Ching Dow Restaurant

I love this place. Especially enjoy the shrimp and lobster sauce. And the crab rangoon are great! I’ve actually never had a meal here that I wasn’t happy with. Owners and staff are very nice.

Great restaurant for the few choices we have here in Ottumwa. Nice variety of foods offered and great waiter service. Many people criticize the windowless environment but we are a small town and they work with what they have.

Food is amazing I’ve traveled everywhere and it has awesome customer service! Everytime I come here I find something new to try.

So I come in to this windowless restaurant (which if you are craving food during a tornado watch might be handy) and it doesn’t look that impressive. I was pretty hungry and exhausted from a long trip and normally I don’t get buffets at these places as there are so many ignorant people who let their kids touch the food. Wasn’t paying attention so told them I’ll take the buffet. This was easily the worst Chinese buffet I’ve ever seen and I’ve traveled all over the U.S.(and China as well). Most of the steam trays were filled with food that looked like it had been there the week before.
I couldn’t find much that was actually edible and we ended up going to another restaurant and getting takeout. Lesson learned not to come here again. Also a little worried the chef at a Chinese place was Mexican, could explain why I have never heard of most of the dishes they offer. Ottumwa deserves better food than this, of course third world countries deserve better food than this.

The place is dark and reminds me of a restaurant in a basement, sometimes its dingy as well. But the food is good. They make their own sauces, which one other place in town does not. But this place has lost its busyness since there competition moved into town.
The prices are reasonable for an all-​you can eat buffet with a soft serve ice cream maker and choice of dessert items from the table.
I don’t frequent here as often as I once did, only because the other Chinese restaurant in town is cleaner, fresher and has better lighting.
Even though this one is closer to my house, we sometimes by-​pass it to go to the new restaurant.