I took a total of four people who've had dim sum before for lunch today (Sunday) at about noon time. We were seated in about a minute or so, although the chairs and table settings took a minute or two to arrange. Tea and water were delivered very quickly. Nearly the moment we were seated the cart ladies were on us! We were getting food off two carts at the same time in a couple instances. We have certain favorites that we love (steamed bbq pork bun, red bean bun - looked like a little mouse!, etc.) but we aren't really into the full authentic Chinese so some items don't suit our taste. We just don't order those. We usually order something new to stretch our tastes and explore. The big filled custard buns are awesome. Udon was really good. Fried spicy calamari was good. They don't speak english very well. Be prepared to be patient and listen carefully. When they offer the picture menu accept it and use it for a reference. They can point to an item and then you can read what it is. Everything supposed to be hot was hot when it got to the table. The food can come so fast, you may not get to it when it is still hot though, if you don't hold them off. They can be aggressive in offering food, but accept a "no, not now" well enough. It was crowded when we came in - almost no parking left. Only a couple empty tables, yet they seated us directly. Noise din was high, but I think that is expected for dim sum. When the place cleared out near the end, the noise was at a comfortable level. $80 with tip, and two takeout containers for my wife's lunch tomorrow. ;) read more

Have been there several times, Raises the bar for all the other local restaurants. i am a traditional new englander when it comes to lobster, at the owner's suggestion I tried the ginger lobster. Two lobster in a sauce that was not over powering, the lobster melted in your mouth. I have been back 3 times since for the same dish!! best 20 bucks you can spend. You need to give this place a shot. And oh yeah, a mean mai tai! read more

Best Chinese food in Lowell. I love their value driven combination platters and their beef cilantro soaps. The Dim Sum is Boston China Town quality and the best in the area. Try their salt and pepper dishes; you'll love it! read more

This place is surprisingly good. Don't be fooled by its typical Chinese food take-out name. We went there on Monday which was not a peak hours but food was awesome. They were all freshly cooked and dishes came with pretty big portion. Service was good, no complaint. read more

Dim sum is excellent and has plenty of parking. They have a large menu and their service is great.

I usually have plenty of words to describe restaurants that are so bad they make me want to go to the bathroom and puke up the two bites of food I had but I just can't right now. This place is dirty. Really dirty, but it was late and my hubby and daughter wanted some wings and fried rice. How does a restaurant mess up wings and rice? I dunno but this place did. I'm giving it two stars because our waitress was the sweetest nicest person I've ever had in any type of restaurant let alone a Chinese restaurant. She seemed to be smitten with my daughter and went above and beyond to make her happy. She fell asleep in the car on the way over there and was a nightmare when we had to wake her up to go inside. I contemplated waiting in the car and letting my husband go get the food but he wanted to eat inside. I know....why???? Anyway, the sweet waitress (kicking myself for not getting her name), bent down to my daughter's eye level and asked her why she was crying and moved her hair out of her eyes. Then she coaxed a very soft whisper of chicken wings out of her and managed to get a smile out of her too. The wings were very hot when they came out so the waitress instructed her to wrap a napkin around it so she could eat it easier. How sweet was that?? I'm hoping this place is one of those authentic Chinese restaurants that don't do Americanized food well. They only serve dim sum until 3 pm so we settled for what we had, but I think we'll go back for the traditional Saturday dim sum brunch and see how they do. Restaurants should not underestimate the power of amazing service. Even though the food was terrible, I'm willing to go back and try out the dim sum because the service was so good. read more

Yum yum yum! Just ordered dim sum take out from here today, and it was better than downtown. My eyes were bigger than my stomach, and I have been snacking on it all day. Seriously good. read more

Lousy, even by Lowell standards. The hot and sour soup was so thick and gelatinous my spoon just sat on top of it. Disgusting. Roast pork Egg foo young was filled with some unnamed clear tasteless vegetable, no roast pork. Just terrible. read more

I love Dimsum here. Great service. The seafood dinner is pretty good (crab dishes). My favorite place in Lowell.

The food was great service was very good was a nice exsperiance i would recommend this resturant to all my freinds

Growing up south of San Francisco, good food representing the many cultures of Asia was in great supply. Mexican food has been such a disappointment in New England, I thought Dim Sum wouldn't be too far behind. I was wrong. The China Star was fab. Steamed, friend, seafood, pork, beef --- all were delightful What I also liked is that my hubbie and I were among they very few non-Asians in the place. This is the kind of place I love -- like a welcome guest in the home of a friend from another culture. Alas, we've moved to PA so I hope to find a new Dim Sum place! read more

Wanted to try something closer then going down to Boston so thought I'd give it a try. The noodles with chicken had this really interesting spice and quality to it I hadn't had before that I really enjoyed like a thicker curry powder. The dim sum were good, hot. Nice service. All was a little more expensive than I expected for three people with no entrees ordered. But was good. Same fun large dim sum experience/rolling carts. We were seated and served right away which is always a great thing when dining with kids. read more

Excellent dim sum. Parking for patrons. Fair prices. Just as good as anything you will find in Boston's chinatown. A little further out for me to drive here, but a great choice for the area. read more

We went today for dimsum and it was EXCELLENT! Plenty of carts that would come by quite often as well as people with trays. There is also a station you can walk up to that had clams, razor clams, s&p shrimp, s&p calamari, noodles, snails, and some sort of beef/tripe dish. Service was very good with people refilling water regularly and at least 1 manager stopped by to see how things were. They even helped us pack up leftovers. Everything was very fresh and HOT. Especially some of the fried dishes that seem to always be cold in boston. Some of the things we had that i can recall off the top of my head. hargau, shumai, lobster dumpling, tofu skin roll, stuffed eggplant, steamed custard buns, egg tarts, rice noodles, sticky rice, fried taro/shrimp, fried shrimp/chive, spring rolls, shrimp/celery in tofu skin.. We especially liked that the shrimp/taro actually had the fried taro on the outside. Seems all the places in boston have swapped to using chowmein noodles instead which isnt nearly as good. We went at 11:30 with 4 people and there was no wait, no problems parking. Came to $72 with tip and we have a ton of leftovers still. read more

Solid dim sum place. Detoured here on a trip from ny to nh. Had a whole bunch of different dishes. Of particular note was he shumai and salt and pepper squid. Will be coming back. read more

The best dim sum I've had. Better than Chinatown in Boston and San Fran. Lots of dishes with shrimp, crab, and pork. Shrimp stuffed eggplant and shrimp stuffed peppers excellent. The waitresses can speak English. I have been to many dim sum where I have no idea what is on the cart because only Chinese is spoken. The wait staff are attentive. Definitely going back. read more

I really like the dim sum here. The baked bbq pork bun is better than in china town! Purchased 30 of them to bring to a family get together. They all loved them. read more

China Star - Dim Sum Near Me - Lowell, Massachusetts

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I've been to many many many dim sum places and this one just didn't quite impress me. I live in the south shore and there are a few places for dim sum there that I normally go to, along with the ones in Boston.. However I was in Dracut for a nail salon grand opening (liberty nails) and my uncle, who lives in Lowell, recommended this place. First off, the curb appeal is gorgeous, you get clean cut grass with a nice sign and you get this gorgeous entrance with double doors. Very high class for a dim sum place. Inside was something different for me, I've never seen a full bar in a dim sum restaurant before. Or at least one that was that nice looking. We were seated and the first thing I noticed was that the cups were filthy. They were incredibly disgusting with god knows what kind of leftover food on it. The waiter comes by and my mom speaks in Cantonese to ask him to replace them cause they were dirty. Tell me why this kid just looks at my mom with this confused look on his face and puts the cups back on the table. He didn't understand Cantonese and instead of saying " I'm sorry I don't understand" he just stared at her. So after we explained it to him in English he finally took them away. The food was okay, not amazing, but not terribly bad. The amount of cart pushers were very limited since we found ourselves having to place orders with the manager because there were no carts that passed our table. So my 2 stars is only for the curb appeal and bar and the manager who was kind of enough to help us with our orders. Aside from that, I don't see myself coming back here. read more

I had my doubts about this place because of previous reviews but to my surprise, foodsand service wasn't that bad. They most of the dishes I usually order for dim sum in Woburn and Chinatown, without the hassle of driving in and finding parking. Im so glad they're open. read more

Dim sum here are pretty delicious! I went there around 1 o'clock once and the food were really cold. :( If you go early, it'll be hot and fresh. I like how they charge $.50 per person for tea when you don't even drink it or ask for it. Lol. Their fried calamari is nice and crispy. I tried chicken feet for the first time too. Yup, peer pressure from my asian friends. :x i know, it sound gross, yeahhh...but it actually taste pretty good. I had to look away and had one bite from it. Lol. The thought of eating chicken feet makes me sick. But try new food anyway, you'll never know how awesome it taste until you try it! read more

Stupid experience at all.... The service is all-time low compared with others. Staff could barely communicate but fluently ask for tips. This is such an awful taste ever in my life. read more

Appalling and unapologetic customer service I have ever encountered.... What a crap!!!

Everything I tried was very good. I happened to go by myself because I had heard good things and was trying to think of something different for lunch late one afternoon. I think it would be better with a group of adventurous people so you can try more things. I will be back with that group! read more

Best Dim Sum in the area. Food is great and good for big groups.

My husband and I been a regular for years but haven't been there for awhile since we've been busy during the holiday season. We usually never have a problem and shocked to see so many bad reviews about being harassed for more tip. So, we went today to see for ourselves. Well, surprise surprise. They actually do have the balls to HARASS their customer for more tip. Time to look for a new place! read more

Overall, a nice place for Dim Sum. I was surprised by the variety of dim-sum food. This is comparable to China Star in Boston. Delicious pork-buns. Plates run $3-8 depending on what you order. With 4 people our total came to about $30 and we had a table filled with food. Although, the staff had a hard time understanding our table's English. But, if you can get over that small detail you in for a good Chinese breakfast. read more

Never again, and let me tell you why. With so many fast food Chinese takeout places to choose from, you can do much better than China Star, and have less frustration. I have eaten inside twice and gone for take-out 3 times. Customer service seems to benefit the "eating in" patrons more than the take-out side. My eat in experience was acceptable, but nothing that separates it from anywhere else in the area. The last time I went to eat in was for the purpose of getting their Dim Sum, and it turned out they had none. Recently we tried takeout from them again. In the past two experiences, they forgot a couple of things in the order like the white rice or scallion pancakes. After a trip back to the restaurant, the missing items were handed to me. This last time, they forgot gravy and crab rangoon. We had ordered a large french fry and the gravy was for the french fries for dipping. A trip back to the restaurant to complain about the missing items was met with a rather stern stance from the owner. I was met with harsh skepticism that we actually placed an order, because I had forgotten the receipt at home on the table. It turns out that the order was not entered correctly by the female bartender who rather than write down the orders, believed she could remember all three orders. We ordered a great deal of food for three families. While I can allow some room for the fact that there were three orders, it is still the responsibility of the restaurant to get the order correct. In any case, I was very displeased with the response and the efforts taken by the owner to disprove the fact I asked for and ordered some crab rangoon. We spent about 8 minutes retrieving the the receipts and then arguing over the difference between duck sauce and gravy. As a repeat customer, and as someone with experience with customer service etiquette, I was very appalled at the fact that so much effort was used in trying to prove me wrong rather than just simply saying, "I'm sorry", getting me an order of the crab rangoon and then sending me on my way. I would have left happier and maybe even would have returned again some day. I explained that this was not the first time this had happened and that even though he successfully proved me wrong about there being an order for crab rangoon on the bill, it would be very kind of him to replace the french fires that were not sitting at home cold without the gravy, the gravy that I never got and the crab rangoon that I asked for and the bartender woman did not enter into the order. "I will get you a fries and gravy" he said and walked away to the back. The owners wife stayed up front. They sent someone up toward the front where we were waiting and he was eyeballing us as if to make his presence known. This was the muscle apparently, glaring at us if to send a message that things will get ugly if I make a commotion or something. I just laughed because he looked like a 5 foot child with a ring of keys on his belt. I couldn't believe it. Do they often have these problems that they have a restaurant thug on staff? Was he going to beat me up for asking for crab rangoon? lol I was beside myself. I felt like I was on candid camera or something. I spoke to the owners wife who was still standing there. I said, "Look, one way or another, I need some crab rangoon. If I have to pay for it, then so be it, but I still need it". She said she was going to the back to see about the crab rangoon. She mumbled something, but to be honest, they kept speaking in broken sentences when they talked, so I don't know if she was going to try to get her over zealous husband to cave in and give me some crab rangoon, or if she was just telling the kitchen to make one. Either way, she never came back. A few minutes later, after the restaurant muscle left, the owner returns with a bag and said, "A fries and some of a gravy". I said, "so no crab rangoon"? He looked at me, folded his arms, bloated out his chest and in a victorious and overly prideful tone said, "It was not on the order". Wow. I could not even believe it. Are you really serious? How much would it have set him back to take a hit on a 8 piece box of crab rangoon just to keep the customer happy. Customer service without a smile. Maybe it's a cultural thing? Is it more important to him to be right then to keep a customer happy? I understand that there are people that try to scam free food from places. Who knows, maybe this misguided restaurant owner has been taken advantage of in the past. I have no idea, but I think you really need to identify the situation and realize when it was your mistake and not the customer's. All told, we spent about $90 for the three orders and the one thing I wanted was a large order of crab rangoon. Do you really think I would drive myself all the way back to your restaurant to scam you for crab rangoon? Dear owner, you have lost another customer. You should be ashamed of yourself. read more

Great food, fast kitchen, large portions.Great place to watch the pats game on a 100" screen and stuff your face with apps.

I would give it better rating cuz the food was good. I had spicy fried crabs n baby bokchoy with garlic sauce n seafood soup. These three dishes were delicious except for one. It was this dish call the Peking pork chop. Do not, I repeat do not order this. It tastes like pork chop dipped in maple syrup. Nothing Chinese about it. More like ihop. And the service was horrible. The waiter didnt even give me time to look thru the menu. He was standing there at my table n wait to take my order. I felt rush n he wasn't helpful with the menu at all. So overall if u don't mind bad service and want good food without driving to Boston. Then u can just settle for this place. read more

This place has TERRIBLE service. I'm not really going to waste my time with this but I've only been there twice and wasn't thrilled with the experience. The waitresses stand around and do nothing...then when you try to order it takes about 3 of them to understand you. They are ignorant. Their soda's are watered down with TAP WATER. They tried to charge me for re-fills. Don't go here to eat. If anything get it to go. read more

My first time coming to this restaurant and will not return ever again. The food was ok but the service was terrible. Big time language barrier you ask a question and have to repeat yourself like 20 times. Couldn't understand half of the wait staff. They placed tea on our table without us asking for it and we ended up getting charged. No one bothered to ask if we wanted more water. I can go on and on so with that said we will not be returning. read more

Excellent dim sum! As good as Boston Chinatown. Late afternoon they even made to order.

It's an ok place besides china town. Decent price for food we eat. Eat once in while. Few time, the food was overpower with flavored and others time it's ok place. Crowded tables, couldn't move around much, not much selection. read more

Food was great and bartender was awesome! It just is a weird feeling sitting at the bar with your back to the entire dinning area, seems to me there there should be some sort of separation. Other than that I would definitly recomend! read more

The food taste very good,ok service,pretty nice workers but the bathroom is disgusting and you have to wait for quite a bit

Best dim sum north of Boston. Food is just as good as any place in Chinatown. Service from the carts feels authentic. Would recommend going early on the weekend because it gets crowded around lunch. Go into it willing to try anything off the carts that looks appetizing. You won't be disappointed. read more

The Dim Sum here is excellent and there is not really an alternative outside of Boston for this fare. The selection is rather limited despite their dim sum menu, many items when I was there were unavailable or had to be made to order. The pricing is slightly high but reasonable. read more

Excellent Chinese at a good price. They are authentic, well authentic enough for me...not even foodie enough to try everything on the menu yet ;-) Dim Sum rocks the weekends. And you have late night hours! read more

"We found this place by mistake on Sunday, August 31, because the usual place we normally go to had a change of management and dim sum was no longer offer. Thanks to their waitstaff who referred us to China Star Dim sum. We found the quality of their food were the best in the area....clean bathroom and dinning room .. Waitstaff were courteous!!!!! Highly recommended...Open 7 days per week is just what we need in north of Boston!!!! read more

Just learned that this place has Dim Sum. True dim sum is suppose to have 100 choices. Their menu (with pictures) had about 80. Their carts had about 20-25. Their food was okay. I love the fact it's in the suburbs and not Boston Chinatown. Plenty of parking... Place seemed clean... The bar looked fully stocked (I didn't drink). The business was steady ... Which was nice to see. The waitstaff doesn't speak English... But we had one little mishap and an English speaking person was there in no time and it was resolved with no issues. For the dim sum, I would definitely come back and bring others with me next time. read more