Beijing Star Restaurant

Place is closed, or under renovations… so annoying cause it was a jog to get down there.
DARNIT!

Tuesday, October 19, 2010
Beijing Star in Waltham to Be Replaced by MuLan Restaurant
A Chinese restaurant in Waltham has closed for renovations, and when it reopens, it will have a different name – and one that indicates it may be a completely new dining spot connected to another restaurant in Cambridge.
According to its Twitter page, Beijing Star is currently closed, and the new name on the Twitter page is that of MuLan Restaurant. A post on the Zagat site indicates that the place may have changed hands, so it is possible that the folks behind Beijing Star are no longer involved. Also, there is currently a dining spot called MuLan on 228 Broadway in the Kendall Square section of Cambridge, so it may be that this will be a second location of that restaurant.
Beijing Star was in business for a number of years on Main Street in Waltham, and was known in part for its «pink menu,» which featured traditional Chinese dishes. The restaurant also offered a dim sum menu.

Beijing Star is now closed and will reopen under new management. Boo! Why? Hiss!

exactly 3.0 stars
I’ve only had takeout and predominately ordered form the Chinese menu.
The food is authentic but the quality is below «home-​cooking». That’s the problem, you want something more special from a restaurant. They do have some items that the excel at the Tripe was a standout for example. Another dish I liked was the Tea Smoked Duck. Others like the Chive pie, and Marinated Beef fell well short.
* if this place was in my town I’d order from here 3 or 4 times a month.
* nothing here seems to be completely veggie, you have been warned.
* not marking down for price or service, it’s a Chinese place.

This is a very context only review. Given that this restaurant is in Waltham, MA and not Boston or NYC or SF, it gets 3 stars. Yes, that’s saying a lot.
Ma po tofu. Who put that extra star anise in? Way too oily.
Lamb skewer. Would’ve enjoyed it if it came off the stick.
Noodle soup. Again, oil central.
Then again, the beef roll was decent and so was the Chinese churro (you tiao). Then again, Chinese churros are supposed to be oily, and yet that was the one thing that wasn’t enough. Oh well.
Go because you need to have Northern Chinese-​ish food in Waltham, MA. Last meal on earth? Nah.

This is my favorite Chinese restaurant outside of Chinatown. They have 2 menus, one is pretty much the typical items you see on any suburban Chinese menu. The second one has much more authentic dishes.
I tend to be adventurous when it comes to trying new things, so usually I’ll order something off of the authentic menu. The descriptions are often vague and I’m not exactly sure what I’ll be getting, but I’ve NEVER been unhappy with the dish. The flavors are always interesting and delicious.
If you like Americanized Chinese food, you may be happier elsewhere, but if you want something other than beef with brocolli, this place is worth trying.

In reading the last few reviews, I find that i had to write one for justice. I have been to Beijing Star quite a lot in the past few years, and their food is fantastic. But let me first point out that I AM Chinese and I KNOW my Chinese food, not as an American feigning to be Chinese, or an American who is used to ordering from a Cantonese Chinese restaurant, or an American looking for BBQ Spare Ribs or that wonton soup or other so-​called «authentic» Chinese food which we Northern Chinese people do NOT eat. It is like asking for pulled pork sandwich from an oyster bar in Boston and wondering how come it is so far off the mark and then giving it a one star rating for their food. It is your ignorance that you should keep to yourselves.
Beijing Star has authentic, real, great Chinese food. if you want to taste some of that food that you remember tasting as a child or in your earlier days of life in China or Asia, where you know the real Chinese food, you would LOVE Beijing Star, which is why I am going back there again today among all the other choices I have for lunch anywhere in or around Boston! I would also recommend a list of other great Chinese restaurants in and around Boston to you, but I have also found an excellent website in Chinese mostly that lists the best authentic Chinese restaurants in Massachusetts at
. I am not related to this website except as a member of it so that I can reference it whenever I wish to. The author of this website is himself a connoisseur of foods and I have tried almost all of his picks there and I give all of them a resounding high five rating as he rates them also. And I have also found some really interesting and surprising places to eat that are indeed serving fantastic Chinese food as well as other foods from other nations and areas of expertise. But back to Beijing Star, i would recommend all of you who are true Chinese food eaters to go and try it. They are the REAL DEAL!

This place is tailored more towards FOB Chinese folks from the north. I can appreciate that as I am still sort of FOB myself. I have heard so much about the bread and lamb soup so I was looking forward to finally trying it. It was pretty decent but the whole breaking bread process was kind of tiring. I supposed that was part of the fun. A fairly good experience overall.
It’s really a 4 star place but I am given it an extra star just to even out some of the unfair criticism of the place.

We won’t be eating here again.
The steamed dumplings were like dead weights, the densest dough ever and lacked any flavor whatsoever (they were filling, in a bad way). Chicken Fingers ordered for a 2yo were a greasy ucky mess, that were not described properly to us. The main dishes we ordered included fish with tofu and an oily pork with noodles, needed extra flavor, salt, soy sauce… left feeling full and nauseous.

It’s probably the best authentic Chinese food in Waltham. That’s really not saying much, but I’m not a huge fan of Americanized Chinese food.
Our church ordered food from there for an event and everything was tasty. I’ve only been inside the restaurant twice.
1. For the «Taiwanese breakfast.» I don’t know if it’s just cuz we let my one guy friend order or what, but everything was fried and greasy. Sometimes that’s tasty, this was overkill.
2. For dinner on a random weeknight. A busload of kids from China were eating there, so I’m guessing it was authentic enough for them to choose this restaurant. My dinner was good (noodles and some chicken dish), maybe a little oily.
I think I don’t appreciate Beijing Star enough because I don’t speak/​read Chinese. I think they’re the kind of place where the really good stuff is on the Chinese menu.

We’ve ordered delivery from here several times. The Americanized stuff is ok; my BF loves it. I think it’s a bit greasy. However, the steamed dumplings are amazing. Also, the soy braised pork shank with greens over white rice is comfort food of the highest order. Stick to the «pink menu» items and you won’t be disappointed!

I’m pretty baffled by some of the poor reviews of Beijing Star because I love this place! I work in the area and I eat here at least once a week. Their food is great (especially the crab rangoon and sweet and sour chicken) and I find their prices to be reasonable for the amount of food you get.

I had a craving for Chinese food yesterday and I thought I’d try something other than my usual American-​Chinese standby (Asia Wok) so I dropped into Beijing Star. I’ve read a few reviews online and it sounded good.
I admit I didn’t try any of their real Chinese items, but my boneless spare ribs, shrimp fried rice, and vegetarian delight were delish. The boneless spare ribs in particular were really good – fairly lean and not covered in gooey sauce, which I find is a problem at a lot of Chinese places.
My boyfriend loves the fried pork chops at Asia Wok so I’m sure I’ll be back there, but I have to say, I think I may have found a new favorite Chinese take out place. You can also sit down and eat, which is nice. I’m looking forward to trying some other items on their menu.

I ordered in from Beijing Star via Foodler. I was DYING for steamed dumplings, *not* pan-​fried. I noticed that steamed dumplings are hard to come by around here. I was fishing around the site for a place that delivered to me and had steamed dumplings. It was either Beijing Star or Bernard’s and Bernard’s was rather expensive.
The dumplings satisfied my craving quite well. The vegetable chow foon was OK and so was the wonton soup.
I think the food was four stars but they didn’t give me duck sauce or Chinese mustard. I am a fiend for both duck sauce and Chinese mustard. I was looking forward to making a little dipping sauce with a dollop of Chinese mustard in the duck sauce. Plain ol’ soy sauce had to suffice.

Dropped in for a Saturday lunch and ordered the stewed beef noodle and noodles with pickled vegetables. The stewed beef was just OK — not that tasty, the chunks of beef were small and tough (IMHO, not cooked long enough to make it tender). The noodles with pickled vegetable was better. Doubt if we would ever come back.

I usually come to this place with coworkers during lunch and the food is okay but nothing special. We always get the lunch specials which are very americanized so perhaps thats why I don’t think there’s anything stellar about the place. If you do try this place for lunch, the da-​lu noodles are pretty good and the portion is HUGE! Overall, the food is decent and at reasonable prices and they’ve got parking in the back.

Went here for lunch yesterday for a quick bit with an old colleague and let me tell you, if you’re not chinese then you might as well go somewhere else. The american menu does not do the place justice. We called a chinese friend of ours and he ordered our lunch over the phone with the waitress. What we got was pleasant, fresh hand-​made spicy noodles with seafood and bland beef with chives that I have to soak in my hot oil. It’s northern chinese cuisine (very different from what I would get in chinatown) so come prepare with a chinese interpreter. I would go back for their hand made noodles and dumplings. I hear they make a killer lamb leg that serves like 3 people, so we shall see.

Been in here a few times, but only found this place because I had to pass it in order to get to the bar. It’s like a hole in the wall where it just blends in with the other shops and you never would have known they existed. I certainly didn’t!
I can’t really say anything about the service here since the last few times I came in; there was no one else here. I would then only expect that they would be on top of things, and they were. The food is pretty decent considering it is probably one of the more authentic places around Waltham without having to go into Chinatown. It’s definitely not what I’m used to compared to NY Chinese food and my mom’s cooking, but if I’m really missing some good olé Chinese food that I don’t know how to cook it suffices. Although, I have to be honest, I really do always forget that this place is here because it just kind of disappears behind that blue and white stripe canopy.

Good food here. I almost always order off the «Chinese» side of the menu though for lunch I will usually get one of the specials like chicken with cashews. You get a good plate of food, soup and an appetizer for under $ 6. You can’t beat that.
Next time I go I’ll make some notes and take some pictures and update this accordingly.
Most of my Chinese classmates at Brandeis have said this place is pretty good. That has to count for something.

This restaurant serves a mixture of Northern Chinese cuisine and Americanized Chinese food.
The interior is not very fancy but generally looks clean. The Northern Chinese food is decent, but I’ve never tried the Americanized Chinese foods here. Lunch specials are reasonably priced, and people looking for North Chinese food will be delighted to find «Xiao Mi Xi Fan» and «Beef Xian Bing», which are millet porridge and the Chinese version of a stuffed bun. The Beef Jian Bing is a little on the oily side, and the crust is too thick. However, I haven’t found other restaurants that served the two dishes in Boston, so I really can’t complain.
The beef noodles is terrible. I’ll head back to try other dishes and add to this report.