Tsing Tao Chinese Food Supreme

Having grown up in the San Francisco area I have a high standard for Chinese food so am always on the lookout for local quick eats that are at least somewhat authentic and not over-​hyped. Living only a mile away I’ve given this place a shot twice (2013 & 2015) for dinner and both times have come away with a feeling of, ‘It was ok’, but nothing more.
I’ve have tried the pan-​fried noodle dishes, soups and several other plates all of which taste just fine, but are somewhat lacking in flavor and spice. The sauces are a bit bland, and sometimes the veggies are soggy because they are so heavily soaked in sauce.
Overall, if you want some quick Chinese food in South Boulder, this place is fine, but I’d search around for something better. Or just avoid Chinese all together (Colorado doesn’t have many good places) and go for Nepalese or Thai, which seem to be better locally.
Edited: I have heard they recently changed management, so have not had a chance to try it out in the past 8months.

Ordered take out fir the first time the other day and I have to admit I was worried as I am a bit of an Asian food snob.
I was pleasantly surprised how good this food was. The Lo Fun in particular was excellent. I will definitely call again.

Very happy with their food
The service was awesome
Friendly helpful
Vegan and vegetarian options available and very very tasty
I love this place

Awesome spot, with tons of delicious choices. My gf and I enjoy eating vegan when we go out and this place has an amazing selection of options, as well as plenty more for the omnivores of the world. Everything is super delicious, and I dare you guys to try the soy meat options, you might not know the difference and never go back! Super friendly staff as well, whenever I go for carryout they are welcoming and the order is always ready, even when the restaurant is fairly busy. All in all, great food, selection, price, employees, everything. Looking forward to going back here time and time again when the Chinese Food Addiction has my body shaking and needing to go back for more. Eggrolls forever.

Unimaginative, low quality Chinese food. The people are super nice; maybe they should work at the Post Office instead and change the customer service paradigm there. But great food is not the forte here. Pretty sure sweet and sour chicken was out of a box from Costco. Same with wonton soup: purely wontons in chicken broth. Could I beg for a pea or carrot in the fried rice? A green onion in the Pad Thai? Unacceptable for Boulder’s foodie tastes
The interior is dated and needs a major renovation.
The people are just darn nice people though, so I can’t fully skewer the place.

Almost go there once a week, and bring friends there, both of them like the food there, I like it too! deserve to have a try!

2.5 stars, rounded down. i had high expectations, was prepared for mediocrity, and found less than that.
i’m not a fan of sweet and heavy sauces. i think that’s one of the big issues with food in America — saucy condiments are used to make low-​quality food taste good. so i was expecting a lot more from this place considering the high reviews and reasonable pictures, but the phrase «syrup-​covered bland» pretty much sums up my meal.
i phoned in my order for the egg rolls and sesame beef. i got everything 12 minutes later. the person helping me was friendly, fast and efficient — props to you, bro !
egg rolls were boring and predictable. i’m sure i could get some pre-​made frozen from Walmart which would be similarly bland. they were accompanied by a sweet dipping sauce, more than enough for 8 – 10 rolls, i had two. i was looking forward to the mustard. i did finish both of them.
enter the headlining act of the evening — sesame beef. i didn’t really understand the texture of the meat as it was uncannily soft, like it was high quality, but i knew that it wasn’t. every single piece was the same with almost no variation. flavor-​wise i’m not sure if i ever tasted the actual beef since the sauce was so plentiful and overpowering. i ended up patting the beef in the rice trying to remove some of the sauce.
the sauce was disappointing because it didn’t even have any nuance — i would best describe it as Aunt Jemima syrup, minus the maple flavoring. so essentially colored corn syrup. the only «sesame» in my food experience was from the smattering of seeds sprinkled on top. i ended up throwing about ¹⁄₃ away.
the steamed rice which came with the meal was actually cooked fairly well. more of that please !
overall i was really disappointed because of the higher ratings. unfortunately there seems to be a dearth of any decent Chinese in Boulder (save Flower Pepper), and that’s unfortunate because there’s much more to the cuisine beyond the Americanized version of Chinese food.
sadly, this evening Tsing Tao didn’t deliver. (get it, deliver ?!) :D
(BTW, if you’re ever in San Francisco, visit the Wok Shop Café and order at least one plate of the Sesame Beef… for each person in your party ! you can thank me later. be sure to tell Nancy i sent you.)

Vegan dinner buffet on Thursdays is incredible. Tons of dishes to choose from, also have hot n sour soup and vegan egg drop soup that is delicious.
Some of the best vegan and vegetarian dishes I have ever had, love this place!

A typical American Chinese restaurant. I used to go there very often during my stay in Boulder last summer. The food is OK. But unfortunately, I didn’t find authentic Chinese food there.

AMAZING!!! We had sesame chicken and beef chow fun. Both dishes were awesome. I would eat here everyday if I didn’t live in Texas.

Vegan buffet on Thursdays is amazing. You simply must go!

We came here for dinner and had two dishes, one was very good and the other very ordinary. The Szechwan chicken was delicious. Lot’s of chicken with vegetables in a spice sauce. The orange chicken was doughy, without a lot of flavor.
Service was attentive. Prices were fair.

we had dinner there last night.
we have eaten here numerous times. I think it is under new ownership.
we had pork garlic, combo fried rice, and garlic vegetables. all were excellent.
very fresh and full of flavor. In Boulder, if you want very good Chinese food, this is the place to go !

Absolutely bizarre that Unilocalers are praising the buffet. It was execrable. It featured cocktail shrimp that had not been properly deveined and were thus inedible and the limpest, greasiest lo mein I’ve encountered. There was also a greasy potato dish of some sort. I realize that buffets may not be good quality indicators, but I am very hesitant to return. This is sad, because this restaurant would otherwise be a good, walkable neighborhood option for us.

I love the lunch buffet here. Jalapeño chicken is so yummy. We also like to come here for dinner. The staff is always so friendly and inviting. I live in the neighborhood, and walk here to eat regularly. The few bad reviews must be from people that had one bad experience, and never gave them another chance… Their ingredients are always fresh and I’ve never had a bad experience.

The only place I go to for chinesse food in Boulder for the last 5 years. Is so delicious! And their buffets are amazing :)

This places is really epic. The owners are really friendly, the service is great, and the food is even better. The chicken tastes wonderful, and I am not a huge fan of chicken from Chinese restaurants.
My wife and I originally came to this place because we read that it had a buffet, which is what we are used to from our hometown in West Virginia. This place did not let us down at all. Even when we show up near the end of the buffet (only opened until 3) they asked us what we would like to have and made it fresh for us. I would highly recommend coming here if you are in the mood for some nice Chinese food.

Super meh. Never going back. Worst Chinese food I’ve ever had. Possibly one of the worst dining experiences I’ve ever had. I actually can’t believe that it has four stars nor that people are saying this is the best Chinese food in Boulder.
The entrees:
We ordered the vegan orange chicken, and while the sauce was good, the vegan chicken inside was tasteless and super insanely dry. I’ve had vegan orange chicken before, and this was just not up to par. I figure all the other vegan options will be just as dry.
The chow mein was not chow mein. She gave us those wontons often used as soup garnish, then a separate plate of vegetables in a sauce. Typically, chow mein consists of crispy pan-​fried noodles with vegetables and sauce over it. These were not even noodles! Why is this under the noodle section? When we informed our server that the chow mein was not chow mein as expected, she proceeded to attempt to inform us of the different type of noodle options that exist, and it was totally incorrect! I’ve had chow mein before. She tried telling me I was confusing it a rice noodle dish. No, no, no.
Both of these came with rice, so we decided to order fried rice. It was not fried rice at all! Just because you fry it doesn’t mean it’s fried rice. It was rice with soy sauce on it. No vegetables. Not even any egg.
The starters:
The veggie egg rolls weren’t good. All cabbage, no taste.
The hot and sour soup wasn’t bad at all, but it was pretty standard.
The only redeeming quality about the dining experience was the crab cream cheese wontons.
Drinks:
My friend had the sake. He said it was just fine.
Service:
Awful. Just awful. We requested some chili sauce. It never came. We requested an addition spoon for the soup. By the time she remembered it, we were finished (sharing the spoon).
When we explained that the chow mein was not what we wanted and expressed very explicitly that we were not going to eat it, she left it on the table for the rest of the meal. How does that make any sense? While she did give us the option of ordering something else, we were so turned off by the food already that we declined. She still charged us for the atrocious «chow mein» that we didn’t even eat, which is unacceptable service.
The cherry on top was this loud banging sound that you could hear throughout the restaurant. My friend thought it was thunder at first. Since there are businesses above the restaurant, we figured it that’s where the sound was coming from. It’s not their fault, but it was pretty distracting.
I rarely leave negative reviews anywhere, but I just could not bring myself to leave a two-​star review. If a dining experience is so bad that I will never go back, a one-​star review is necessary.
I will give China Gourmet a try next time.

Visited here with my wife and younger son after his University of Colorado Rugby game on Saturday. We came because of it’s being listed as a Chinese buffet — note that the buffet is at lunchtime, and there’s a veg /​vegan buffet on Thursday evenings. Don’t be disappointed by no buffet at dinnertime.
We almost went to the Indian place a few doors down but were glad we didn’t. We each ordered the family special — a bowl of soup, an egg roll, a crab wonton and a fantail shrimp per person, and any of perhaps a dozen select entrees, with choice of rice, for $ 13.95 each.
The entrees were huge and came out steaming hot. Each of the three of us had more than enough to eat and everyone thoroughly enjoyed their selection. There was enough left over that my son took quite a bit of food back to the dorm room for lunch or dinner the next day.
Very reasonable prices and gigantic portions. I found it to be a good deal.

Dinner for three on sunday nite– made reservations. Plenty of parking. Place was largely empty when we arrived at 6.30. First Chinese restaurant visit in Boulder.
Super friendly staff, but food, décor and bathrooms were substandard.
Wonton soup portions small, broth bland and wanton was too much noodle. Brown sauce was overpowering on dishes, and broccoli was undercooked.