I ordered a "safe" entre, so I ordered the orange beef. It was OK. All in all, I wouldn't go back here again. read more

Would be 4.5, but since they are one of the few places in Northern Suburban Virginia that actually offers 'real' Chinese dishes, I think it's worth the extra nod. I haven't had much success at all with their normal American/Chinese food, so I stay away completely. I order off their Chinese Menu. Some Standouts: read more

Since the pandemic first time go out and order Chinese food, haven't eat it for almost 4 months. The food I ordered it's amazing, the vegetables with garlic it's so fresh, beef chow foon the beef is so tender, also love the Sichuan style fish is perfect spicy for not too spicy eater. Love the food we will come back for sure. read more

I love you Yelpers! I can't tell you how fine and wonderful it is to read reviews written by people who are excited to say, "I don't know what it was but it was delicious" or "I've never sweated so much when eating" in a favorable review. If I just wanted fuel I could go to McDonalds or Old Country Buffet. The panoply of cultures and the foods that go with them are what keep me living in the traffic hell-hole of Northern Virginia. I was looking for a quick but yummy bite before a movie at the Fairfax Cinema Arts. I enjoy Thailand Thai Cuisine (but that's another review) but have done it to death. A quick Yelp search for Fairfax led me to China Star, which until yesterday I have only thought of as "that Chinese takeout place next to the liquor store". With assistance from previous Yelp reviews we ordered a fabulous, spicy, interesting meal which came in no time, cost about $30 and from which we had tons of leftovers. I am looking forward to dinner tonight! I absolutely loved the Ma'Po Tofu and the Chicken with Red Chilli Peppers (70% chillis 30% chicken is an accurate - and delicious description). The cold rabbit appetizer is interesting (I do love rabbit) but has a bit more of that taste I can only describe as "funky" than I prefer in meat dishes, though I love it in kim chee and other veggies. Definitely order from the authentic Chinese dishes. read more

This place is awesome! I've tried about 10 menu items so far, and all of them are great! But I cannot vouch for anything I have not tried... Best items: Mabo Dofu, order it spicy! Scallion fried fish! General Kwans beef (not spicy), Chilli Chicken (its half chillis/half chicken, spicy as hell). We always seem to get these every time we go, and then get 1 or 2 new things to try. The chinese broccoli dishes are really good too. The menu here is divided into 2 sections. One looks just like any other chinese restaurant take out menu. Ignore that for now. Look for the chef's/house specialties, its usually in the front part of the menu. Those dishes are the ones to try! A lot of the food is spicy, so fair warning. Personally, I like spicy food a lot. :D read more

Two menus; Americanized Chinese food and an authentic Chinese food. I recommend you order off the authentic Chinese menu. First, you have to try the Dan Dan Noodles or the Spicy Peppercorn Beef w/ Cilantro for appetizers. Then, I highly recommend the Twice Cooked Pork, Lamb in Hot Pot, Szechuan Chili Fish, or Braised Beef w/ Vegetables. But you can challenge your taste buds here with dishes like Shredded Kidneys (surprisingly good), Beef Tripe and Pig Blood w/ Celery (I'm working up to this one... haven't tried it yet), etc. The only thing keeping me from giving it a 5 star rating is consistency. They clearly have a head/master chef who is great (nights and weekends), but lunches can be iffy. Sometimes the food has been over-salted or not as fresh tasting. read more

First time ordering take out from here. Ordered Kung pao chicken and combination fried rice. Both were bland and didn't taste fresh. Chicken in the rice didn't look or taste like chicken. Five minutes after I ordered my food came out. No lie! Literally 5 minutes. There's no way both dishes were cooked to order and cooked fresh in five minutes. We've all had good Chinese food and Chinese food that was terrible and below average. Also the lady at the front counter never smiled and had zero personality and zero customer service skills. No wonder their dining room area was empty. That should have been a sign that this place sucks! read more

I ordered four dishes at this restaurant last night! One course is beef! I have a stomachache today after eating it! Very suffered! I've thrown up four times! I'm not sure it's beef! I still have them! I'm not going to order them! read more

A friend came to visit and wanted Chinese food. Not liking any of the places we had tried before, I searched Yelp for another option. Decided to try this place out- despite almost all of the reviews being about the authentic menu. Ordered a ton of food (I was feeling generous). Shrimp toast, dumplings, egg rolls, orange chicken, and general tso's chicken. Went to pick the food up, and was feeling pretty starved by the time we came back. I have tried shrimp toast before and hated it, but the one here is pretty good. Dumplings were good as well. The egg rolls were... egg rolls. The chicken was in small, bite-sized pieces. And both of the entrees were good. I usually get tired of eating Chinese food half-way through the meal and just throw away the left overs the next day... But we both finished our meals the following night. I would probably order this place over the others in the Fairfax area. Pretty good American style Chinese. I really, really, really want to get back to try the other menu. read more

Fellow rice eaters- isn't it disappointing when your rice comes out dry?! Has it crossed your mind to smuggle in rice from home to eat with your meal?! Fear not! The rice here is GOOD! It is moist and fluffy! The service was attentive. The servers checked in on us and refilled our water glasses. I don't see this level of care and friendliness in many other Chinese restaurants. So about the food... I think I've heard such great things about China Star that I hyped it up in my mind. The Mongolian Beef was tender and good- I could eat this again. On the other hand, I've had better Sesame Chicken in at least two other places. Overall, these two dishes were OK but I'm not salivating at the thought of them. This rating is an average of 5 stars for the service and rice. And a 2 star for my entree choices. I'm willing to give this place another try. read more

Chef Yan - Chinese Near Me - Fairfax, Virginia

This place has a lot of really good ratings so I'm not sure why my experience differed from everyone else's, but I definitely won't return to China Star. I ordered the chicken and corn soup and the sweet and sour chicken. The soup had neither chicken nor corn and had no flavor other than egg. The chicken was completely dry--so dry that I can't believe they served it that way--and the sauce was gloppy and overly sweet. There were no pineapple chunks either, which I like to have in my sweet and sour chicken. My date got something that was tofu with Szechuan peppers. There was no sauce to it--it was just tofu with a pile of dry peppers--and was pretty unappetizing. To be fair, he did say his leftovers tasted better the next day, but we don't go to a restaurant on Friday night in order to have good food on Saturday. Very disappointing experience. read more

I ordered delivery the other day. The delivery was on time, but it came with no chopsticks, spoon and napkins at all. The taste was just okay, not as good as the other Chinese restaurants. read more

The service attitude was very poor. We have been standing at the front desk for two minutes, and the lady behind the front desk was doing her thing and completely ignored our existence, even without eyes contact or saying hello, just ignore you and let you just stand there. When I helplessly raised my hand to signal another waitress, she just said hold on with an impatient tone. Very disappointing experience and totally ruined my Friday night mood. Will never go there again. read more

The crab meat and cheese wonton was beyond divine, probably the best wonton I have ever had. Obsessed! Tasty filling and fried to perfection. The kung pao chicken however was less than average, given that I try this dish at most Chinese restaurants I go to. The flavour fell short both in terms of spice and sauce however the portion was decent. The delivery was fast and the staff were friendly to deal with. Overall, excited to try more of their appetizers in the future. read more

Ok, so I don't like writing bad reviews but I have to here, ordered beef tastes like um something that's not beef. The sweet and sour chicken was pretty gross also, also ordered general Taos chicken and got just regular "chicken" that was probably the best out of everything. I guess the fortune cookies were good. read more

Chef Yan - If you could smell pictures this would stink! - Chinese Near Me - Fairfax, Virginia

I made reservations for 6 people for Sunday dinner at 7:15pm. My family strolls in 7:13pm thinking we were on time and that we would be seated right away. The hostess CLEARLY forgot about our reservations and I had only called a couple hours ahead of time but she tries to play it off that she remembered but she had to give our table away to another party. We wait another 10 minutes and we ask the waitress again when our table would be ready, she says soon soon. We wait for a while again that my mom and I decided to go to get some groceries at Shoppers while we waited...My advice is that, when customers call in to make reservations, make sure you reserve the table and not give it to a party before us! I thought the food tasted good. I liked the sauteed diced chicken with peanuts (idk exactly what it was called,, maybe kungpao chicken...?lol) but the peanut-chicken proportion was definitely off! The fried fish with cumin was crispy and delicious, the spicy eggplant hotpot was tasty but slightly mushy.... oh but the tea was so bland that it tasted like red-brown tap water! Please change the tea leaves when you need to!!! read more

Despite its generic name and strip mall location, China Star is the most lovely Chinese fare I've tasted outside of Manhattan. The homemade dumplings and Dandan noodles - 成都担担面 - are the best I've had. You can choose between the American menu and the traditional menu. I prefer the traditional. read more

See all

This place is not much to look at. The wait staff was very intent on taking our order. The menu is divided into traditional and American dishes. We ordered eggplant in garlic sauce, beef lo mein, spicy tofu and snow pea leaves (leaves ordered at the suggestion of the wait staff). Food was served in about 10 minutes. Overall very good food, and service was okay. read more

Chef Yan - Eggplant in garlic sauce ,beef lo mein, snow pea leaves with garlic, and spicy tofu. - Chinese Near Me - Fairfax, Virginia

Date Attended: 07/12/10, Monday Ordered orange chicken and some dragon seafood special. Both were good with a tint of crunchiness in the chicken. Nothing spectacular, but something to check out if you're in the area and are craving Chinese food. read more

As Willie V. mentioned, their American-Chinese food is average at best. My first visit was with co-workers for lunch, where they offered the American-Chinese lunch specials, which again, were average, but the pricing was great. The surprise came when my fiance and I went in for dinner to discover that their dinner menu featured amazing authentic Chinese food. When about 95% of the customers are speaking Chinese, it's a good indication that it's legit. :) It's one of our favorite restaurants to visit in the area now, and we rave about it to all our friends. However, it's a little tricky to order these authentic dishes because the menu is mostly Chinese and the English is limited, but the waitress is great at recommending dishes. A few that we liked were: 1. Scallion Fried Fish (The perfect crisp, and I love the dry seasoning & cilantro. yum!) 2. Lamb in Sizzling Pot (If you're not a fan of lamb, they will substitute it for beef or chicken upon your request) 3. Crab & Egg(?) Soup (I forget the exact name, but it's similar to egg drop soup, but has real crab meat in it. The portions are large so two can easily share a small for an appetizer) I think I'll try the Crystal Shrimp next! Yum! read more

Spicy food is my favorite. Spicy beef with cilantro is great. Spicy chicken is not traditional, but more like fried chicken popcorns in hot pepper. read more

I went here with my family and we all enjoyed it. My parents are pretty fobby Chinese parents, so if they thought it was decent, then I feel it meets the authentic requirement. When we got there, they gave us a free small dish of marinated soy beans. I've never seen this before, but it was alright. I don't remember the exact names of the dishes we ordered, but they seemed to be pretty typical Sichuan dishes (fish with sour cabbage in a spicy broth. salty fried spicy tofu, spicy beef dish, this jelly type appetizer, duck, sauteed spinach - very fresh). Sorry I'm not that descriptive. In total we ordered about 4 main dishes and 2 appetizers, which was more than enough for the 4 of us (with leftovers). And the total came out to be less than $80. Pretty good I thought. read more

I don't know if it's because of the pandemic and maybe they have someone else working in the kitchen so I'm trying to give them the benefit of doubt since this was my first but will be my last visit here. I've honestly not had too many bad Chinese food experiences. I ordered egg foo yong and the broth was extremely bland. The crispy beef taste like a pound of sugar was mixed into the batter and the wontons had one tiny little piece of meat. I hate when people are skimpy on the wonton filling. My fried rice was also scorched and tasted burnt. I can't say that there was really anything desirable about this restaurant. Wasted of $40...literally threw away most of the food. I have to say, the woman who worked there was extremely nice. Doesn't make up for the bad food though. read more

The food here is decent. Some might say authentic. But since the COVID-19 lockdown, the service has been nothing short of terrible. Orders are wrong (pancakes missing; requested fried rice, got white, etc.), the wait time provided on the website was 30 minutes, but we waited 90. This has happened three times -- each order upward of $75. We are not going back. read more

Unprofessional chef to put whole peanut in my sliced beef and beef tripe, it supports to be chopped peanuts in the sliced beef and beef tripe order. A little disappointed for my order this time. read more

Chef Yan - Unprofessional chef put whole peanut to my sliced beef and beef tripe order. - Chinese Near Me - Fairfax, Virginia

Great place to have a wonderful lunch great lunch specials food is always hot. One of my favorite hot and sour soup's, and also recommend the chicken and broccoli beef And the Sesame chicken is one of our favorite. Good fresh tasting food and superfast for delivery. read more

Ordered take out from China Star last night. The service was quick and the food came out in record time. Impressive! Unfortunately the food left a lot to be desired. I ordered the the Egg Drop Soup and a Spring Roll as an appetizer and the Kung Pao Chicken as my entree. The Egg Drop Soup was fine but the spring roll was TINY. It was only $1.25 but it had to be the smallest spring roll I've ever had. The Kung Pao Chicken, though, was the dish that really disappointed. When I order Kung Pao Chicken, it's usually chicken and peanuts in a thick and spicy red sauce. I could've mistaken China Star's Kung Pao Chicken for Chow Mein. The only thing in the dish that even resembled Kung Pao Chicken were the pieces of chicken and peanuts. Other than that, it was in a thin grey-brown sauce that was a bit spicy and had baby corn, bamboo, a few peppers, some carrot pieces and a whole TON of chopped celery. Not exactly what I was expecting. The chicken had the consistency of undercooked scallops. I may try this place again just because some of the reviewers say it has the best Sichuan food in the area, but I definitely won't make the mistake of ordering the Kung Pao Chicken again. For that, I'll go to Peking Village II on Rt. 29 across from Paul VI High School. read more

Great food, quick service. Overall one of the best Chinese spots in the area. Go for the Chinese style Kung Pao!

A group of my friends and I had lunch here several days ago and I was very disappointed with my dish of Schezuan pork. The meat was tasteless and cut thin like from a deli meat slicer and buried under a pile of carrots and onions with a bland brown sauce. This concoction was served with cool white rice with all in two portions on a three-section plate like a school lunch serving. The egg roll was good and the tea was warm. At an adjacent table, several staff members were preparing a pile of what looked like green beans. In my opinion food prep. is best done in the kitchen, not as an attraction in the customer seating area. When I first moved to the Fairfax area about fifteen years ago The China Star was the goto Chinese restaurant, now it's on my list of 'stay away' places. Sad, as it was so good back then. read more

Food was amazing! We had the Kung Pao Chicken, stir fry green beans and spring rolls. Staff was very sweet and food was made ready very quickly! Would highly recommend to others and we plan on visiting again soon! read more

I love this place. Since my school just near here. I've been here for many times a week

Probably won't return. It was okay. Average even. Typical American Chinese food. The rice was bland though. The price also seemed high. I asked for extra general tsos sauce with and order of general tsos chicken. When I arrived they rudely said extra sauce is $2. Fine. But there wasn't an option to order extra sauce. We just moved to the area so we will keep looking for our Chinese place read more

Fantastic food and friendly staff! We have been to China Star several times and it is by far our favorite Chinese Restaurant ever! Never disappoints. The food is delicious and the portions generous. Unlike other Chinese restaurants, the ingredients are always fresh and the meals hot and beautifully prepared. Our 10 year old daughter loves the Crispy Beef and Dumplings. Our favorites are the Szechuan Shrimp or Scallops and the Hunan Chicken. We don't mind driving the extra miles to go to China Star! read more

My husband and I have been looking for a GOOD Chinese restaurant ever since red pepper in Fairlakes shopping center, Fairfax got sold to new owners. This place is surprisingly good! I say surprisingly because it looks like an average take out place from the outside. It's actually take out or dine in and well maintained on the inside. The food is really good!! I ordered Hunan chicken- extra spicy and my husband ordered shrimp and chicken but I can't remember the dish (sorry). This review is mainly for the Hunan chicken... -very tasty -spicy but you can still taste the sauce -huge portions! -none of my chicken felt like "fatty," low grade chicken most Chinese places use -veggies were very fresh! Staff is excellent- friendly, attentive and patient. The bathroom (women's bathroom) is very clean and well maintained (and yes, bathrooms do say a lot about the restaurant!) We will definitely be regulars here:) read more