China Pavilion in Santa Barbara

Really great food! Typically go for the dim sum on the weekends because its really fun and all the dishes are amazing. Get take out during the week, sometimes, and is always good. The buns are great, the Duck is amazing, and the whole steamed fish is wonderful! Also, love the Mongolian beef, Taiwanese minced pork over rice, the pork and egg porridge. So many good options, havent found anything we havent loved.

Delicious dim sum and dumplings. Judging by the looks of the wine display, they must have an excellent wine list. As if to show off and impress their clientele, a opulent display of exquisite bottles of cognac, sake, tequila, etc. beckons the eye. The stocked bar is a reason to have happy hour drinks. Order the plates first and then the waitstaff brings each dish and checks off each item till you are stuffed. Plenty of diners. an inviting interior, and freshly cooked dishes makes this a place to revisit.

This restaurant is spacious, but I recommend calling to make a reservation. Good Chinese food is rare in SB, so its nice this place is downtown. The food quality here is mixed. We ordered a wanton soup, basil beef, mixed vegetables delight and salt & pepper pork rib. The wanton soup, which arrived first was amazing. We were excited for the other dishes. The mixed vegetable delight was just ok. It was a bit too wet and greasy. The basil beef was delicious. The salt & pepper pork rib was nothing like what we expected, so we should have asked first. It was deep, deep fried bits of pork rib and tasted more like chicken nuggets, which was disappointing. Service was quick and friendly though. Pricing was fair as all plates are designed to be shared by two or three people. I wouldnt write off this place, but were not sure wed go back.

Excellent experience. They are short staffed recently so we waited for about 40 minutes, which was kind of too long. But it turns out that the food and service were worth the waiting time! Certainly will come back again. My partner really like their seafood porridge and I like the sweet potato cake best.

Their Tung Po Pork is my favorite. Other dishes were really good too. If you go as a large group, Id recommend including dongporou, sanbeiji, mapo tofu, and veggies with basil.

Excellent authentic Chinese food, coming from someone who lived in China for 5 years. Try the Shanghai Rice Dumpling, Mapo Tofu (if you like spice), Ants in a Tree, Xiaolong bag (soup dumplings/stuffed buns, Three Cup Chicken, and the black pepper beef.

Went for lunch and ordered the Szechuan Style Beef Noodle Soup. The broth was rich and savory and just the right amount of spicy. The dish reminded me of oxtail soup. The staff was friendly and attentive throughout the meal.

The food was good but the service was horrible! This has happened to us twice unfortunately so it’s becoming a pattern. We were a party of 5 and waited 40 minutes to be seated while parties both larger and smaller were seated before us (none of them with reservations). Once we were seated and had placed our order, the food took forever with the first dish coming out over an hour after we ordered. Once we had finished, we waited for 20 minutes for someone to bring the check and ended up having to ask a server for it and then had to do the same thing for someone to pick up the check after another 20 minutes. Over the course of the 2 and a half hours that we were there, the staff never checked on us. We watched tables order, get their food, pay, and leave in the time that it took for our food to come. The food was good but not worth the horrible service.

My wife and I got China pavilion to go and it was absolutely fantastic!We now have found our new Chinese restaurant for pickup! We cannot wait to go back!Im not going to go on and on about different dishes, but I will say,,, You must eat here!

We live 2 blocks from the restaurant so we are regulars here. Very good quality/price ratio and excellent service!