China Sea by CSU

Horrible experience and very dirty. The buffet cart out front is just plain gross. I have a few extra pounds and can count on one hand how many plates of food I have thrown out in my life. I literally took two bites of food and immediately tossed in trash. I had no clue what the meat actually was and very dry. The food tasted like it had been reheated from yesterday.

Eat here once a week. Normally everything is perfect but I have noticed over the past few months service has gone down. Times have gone up. My most recent call. Placed to go order. And the order taker attempted to get off the phone without telling me how long it would be. I asked and she said she didn’t know. And continued ‘probably not longer than 30 minutes’ now how can someone plan with that vagueness. The person answering the phone must know what the kitchen is doing and have a reasonable expectation of how long someone must wait. I sure hope this improves

One word GARBAGE!
Never had worse food in 40 years.
Dry, cold, greasy disgusting !
Server was non existent.
Dirty sticky tables. Cob webs on the lighting fixtures. I guess other reviewers didn’t notice.
20 $ later still hungry.

I have never written a review before, but my experience today was extremely disappointing. I’ve been here at least eight times, and this will probably be my last time here. I’m so so disappointed by the food and milk tea today. My first warning should have been none of the old staff here since they moved to their other branch Phusion Café (which is fantastic by the way).
Milk tea
— Large pearl black tea. I asked for light ice and sugar. It came out tasting only of milk and no tea flavor. Extremely disappointed because I love milk tea and Ten Ren milk tea is one of my favorite milk tea stores. Boba was still good. I didn’t feel like asking them to remake it.
— My two friends got Jasmine Milk green tea with pearls with light ice and sugar. Slightly better tea flavor, but mostly milk flavor. Still good boba.
Food
— Taiwanese Beef Noodle Soup. I ALWAYS get it when I come here. Why? Because it is my comfort food that reminds me of home since my mom makes fantastic beef noodle soup. This time, the soup (which is typically dark brown and flavorful) was bland and watered down to a light brown. The beef was still marinated well.
— Minced Meat Rice. My friend always get this and both her and I were disappointed. The sauce is supposed to be slightly thick, but this time it was so watery. It was pretty much had no taste with a weird sour aftertaste. Honestly, it seems like it may have just been premade and then reheated, but maybe kept in the fridge too long.
— Kung pao Chicken. My Caucasian friend got this and even she couldn’t finish half of her meal. The chicken was bone dry and had no flavor. The peanuts were not cooked well and tasted and crunched like just normal salted peanuts. The celery was literally mush in your mouth. The fried rice was extremely yellow and tasted so bad that I spat it out.
Service
— We were ordering to eat at the restaurant, but had to pay first and order at the front desk. In the other times that I have been there, this was never the case. We were always seated, given menus, and paid at the end. I’m not sure if this is a new store policy or something.
— The food also came out in takeout containers and takeout chopsticks despite the fact that we ate in the restaurant. I saw the Indian cashier take my take out container and pour it into a bowl before serving me. My friends still had take out containers though. It wasn’t even close to closing hours too.
— It honestly just felt like we had ordered takeout and ate at the restaurant instead.
I’m so so disappointed about my food and drink that it is almost hilarious. After this, I will be going to Phusion Café since most of their workers will be there and I won’t risk the chance of having one of my favorite foods and drinks being bad.
EDIT
After emailing Phusion Café, I was notified fairly quickly that there is no relation between China Sea and Phusion Café. They are separate restaurants and I will still be going to Phusion Café as China Sea has gone downhill.

Try the food on their menu, that are some authentic Chinese/​Taiwanese food. Good services, good food. Would definitely visit if stop by downtown Cleveland again.

Nice Taiwanese restaurant! I can find the Taiwanese food which I miss badly here. The bubble tea with tapioca is most recommended. I hope they could open another sub-​store in Pittsburgh as well.

Lots of great things on the menu. You have your traditional Chinese food but then so many other options. I highly recommend the beef noodle soup. All in all a great addition to Csu Campus.

Honestly I didn’t expect to get authentic Chinese food in Cleveland, however the food actually tastes pretty good! Service was great too

Great place for a cheap and great tasting lunch. You get what you pay for. Not fancy. Buffet-​esque. Food hot and fresh.

Stopped here for lunch during Sparx City Hop 2014. Good, inexpensive lunch menu. Decent bubble tea. Got pepper steak lunch special, and bourbon chicken for the kids. Good preparation, veggies were crisp and fresh. Will be back to try dinner entrees.

I went with a friend here based on the reviews and because I was craving milk tea.
We ordered:
1. Beef noodle soup — I guess they’ve changed things, since it looks nothing like the photos on Unilocal.I wish I took a picture of it, but they’re thin noodles (almost like spaghetti) and there’s bok choy and cilantro. The braised beef was tender and flavorful. Overall, I actually liked this dish although the soup was a little watery. And I wasn’t a huge fan of the noodles. But hey, I gotta give Cleveland some props for trying. This place is probably the best place for Taiwanese-​style beef noodle soup in Cleveland.
2. Milk tea with boba — the tea flavor really comes through! Happy. My criticism of this was the boba. Half were appropriately chewy and the other half were a little hard. They need to stir the boba around more.
3. Pork chop with noodles — my friend and I did not expect this. Taiwanese style is usually deep fried pork chop with pickled mustard greens/​veggies on the side. This was pan-​fried over a bed of the same noodles used in the beef noodle soup. The vegetables were an assortment of sad-​looking napa cabbage, carrots and mushrooms. Overall, the dish looked really unappealing. I didn’t taste this.
4. Potstickers — again, it looked really unappealing. They looked like little fried nubs of dough. These tasted ok, but I can definitely make better. It confusedly came with broccoli on the side? I don’t understand.
Disappointingly, when we got the bill, I found I had been charged $ 4.50 for the milk tea instead of $ 3.50. When I asked, the waiter had assumed I ordered the large instead of regular. Who does that?
Overall, this place is a hit or miss depending on what you order.

Apparently, the owner takes off on Sundays (but the restaurant is still open). This means that on Sundays, they don’t offer anything from their authentic Taiwanese menu, and the restaurant transforms into an wholly Americanized Chinese place. So if you are looking for authentic Chinese food, don’t come on Sundays.
We’ve also come back a couple of times and tried a few different things. They offer pretty delicious jade tofu dishes (with the soft, yummy tofu!) and pretty good three cup chicken. The beef ho fun (beef with thick flat noodles) is on par with other Chinese restaurants in the area. The seafood hot pot wasn’t as good.
Also, the bubble tea tastes different each time depending on who is making it on a given day. It’s still pretty good overall compared to Cleveland standards, but it varies from so-​so to very good. They also seem to run out of bubbles for their bubble tea quite frequently, especially if you are coming at dinnertime.
Everything else from my previous review still applies. I still like the beef noodle soup despite the different noodle.

Unfortunately, I think I expected a little too much from this place after hearing all the hype about it.
This restaurant is located in the center CSU, which means the parking situation sucks big time. Luckily, we found some street parking on 21^st street!
My first impression of this place was that it looked like your typical Americanized Chinese restaurant with buffet style trays at the front. And I guess China Sea is sorta like this, but it’s also got some «traditional» Taiwanese food. I ordered the beef noodle soup, which is a classic traditional Chinese dish that rarely disappoints. Well, China Sea’s version of it was just really disappointing. They put snowpeas in it and the noodles were curly! What is this? Also, the flavor was too freaking light. I literally put a bowl-​full of hot sauce to make it taste somewhat bearable. Don’t get this dish! Save your stomach for something yummier.
This is probably the only Chinese restaurant in the Cleveland area that sells Ten Ren tea. If you’ve been to LA/​SF/​NY/​Asia, then you know how yummy Ten Ren is! China Sea has a limited option of tea flavors, and they don’t quite make it the way Ten Ren café does :/​buuuut it’ll do for now! The tea is probably the only thing I’ll come back for in the future!

I guess I was not too surprised by the bubble tea quality after I stepped in the store and after tasting the bubble tea, I was not too surprised by their food quality either.
bubble tea: many people seemed to have good things to say about their drinks but my opinion is: it is way too watered down. I could not taste any milk in it and a third of the drink was filled with ice. it was like drinking sweetened beverage rather than thick, milky bubble tea. the flavored teas were a little worse — I thought it was just smoothie but no they literally just added some condensed fruit juice or powder into their already bland milk tea. the bubble consistency was very good tho, good job. but man this bubble tea is way off.
food: we ordered minced pork over rice, hot and spicy two flavored beef, and salted fish with chicken and tofu hot pot. I have to say the pork over rice was probably the best among all. it is cheap, only $ 7. although it tasted a little different from what its suppose to be like, and Taiwanese people don’t really put bean sprouts and snow peas and fried egg on top of this dish, but I’m in general happy with this one. one comment about their rice: it was so hard. it is obvious that they used left over rice and didn’t heat it up properly. sigh.
the hot and spicy beef was way off again — the cut was too thick and the meat had a weird after taste. not sure if they didn’t make it spicy enough to cover it or if the meat was not fresh.
the hotpot dish was ok, but it really didn’t wow me at all.
parking: street parking is hard to find. you may get some luck with lot parking behind the restaurant. you will have to pay tho.

Took a trip out to China Sea after hearing about it from a few friends and seeing all the Asians rave about it. I’m not the biggest fan of boba tea, tapioca balls in ice/​milk tea, a fad that I experienced years ago. But, if that’s your sort of thing, then by all means do you boo boo.
My boy PW and I decided we had to order something from their specialty menu. I was really eyeing the Taiwanese beef noodle soup, but the picture I saw on a Unilocal didn’t really look appetizing, so we both ended up ordering the minced pork over rice which comes with a fried egg. My friend ordered the Szechuan green beans and spicy beef.
The minced pork was good, thought the cook could use more practice on the fried egg, but no big deal. Enjoyed the green beans and the spicy beef was served cold, which is a little different, but not bad. PW and I did order the tea and his had balls in them. Unilocaler Rachael N. mentioned the tea is an high-​end Chinese brand, so I’ll take her word for it and enjoy it.
I’ll recommend this place for those looking for a decent take out spot or craving some traditional Taiwanese dishes or Asian tea drinks. It’s definitely a plus for CSU students. I’ll have to come back and try the beef noodle soup.

This restaurant is just what the CSU area needed! While I was a frequent visitor at the former China Sea on Playhouse square, this location has refined and improved for what is needed in the on-​campus area: quick, affordable, and good food.
I visited here for a quick lunch to-​go today, and I was immediately impressed by the service. The owner was extremely welcoming, and willing to explain all of the options which they offered. The dining room was small and cozy, as I expected for the location. I kept it simple and ordered Taiwanese Beef Noodle Soup with a Spring Roll and a Hot Black Milk Tea. My order was ready in 10 minutes, and my friend even decided to sample their «buffet» option (priced by the ounce) once he saw how fresh everything was. The price point is right– especially for the generous amount you are given. I was pleasantly surprised at the tenderness of the beef in my soup, and the noodles which weren’t overcooked, as you often find at take out Chinese restaurants. The tea wasn’t spectacular, but it was really reasonably priced (I think $ 2 for a small) and I’m eager to try other flavors The owner was eager to recommend other things, and even gave me a packet of his favorite hot tea to try.
I have to say I’m really glad to have something other than pizza and burgers to eat around CSU, and I’m even more glad to not have to deal with the terribly unpleasant service at CSU eateries. I’m definitely looking forward to returning for more!

Hip hip hooray! China Sea is back! (Used to occupy the location where Sung’s House was).
After seeing the reviews of this place, I had to go try it. Good Taiwanese food? Why, oh yes, I must go.
Walked into this tiny restaurant off of CSU campus– luckily finding parking by the door. Sat down and looked over the menu… and decided to go with the Taiwanese dishes. I’m not sure how they cook Chinese food, but hey, the Taiwanese food was quite good. We ordered the Jade Tofu with fish, as well as the beef noodle soup.
The soup was good– not too sweet and the beef was tender and flavorful. (thumbs up!). The Jade tofu came out piping hot, and the fish were cooked quite well. (thumbs up). Service was fast– and while we waited, we played some card games behind us. Some of them looked kind of hard… so we opted for Uno. haha.
What made me really happy was that China Sea serves TenRen tea! YESSSSS! I heart TenRen tea. I walked in and was utterly surprised. Whatttt! Oh, that’s good, i thought. So, of course, I had to order some bubble tea. Got the kumquat lemon green milk tea, with some boba. Mmmmm. I was so happy the tea wasn’t a mix of powder, sugar and something else– but that it was actually TEA. The boba was a bit too soft to my liking, but hey, it was pretty good and probably the best bubble tea I’ve had in Cleveland.
Would definitely go back to try some of the other dishes. I felt very at home at this restaurant too– definitely felt like… homey with some hot homecooked food coming out for dinner. :) Will definitely stop here again!

Small hole in the wall restaurant. Saw this place when I was driving down Euclid. Read a review that mentioned Taiwanese food and I knew I had to stop by. Definitely a take out restaurant that is designed to cater to the CSU community. Parking is a pain.
The cook is Taiwanese, but can understand Cantonese. His son? who runs the front can speak mandarin. The menu is in both Chinese and English.
We tried the Taiwanese beef noodle, Taiwanese minced pork and rice, hot pot tofu with salty fish and chicken. The noodles were good, but definitely not the traditional noodles you would expect. The beef was tender, but the broth was not too impressive. The minced pork was good, but could do without so much corn starch. I prefer the traditional boiled tea egg vs the pan fried egg that came with the dish. The hot pot tofu dish was tasty. The tofu was firm and the salty fish was surprisingly not overwhelming. Ended the meal with a hot milk bubble tea. The tea was good (made from real tea leaves — option of black vs green tea), but the boba was not as soft as I would have liked. Pricey for the portions, but a must try. Not too often can you get Taiwanese food in Cleveland. Will prob come back to try other dishes on the menu!

You have got to try the bubble tea! This place is literally the only place I’ve been to where the bubble tea is not just a concoction of sugar and milk. I’ve never realized that bubble tea would taste like tea! Another great thing is that they don’t load up the drinks with ice! I hate that because it makes me disappointed in the quality of the restaurant.
The owners are also super nice and I’ll be definitely back for more!

Big fan of the restaurant. Very authentic Chinese food!
Strongly recommend: Sautéed deep fried Jade Toku & Fish! Hot & Spicy beef! Sautéed pork and squid with turnip! And also the bubbbbbble tea! !Just amazing!!!
The tea there is also great!
Another big pro: really large volume! Big plates! But fair prices! I went there several times. Every time I left with boxes: D
Forgot to say, it has board role-​playing games! Nice place to hang out!