China Star

My aunt raves about this place. My only guess as to why she can stomach it is the fact she's been eating here for the entire 60 years she's lived in Omak and so she's accustomed to it and it doesn't make her sick. Oh and she just loves the waitresses. Another guess as to why is the fact my aunt eats here enough she keep the business operating in the black.

It's a very dismal restaurant that hasn't been deep cleaned or remodeled in a good 30 years. It looks straight out of the 70's, including the creepy/dirty carpet.

All of the food is the same bland milky white color. The egg flower soup, the pork fried rice, chow mein, sweet and sour chicken, ect. It was a little creepy. I like to be able to tell the difference in what I'm eating. That's a little difficult here.

I had a combination plate the last time with pork chow mein, pork fried rice, and sweet and sour pork. I changed the pork to chicken, which was dried up, tough, and difficult to say for sure if it was actually chicken. My mother had something similar, maybe a different kind of chow mein. Both plates were swimming in sauce, and made everything soggy, not to mention it all tasted the same. We both ended up drowning our food in copious amounts of soy sauce to at least make it palatable and carefully we swallowed it all down. Meanwhile, my aunt is gobbling away at hers like it's a five star steak dinner.

It didn't help that the waitress was hovering over our table and gossiping with my aunt. My mother and I didn't exist as customers, and clearly the waitress didn't care that we were even there. She never bothered to ask if we needed anything. She just wanted to waste time and gossip about people with my aunt. Which was a little awkward, trying to eat with someone standing at the edge of our table watching us. She also ignored a couple of other tables in favor of her gossip time. Which is a really bad image.

Sadly, this is a very small town, with nothing to do and no real advancement opportunities, so my guess is this waitress had worked here for many years (she looked about 50) and was settled into a comfortable life of complacency, not worrying about complaints because where else can you go without driving two hours? Nowhere. That's exactly where.

After this horrible meal, my mother and I went back to the hotel, to become deathly ill. Nothing like sharing a tiny hotel bathroom when two people are frantically pooping out copious amounts of MSG and soy sauce. We spent the evening doing this, back and forth.

Finally after getting it all out and being tired of the hotel room walls, we ventured out to Arby's because we were starving, as there was literally nothing left in our stomachs or digestive system any longer. Thank god that was a decent experience and we lived through it. My brother ate here with my mother and aunt on a separate trip and had the same thing happen.

I would not recommend eating here. Just avoid it.

So I haven't eaten here since I found a long hair in my food..... which was YEARS and YEARS ago.

Do not go here! Many of my friends have had food poisoning after eating here, not worth it.

There is another option for Chinese food and it's Dragon Express in Okanogan. They also now have to-go dragon express at the gas station in Omak that reminds me of Panda Express. It's ALWAYS good and very reasonable prices... oh and NO HAIR in the food and no one has gotten sick that I have heard of.

So for health reasons skip China Star!

If you want good Chinese food in Okanogan County, you have to have a passport or an enhanced driver's license, because there is no good Chinese food in the county; drive north. The only people who like the food at China Star are people who think a trip to Wenatchee or Spokane is an impossibly long journey and have never tasted anything better.

Everything at China Star has that "fresh from the can" taste. Some people rave about the friendly bar; I think they must pour freely to help you forget how bad the food is.

If you must eat there, at least the gravy on the Almond Fried Chicken is tolerable.

I grew up around here, and having Chinese restaurants in cowboy country used to be more common (Bonanza and all that). It would be super if a REAL Chinese restaurant opened up here, but until then we have good choices in Osoyoos and Oliver, BC.

I've been going there since I was a little kid. Best almond chicken in the world. No other place comes close.

I'm not sure if it's that I grew up here but I love eating here :) we've lived in Seattle area and Yakima area and will honestly say we've had better Chinese food but that doesn't mean this isn't good. The food here is more of a comfort food for me ... The lunch specials are a great price and fresh! The sizzling beef is probably my favorite :)

This is the only place at which I took one bite and left the rest. The food was beyond horrible, it was nauseating. The food tasted like it was all from a Chung King can and the meat was not identifiable, seriously I tried to tell from looking at the grain, texture and color and couldn't tell. Strong skip this recommendation.

Given, it is not great Chinese food, but the people are friendly, and it is okay, I feel like they deserve a far better name than they get.