Peking Palace of Tucson

The food here was really good! Not at all what we expected. We ordered take-​out of Sesame Chicken, which was light and full of flavor (we have had some heavy, very greasy versions of this dish in the past, and this was such a nice difference), and Kung Po Chicken which was not what we expected based on the kind we have eating back East but was totally delicious. Such a nice surprise for this non-​local couple passing through. If we’re back in this area, we’ll definitely come back to try more!

The buffet is small but because of this everything is pretty fresh. I love the deep-​fried chicken cooked in bacon fat!
My only complaint is that if you don’t get there early they don’t always keep up with replenishing the pans. But, I don’t think $ 7.25 is a price to complain about.
The servers have been there a long time and just could not be nicer.

Staff is friendly, lunch buffet wasent anything to special. Most likely won’t be coming back

Been coming here since I was a kid. Love that Gina (the owner) knows my name and even my orders! Great food and great family running this place. I always enjoy their egg rolls and sesame chicken!

Time for an annual update. This is still the best and friendliest Chinese restaurant in Tucson. I just had their Peking duck. Very nice! As always I am not reviewing their buffet. I don’t bother with buffets. Buffets are stoopid.

This is my go-​to take out spot for Chinese food. The food is consistently good, and the service is great.

Peking Palace has a great Lunch buffet! Their Egg Drop Soup is the best I have ever had! Good prices, clean, very friendly. Service is excellent. Will definitely return

Kung pao chicken with jasmine rice and moo goo gai pan with rice were both tasty meals at our first lunchtime stop here, along with a pot of hot tea. Plenty of food to also bring home for lunch the next day! Quick courteous service, thanks.

Peking Palace is just a staple for us. I try to dine in or have takeout once a week. I think everything I have tried has been great. The service is great I just love this restaurant its amazing.

been coming to this place for 14 yrs now. love the food and the owners are super friendly! best chinese restaurant in town!!!

Nice clean place. The ladies servers are great. Food is hot and fresh. Our place to go when we want chinese food.

There are a few items on their Chinese menu that is decently prepared. Everything else is pretty average. I tried the buffet a couple of times and they were out or very low in the trays each time. Service is excellent. I despise the tiny water glasses that they use, similar size to what you get at fast food restaurant. Prepare to ask for refills 4 or 5 times since the food is on the saltier side.

Hot and sour soup is way good. Service is great., waitress made sure we had our drinks topped off and that we were okay, she also had a sense of humor. Huge plus! The spring rolls were also very good. Will be going back for sure

This is so freaking good. The food was fresh and served fast. The servers were really nice and helpful. I really enjoyed my meal. I would come back for sure.

This place doesn’t even deserve the one star given. The orange chicken tasted like melted garbage on top of balls of chicken. The sesame chicken was way too sweet. And I don’t know how a place can mess up steamed rice, but this place managed to do so. Although the ladies up front were very friendly, their food was garbage.

Standard Chinese food very nice staff. Nothing really stood out as exceptional. Egg rolls were packed with cabbage too much cabbage. The hot sour soup was tasty.

Food was fast and delicous! Service was so friendly! Price was perfect! This will be our new chinese place for tucson.

This is my favorite Chinese restaurant in Tucson. Very friendly and very accommodating, and fast, too. I never bother with buffets, but order from the menu, but better yet ask them if they have anything new and good and unusual that’s not on the menu!

Place does deserve a re-​do in remodeling but, service is AMAZING, food is FANTASTIC, and everyone is friendly. Go eat at this place! They are well worth it!

Thank you!
I have finally found decent Chinese, not amazing, but the best I’ve found so far.
Potstickers were okay, generic, nothing special
Egg drop soup was prob the best I’ve ever had, I always put soy sauce in it where ever I order it from… But theirs was extremely flavorful.
Chowmein, (but they call it Lo mein) was good, I was satisfied, just a lot of bean sprouts.
Egg rolls were good
Mongolian beef was very good and had good spicy
Fried rice was good
I will go back for sure.

I went in for lunch at 11:30. This review is for the buffet. This is right next to Smashburger, but I decided to have Chinese over another burger. I knew that Smashburger was going to set me back anywhere from $ 8.50 to $ 12.50 and I didn’t want to do that. I decided on the $ 7.85 AYCE buffet.
This is a family owned and run business. The hostess, Gina, told me they’ve been there for 25 years. The restaurant was clean and seems to have enough seating with both tables and booths.
The buffet is a modest one, but that wasn’t a problem. Just know that you are not going to get a super bar like at some places. It was adequate and certainly had enough items to satisfy.
I had the broken rice noodles instead of the usual chow mein. Other items on my plate were the Kung Pao chicken, beef and vegetables, orange chicken, pork egg roll, pot stickers, deep fried mushrooms, fried rice, hot and sour soup, cream cheese puffs, and lemon cream roll cake.
Everything was good. The breading for the mushrooms were really, really salty. Kung pao chicken was not spicy enough. The vegetables with the beef was bell pepper, onion, and tomato wedges. The tomato was rather interesting. The orange chicken wasn’t overly breaded, nor was it overly orange-​colored. The egg roll was decent as were the pot stickers. The hot and sour soup didn’t have mushrooms in it like our recipe, but it was good. The cream cheese puffs were actually pretty good.
So what are you going to do? Go to Panda Express and pay around the same amount for a two item plate, or go here?
This wasn’t knock-​out Chinese food, but it was good and it was their buffet quality. Would I recommend it? Yes, for sure for lunch and I would go back, hence the four stars. I would be curious to try a regular dinner meal here.
You have to respect a place that’s been in the family and been in business for 25 years. Wow!

Food is fresh. Staff is nice. That’s about as good as it got for me and our family. Ordered egg rolls-​90% cabbage, no flavor. Ordered Kung Pau chicken-​no flavor or spice.
Ordered Beef with snow peas, actually had good flavor with strong ginger undertones.
Go back? Sadly, no.

There’s a pigeon nest on top of their sign right above the doorway. You can see on the floor below a bunch of piles of bird excrement and egg shells. That image is highly reminiscent of my meal at Peking Palace. I bet that if someone cooked those pigeons for me, it would have been a much tastier meal. I love squab.
THE GIST: Friendly service /​Kung Pao Chicken tastes like a bad frat party experience
FOOD HIGHLIGHTS
Let me make this clear: I do not hate Americanized Chinese food. Sometimes I crave orange chicken. Cream-​filled wontons are great. Fortune cookies are really fun. That being said, bad Americanized Chinese food is awful. What we had:
Peking Duck: Meat was dry, skin was soggy. Avoid.
Beef Chow Fun: The only edible dish of the night, the beef it came with was nice and tender and the noodles were cooked decently, but it wasn’t at all amazing.
Kung Pao Chicken: Did you get the hint above? I won’t directly say what it tasted like. Let’s just say I learned not to mix Southern Comfort with tequila years ago. I couldn’t take more than one bite, and I am not a picky eater.
CONCLUSION
There are reviews by the entrance complaining that there are no good «Chinese» restaurants in Tucson. I beg to differ. I can think of three places easily and I’ve lived in Tucson for less than a month: Panda Express for Americanized food, Szechwan Palace for a mix of spicy Szechuan style and some American dishes, and Jun Dynasty for a more authentic menu.
As for Peking Palace, I appreciate the friendly service, but I really can’t recommend this to anyone.

The best part of this restaurant, besides the quality of the food, are the super friendly owners. They’re always accommodating to my random requests such as easy on the sauce or no oil. I’ve heard them say to people coming in for pick-​up, «Say hi to your _​_​_​_​_​for me.» This goes to show that not only does this place have regulars, but they’re known on a personal level too.
I’m a fan of their specialty dishes. There’s a nice selection of meat and vegetarian specialties if you’re looking to jazz up your usual order or try something new.
Rich’s recommendation: solid menu and great execution. Order anything.

Tried the war wonton soup. Pretty good. First time trying shrimp a la Peking. Didn’t really do it for me. But the salt and pepper squid is still great

Customer Service is great! Everyone was really friendly and service was prompt.
However, the food from the buffet wasn’t anything out of the ordinary. Some were bland and others just didn’t look appetizing.