Ba-Dar

Ba-​Dar is a safe bet for Chinese food in Tucson. Our family usually uses their take out services however once in a while we dine in and everything is yummy. I ask for chicken with black bean sauce and it’s amazing. Try something outside the traditional and you will enjoy as well.
I have been dining at Ba-​Dar for over 15 years.
Tucson has one other great Chinese restaurant however it is across town — Dragons View off I-​10 and Broadway.

I always enjoy coming here. The portions are large and the food is amazing. We split some soups, spring rolls, crab rangoons, and two entrees between three people and still have leftovers. Highly recommend the Mongolian Combination and the General Tso’s Chicken.

The wonderful aromas pulled us inside. We enjoyed authentic, delicious dishes served by very polite waitstaff. Veggie dumplings were hardy and earthy. Green beans were not as spicy as I expected but tasty. We ordered shrimp and vegetables with extra ginger– YUM! They greeted us with fried wontons when we sat down and presented us with fortune and almond cookies with the check. Also the décor was very attractive and festive. I will return to try other specialties.

This is our all time favorite Chinese food restaurant! I highly suggest ordering the «Dinner Special», which makes it a multi-​course meal. It starts with your choice of soups (their Hot & Sour soup is the best I’ve ever had), next comes the steaming hot egg roll and crab rangoons with sweet & sour sauce, the main entrée is next (my favorite is the Sesame Beef) and the finish (dessert) is almond cookies and a fortune cookie. Sooo yummy!

My absolute favorite Chinese food restaurant in Tucson! Their soups are outstanding and their beef Lo Mein is really good! We have been going here for years and we have never been disappointed.

Staying and the Hilton and got a Chinese craving. This place is spot on! Delivery was piping hot, and so incredible! Highly recommend their Mongolian beef and their bbq pork fried rice!

I am a Cantonese, moved to Tucson for 10 years. I can say I finally find a real Chinese restaurant! The taste is lighter then most of the American-​Chinese restaurant but more authentic. They have a lots of dishes I miss and can’t see. I think their chef ia from Taiwan. The only thing is the beef chow feng was too light and the beef cut too small. Will try other dish and hope to give 5 stars next time.

Don’t be fooled by the unprepossessing, almost trite appearance of this small, out-​of-​the-​way Chinese eatery. The menu – actually two, one more authentic– is extensive and the food sings to your palate and to your stomach. The hot and sour soup was some of the best we’ve ever had. The Chandou duck and the eggplant with green onions were delicious. This is a local gem of which Tucson can be very proud.

This is one of my all-​time favorite Chinese food restaurants. The food is so consistently good. Everything is fresh has great flavor and it is a nice friendly environment. If you eat before 5:30pm you can get the early bird special which saves you a couple dollars, without sacrificing a good meal. I highly recommend this restaurant. They also have really good lunch that is large portions for a reasonable amount. You will not be disappointed!

I came here for Valentines Day. I’ve been eyeing it up for a while. I saw their reviews here on Unilocal and ended up going in for the hot and sour soup. It came in 3 different sized. For me the medium was perfect. I ordered beef and 3 mushrooms. It had a really nice gravy with a side of rice. The beef was super moist and tender! I added just a bit of salt.
My fiancé ordered orange crispy beef. It was super crispy and the beef was still soft and not over cooked. The sauce was caramelized perfectly and came on some of those crispy rice straws.
Their prices for most dishes were like $ 10 — $ 12 plus drinks. It was worth the money. I feel like the food is elevated compared to other sit down places. The breading on the beef was in good proportions. And their tea (cause I have to rate the tea on most of my reviews) was very nice. Not as strong as some places but not watery! Which is wonderful. The tea flavors were an awesome option too.
The service was quick and everything was hot. It smelled great and they had these pretty fish tanks too.
Everything was great and they gave us heart chocolates and cookies along with fortune cookies. So no dessert required. I ended up bring food home.
I will come back again! Very good! Next time I’m going for the cashew chicken or orange chicken!

Not great flavors or sauces, but ok for AZ. Lacking authenticity, bathrooms were gross. Service was good.

So, I’ve been told by several Tucsonians that there isn’t decent Chinese or Thai food here. Well, after stopping off at Ba-​Dar, I think I’m in position now to disagree. :p
The restaurant is in a convenient location and easy to get in and out. As you walk in you are immediately greeted by staff. I got to go and everything was packaged up perfectly. I got a sampling including the crab wontons, egg drop soup and house special (combo) chow fun. If you order a certain dollar amount, they throw in a free item. So, since I spent $ 15 I got 2 veggie egg rolls. Their egg rolls are really spring rolls, with a crispy thin wonton outer shell. The egg drop soup was super good. The small size was perfect as an appetizer. The crab wontons were mostly cream cheese with a smidgin’ of crab. The chow fun was full of variety with lots of huge shrimp. The dipping sauce for the egg rolls had a unique flavor that I still can’t nail. I also tried the boba tea… the winter melon served hot was different.
This will definitely be a repeat place!
*NOTE…they are closed on Mondays!*

I would give this place 5 stars, but because of the stingieness with their delicious red chilie oil I will not. I have been doing take out for years here and she refuses to give us extra chilie oil even if I offer to pay for it… WTF… probably not going back as much.. so sad.

Great REAL Chinese food. Although they do have your normal non Chinese Orange chicken, and General Tso’s stuff, they also have the real stuff like Candied egg plant, Beef with black bean sauce and other great authentic Chinese food. The hot and sour soup is dark and flavorful not like the watered down stuff you find at most places. The establishment itself is pretty low key but the service we got was great.
We will definitely be going back again.

Apparently, this place has been around for 24 years. Apart from Mandarin Grill on Grant, which is much more centrally located, what other Chinese restaurant in town has that kind of venerability? None. There’s good reason that this place has been around so long: they’re really, really good.
The difference for me between good chinese and really good chinese is in the details. The beef and broccoli here is in a standard brown sauce that most places can somewhat replicate, but the beef is cooked properly and there is LOTS of garlic included throughout. They bring wantons to your table, and the sweet and sour sauce is warmed, not cold. The hot and sour soup comes pre-​seasoned and does not require adding more soy sauce to it. These little things make a big difference for me.
Speaking of HSS, if you look back through my older reviews, you can see that I know a thing or two about this soup. I’m a connoisseur. Theirs is some of the best I’ve had in a long time. It can be a little thick at times, but not unacceptably so. The beef and broccoli I had was very good. The orange chicken was fantastic. It was very crispy, but not all breading. The orange sauce had orange zest in it so it was very flavorful. Much better than Panda for all the naysayers! At the end of your meal, there is a fortune cookie and an almond cookie for each person. Old school quality.
The service was really friendly. One of the times, I advised the waitress (Née, I believe her name was) that I was on a work lunch break, and she accommodated me very nicely, making sure everything was fast and predicting what I would need next. I greatly appreciate that kind of dedication to customer service.
The price is very reasonable for sit down Chinese. They have dinner specials and lunch specials within certain hours that include a full size dish with bbq fried rice, soup, and fried wontons (not crab puffs, wontons). I wish I lived closer or this would absolutely be my go-​to delivery place. It is very close to my work, however, so I think I will be returning often. I think this may well be a new favorite for me.

I was craving some Chinese food and decided this place was worth checking out. I ordered my food over the phone and they told me it would be ready in 25mins. I ordered shrimp fried rice, pepper steak, 2 vegetable egg rolls, and fried pork dumplings.
The lady actual called me to inform me my food was ready. I was already in the parking lot getting ready to go in the restaurant. They were nice and even offered to help carry the food because I was holding my son. I declined and had him walk.
The shrimp fried rice and pork dumplings were good. The pepper steak was just okay. I didn’t even eat the egg roll, I was too full. I don’t know how their actual customer service is because I got take out. I would visit this place again.

My experience at Ba-​Dar was an interesting one. I showed up on a Sunday night after waiting to pick up my food for 20 minutes. When I get there the food is not ready but instead of telling me this I stand behind a guy that is holding up the take-​out guy for about 5 minutes. This customer is just talking away. The take-​out guy can see me but still continues to keep his conversation with this customer about non-​sense (football, music, places they’ve lived). By the time the guy moves out of the way some regular comes in and the take-​out guy acknowledges him and not me, the guy that has been patiently waiting the past ten minutes. By the time I get his attention he tells me my food isn’t ready. I sit down and wait another 10 minutes for them to bring the food. It comes out and it’s bagged up. Maybe it’s my fault for trusting or just the way they packaged it but I didn’t look in the bag nor did the person offer to show me what I was getting to at least inventory it. I take the food home and guess what the chow mien isn’t in the bag. It’s some gross looking chicken soupish looking meal. I call back and they apologize for the mix up they did offer to give me a refund or come get the correct chow mein. I elect to come get it. I get there and guess what I wait again. This time they did add in some crab ragoons for the trouble. This was very nice and I do appreciate the consideration from the manager which was a nice older woman.
In their defense the food was good besides the chow mein they had forgotten. Maybe I have a misconception but my chow mein should look like Panda Express right wrong or indifferent that’s the world we live in just like orange chicken. The chow mein was some soup thing with crunchy fried noodles very strange but not good. Other than the horrible service the food was decent for a Chinese place but I probably will look for another Chinese place.

I highly recommend this restaurant to anyone. They have terrific food and even better food that’s not on the menu. The service is great and they really try to get to know their patrons. This is the place to be adventurous. The stinky Tofu is one of my favorites but there are many other dishes I really like such as: Westlake Duck, Tofu Sheets, Portuguese Sausage, etc. If you’ve never eaten here, ask and seriously consider suggestions from the staff.

Thank you owners…
If it wasn’t for you, I would of never felt satisfied in Tucson. I love the people who work here, they are extremely friendly and helpful.
Food is really good. I’ve only found peppered beef done this way at one other Chinese place ever, and sadly that place lost their lease. But this place has it perfectly. I could eat it everyday.
I like their deal, add $ 3.50 for a few apps and a cup of soup. Much better deal instead of trying to find a family meal with items we actually like. My hubs wasn’t as in love as I was, he says it’s good and will be fine going again.
And they have sangria!

Eating in, Ba Dar was perfectly acceptable, even above average American Chinese food. Delivery? Not so much…
The word that comes to mind is «blegh», actually. Textures all off, incredibly salty, and lukewarm. Crispy salt and pepper tofu that definitely wasn’t crispy and didn’t have any flavor beyond salt. Bottom of the ocean salt. The delivery wasn’t super long or off from their estimate, either.
Green beans made slimy and the addition of bean curd only serving to provide tasteless protein strips in between green slugs of vegetable.
I’m still looking for you, good AZ Chinese takeout. Somewhere, out there, beneath the pale moonlight.