Ordered for the first time yesterday and I was very happy with my order. The scallion pancakes were tasty. 7.5/10 The portion was generous. I also got the vegetable tofu soup. The broth was delicious and it was also a nice size portion. 8.5/10. Arrived quickly too. Definitely recommend them. read more

Food arrived by delivery very quick and on time . I tried the dumplings pan fried - and beef lo-mein , Would I have this place again ? Yes Would I Try other Chinese takeout spots ? Probably. Just to see variety. This place however was decent , food was FINE read more

We've only eaten at First Wok for their awesome lunch buffet! We live nearby and when we can, we love to take advantage of the $10 lunch buffet during the week. It isn't a huge buffet, but has all the essentials - chicken and broccoli, sweet and sour chicken, lomein, fried rice, egg rolls; plus some unexpected items - stir fried baby bok Choi, vegetable pancake, steamed dumplings, fruit snd desserts. The service is always quick and friendly and the food quality is better than other dinner Chinese buffets we've been to in the area. The atmosphere is smaller, relaxing and dimly lit. They usually have relaxing music playing. Happy to have this nice lunch option nearby! read more

Was in the mood on Saturday night for college football and Chinese food. Both turned out great (Go Irish). Was on the hunt for a dependable place to get Americanized chinese food and i think we found it. Had to get crab Rangoons. Always the move. These were great. Also tried the scallion pancake and pleasant surprise. Will order again. General Tso's chicken was tasty and plenty saucy. Paired well with the fried rice. We also split the shrimp lo mein. It was nice and salty. Service was great, quickly made and ready for pickup. The place is clean. In the back of the hyde park stretch mall. Plenty of convenient parking. read more

ordered first wok through door dash and it was terrible. I have worked at restaurants and I know that they gave us food that had been sitting on the buffet all day (we ordered in the evening) and the general tsos and cashew chicken was totally dry, chicken was hard & chewy and vegetables were limp and tasteless we couldn't eat it so I called restaurant to to tell her how bad our food was and she trlied to blame it on door dash!! I told her that no the food wasn't cold it was warm and she hung up on me! read more

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I ordered this through Door Dash. The food was horrible! Worst Chinese I've ever had.

Website is absolutely horrible. Can't imagine how much business they lose as a result of a crappy website. Difficult to locate a menu. Over priced anymore after years of being a good value. read more

I've been a customer for 25 years, every other place I try has me comparing them to First Wok. The Crispy beef is amazing! Their crab Rangoon's are also some of the best in the city. The staff remembers who you are which I really appreciate. 10/10 read more

Very disappointed in the food. chicken was a weird texture. Don't go here if you want good Chinese food

i havent gone here in a while. the food was fine i think they try to keep the prices low. bunch of people came in to pick up deliveries.

Servings sizes and proportion of protein to carb ratio is very generous! I've eaten a lot of their cooking and I've loved everything :)

I thoroughly enjoyed my Szechwan Chicken with my pork egg roll x2. Takeout of course. Yes it's just another Chinese joint. Most are the same. But honestly that's what I was in the mood for. First Wok fits the bill and my crave. Surprisingly the prices we much less then expected. Under $8.00 my lunch portion. They offer a daily buffet that I'll try next time. read more

Was craving some Chinese and stumbled upon First Wok on DoorDash. Overall, it was very yummy! I am a crab rangoon addict and they did not disappoint. I have a 4/5 because I wish the lo mein and general tso's had some more flavor to it. Will definitely be trying this place again! read more

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We just door dashed the chicken Lo Mein and the Chicken Fried Rice and this was what we received. Undercooked Chicken and extremely dry Rice and noodles. This is extremely concerning and a major health risk. Everyone check your food before eating it. It seemed like it was covered in sauce to make it look like it was cooked. read more

First Wok - FR2. Chicken Fried Rice - Chinese Near Me - Cincinnati, Ohio

A simple place and nothing fancy but I have to tell you the hot and sour soup is the best I've ever had. I'm a connoisseur of good hot sour soup and this is the tops. I had Szechuan chicken that was presented well with generous portions. Place was small and quiet worth a try. I heard the egg drop soup was great as well. read more

Beef lo mein was bland and mushy. No wok hei here. No mushrooms, no scallion, beef seemed boiled. Disappointing to say the least. General Tso's chicken was non descript. The food I had tastes dumbed down, not authentic. On the plus side prices are reasonable and portions are ample. If you like lots of mediocre Chinese, this is your place. read more

After spending almost a year in Cincinnati without a go-to Chinese place, I think my wife and I have happily settled on First Wok. We haven't had the lunch buffet yet (buffet-style dining is NOT a good/healthy option for someone as addicted to Chinese food as I am) but for carry-out I have found them the be fast, reliable, and extremely pleasant. I hate to say this because I don't want to set crazy expectations but they have even occasionally thrown in some free stuff with our larger orders! The food is exactly what you want from an American Chinese restaurant. Everything we've ordered has been hot and flavorful and I was especially pleased with the spicy tangy chicken which was enough food for two, delicious, and something I've never quite had before. Honestly, if you've had good Chinese take-out in the USA before then you know exactly what the food is like here. I'm very glad to have found First Wok and I'm sure we'll be coming back here quite a bit in the future! read more

First Wok - Spicy tangy chicken was excellent and came in a shareable size! - Chinese Near Me - Cincinnati, Ohio

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Ooof. It PAINS me to write this. Idk what has changed over the last year (or even 6 months)... but if I let my previous excellent reviews remain out here it would not be accurate. The egg drop soup has changed (using wayyyy less eggs - no doubt a price issue). Additionally, the last time I ordered from there myself and my coworker (who both ordered an appetizer containing pork) got food poisoning. And not the little like oooh I ate something on the cusp of going bad so I poo'd or puked a little and that was that. And definitely not the stomach flu. I was very ill 8 hours after eating the food, symptoms lasted 36 hours. Recovery took an additional 24 hours. After reporting it to the county health department I read their recent reviews and health score... too bad I didn't read it sooner... though, I might have still ordered it (most of the time I take this with a grain of salt). But I'm telling you... as a reasonable person... unless something drastic changes, this long standing establishment will be out of business. read more

First Wok - Kung Po - Chinese Near Me - Cincinnati, Ohio

The food is greasy. The male employee and the woman employee who takes orders at the front desk are very rude and abusive to customers. Avoid this place. read more

Consistent and quick. Exactly what my family and I are looking for. Service is very friendly, and they often throw in small bonus items in our order. Not fancy, just fits the bill more often than not. read more

Well if you want to get sick as a dog then eat the buffet. Last time I ate hear I thought I caught the full blown flu. It was salmonella food poisoning. I came back and sure enough got it again. Symptoms first time lasted 10 days. This time I've been ill longer than 10 days.Won't return. read more

We are visiting Cincinnati from SoCal. As you know, there're many great Chinese restaurants in Southern California, but First Wok didn't disappoint us, very authentic Chinese tasting foods. We ordered Kung Po Chicken, Scallion Pancakes and Fried Donuts thru Uber Eats. They were all very delicious, and generous in portion, great bang for your buck. If you never tried their Fried Donuts before, try it! You won't be disappointed. Highly recommended! read more

First Wok is the best kept secret in Hyde Park. This strip mall Chinese restaurant may look like nothing special from the outside, but the food is actually really delicious! Come check it out (they also do take out and a lunch buffet). My husband and I were craving Americanized Chinese buffet food, and a quick Yelp search showed us that First Wok has been in our neighborhood this whole time, and we just never noticed! It's in the Hyde Park plaza by Remke. We came for dinner, so there's no buffet, but that's not a problem because we just ordered off the menu. FYI for next time, the buffet is lunch only Mon-Sat $6 and Sun $8. As soon as we sat down they gave served us crispy fried wonton wrappers which was a nice touch. We started with crab rangoon ($6.25 for a HUGE order of 8). These crab rangoon were, no lie, the best I've ever had. They were twice the size of normal crab rangoon and stuffed FULL of cheese and crab. These were very flavorful and had so much crab flavor to them, I could have eaten the whole platter (but I won't because...they're like a billion calories each, so maybe split it with your friends). For dinner I got the CX-10 Chicken and Broccoli Combo ($9) with hot and sour soup (add $1), and my date got the CX-19 Beef Lo Mein ($9). The hot and sour soup was one of the best I've had in Cincinnati (another pleasant surprise)!. It was spicier than others I've had in town, and full of mushrooms and tofu, so it was super filling. I highly recommend adding it for a dollar more. The chicken and broccoli had a great sauce on it, and the portion was very generous. The lo mein was also a big serving, and the beef was cooked well and the noodles tasted very fresh. Honestly I had almost no complaints...The food was maybe $1-2 more than other Chinese restaurants in Cincinnati, but it's very reasonable for Hyde Park. Also, I should mention that the restaurant is extremely clean and well taken care of. Service was friendly, and the owner's two little girls were doing their homework in the back, so you know this is a family run operation! Lesson learned: don't judge a book by it's cover! We left with very full bellies and leftovers for lunch the next day. We'll definitely be coming back for those crab rangoon and that hot and sour soup! read more

First Wok - Crab Rangoon (soooo good and HUGE) and hot and sour soup (also very delicious and just a little spicy) - Chinese Near Me - Cincinnati, Ohio

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Great food and service, as well as prices. So much food for cheap. However, if you like spice, it is never spicy enough. I have asked for extra spicy over and over again and it just never happens. read more

I was one of their BIGGEST fans. I would come here without question and loved the food. I feel that over the past year or so, the quality of their food has gone downhill. I don't know if they changed how they make the food, or what, but it just isn't as good. The last time I was there, I got their Chicken Mei Fun. It didn't really taste like much of anything. And maybe the staff changed. i used to get a friendly hello. now, now so much. read more

I absolutely loved my take out order of CX28 or combination dinner sesame chicken! It came with chicken, rice (choice of white or fried), egg roll, and a fortune cookie for about $8.50! Great bang for your buck here. I was stuffed and had plenty leftover for lunch the next day. The chicken was nice looking meat with a perfect balance of fried coating and sauce. Not too salty which I often run into with other Chinese or Indian food places. Sooo much chicken! I maybe ate half of it for dinner there was a lot of good chicken. There was not as much broccoli as I'd like in there but there were definitely a few pieces. I loved the speedy service - I was at the grocery store next door and was able to call and place an order and they told me it would be ready in about 10 minutes, can't beat that. My food was hot when I picked it up and the restaurant looked clean and authentic and the staff was very nice when I picked up my order. This would have been 5 stars but the takeout container was a bit flimsy and the rice and chicken were not separated at all but just in one big compartment. I'll definitely go there again and might branch out next time but the sesame chicken definitely gets 5 read more

First Wok - Combination dinner special sesame chicken - Chinese Near Me - Cincinnati, Ohio

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I'd liked this place a lot, and then I read some Yelp reviews, and I thought...hmm, maybe I ought to look elsewhere. Well, I did. And I'm about done with that. The crab rangoon isn't nearly as good at other places. The other stuff I tend to get are non-pork eggrolls and egg drop soup. No, 1st Wok doesn't do this stuff extraordinarily better than the other places. But did I mention the crab rangoon? Yeah, that's enough for me to stick with the place. And I've never gotten food poisoning here (knock on wood, I guess). Plus, it's handy to go in, place your order, and then go do a little grocery shopping at Remke/Bigg's or pick up some crafty craft supplies at Michael's. You don't have to sit awkardly on those chairs at the front. Do a little browsing or practical shopping while you wait. Oh, and pick up one of the tasty candies at the front. The flavors change, but they put up a little sign saying what it is. The last two times, there were pomegranate and guava ones. Not super-exciting, but I like the new tastes for the ride home with my to-go food. Never done the buffet. I'm a compile-a-meal-from-appetizers kind of a gal. read more

First Wok - 1st Wok. It's just ok. - Chinese Near Me - Cincinnati, Ohio

Definitely not the best Chinese food place. I always order chicken fried rice wherever I go because it's a classic and always safe. The fried rice here let me down. The chicken was undercooked and slimey and just tasted funky. The orange chicken was alright, nothing special. The inside is kinda dark making it a gloomy atmosphere. I don't believe I will be back just because of the let down with the fried chicken. The fried dumplings were really good, however, and the egg rolls. I would recommend those. read more

First Wok's website proudly proclaims the restaurant a member of the "Chinese Restaurant Association of America." A link to that organization reveals that it has thousands of member restaurants across this Great Land. This Chinese Restaurant Association undoubtedly has a gigantic printing press that pumps out identical menus for these thousands of Chinese-American restaurants. Just about everybody in the United States has been to one and knows the menu: beef with broccoli, shrimp with lobster sauce, kung pao chicken, mushu pork, combination fried rice, etc., etc. The only differences on the menus are the interchangeable restaurant names stamped on the front: "Jade Palace," "Happy Dragon," "China Dynasty," "Number One Express," "Rabid Panda." OK, not that last one. But definitely "First Wok." Some of these restaurants, despite their inauthenticity, can be quite good. First Wok, unfortunately, is not one of them. The best adjective to describe its food is "bland-o-rific": This food is woefully underseasoned. "Heavy" and "oily" might be the second- and third-best descriptives. But at least it is "edible." (I can't say that about every restaurant....) We were able to make our take-out entrees--"Szechuan" tofu and "Kung pao" chicken--more palatable with some sesame oil from the kitchen cabinet and chili paste from the fridge. Some more items from the cabinet probably would have helped even more, but for us this meal was the result of our own laziness and time constraints to begin with. And hot-and-sour soup was neither hot nor sour. Not even close. Just bland-o-rific. Big plus: Like most Chinese-American restaurants, First Wok is absurdly cheap for huge quantities of food. The best thing about First Wok was the "Free Donuts" you get with your order. These beignet-like morsels were pretty damn good! read more

I love this place, their food always has the right amount of spice and the flavors are amazing. They are very friendly. Their combination meals are a great deal and you get so much with a crab Rangoon order! read more

After about 15 years of avoiding this restaurant due to a bad encounter, we gave it another chance and were very pleased. The General Tso's chicken was plentiful, saucy and delicious. The egg and spring rolls were not dry and filled with fresh veggies, etc. Lastly, the hot and sour soup was really good but I expected a little more tofu. Regardless, we will be back again. read more

My favorite Chinese place in Cincinnati! The lunch buffet has many options but some of those change daily! The lunch buffet is $6.50. My only gripe is that they don't put Wonton Soup on their buffet, just Hot & Sour and Egg Drop Soup. The service is always super friendly and wonderful! We plan to keep coming back! read more

This review is based entirely on the kids menu. Yes, this Chinese restaurant has a kids menu!! My kids love Chinese (and specifically, sweet and sour chicken) but usually the portions are too big... Until now. For $4.95 my daughter gets rice, sweet and sour chicken and crab rangoon. Score!!!! read more

First Wok - Try this beer!!! - Chinese Near Me - Cincinnati, Ohio

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I'll start by saying read their last health ratings prior to ordering. 90% of restaurants have no issues but this place keeps the Department of Health as a necessary division. Got food delivered one time after a two hour wait and chicken was raw, which I didn't even know was possible when you put it in a deep fryer at a Chinese restaurant. Called the restaurant and person who answered couldn't even pull up the order and spoke very broken English. Go elsewhere. read more

The lunch buffet can't be beat for the value! You can take it to go (in which case you get a styrofoam container to stuff), but I prefer to dine in. The buffet will almost certainly have all of your favorite Chinese American dishes with a variety of rice, noodles, chicken, beef, and pork dishes! Additionally I love their crab Rangoon. Once you're done with your main courses they have several desserts and fruits at the end of the buffet to give the finishing touch to your meal. The service is generally friendly, and if you go around noon on a weekday it is likely to be fairly busy but they bring out fresh dishes often. It may not be the best for my arteries, but I love to come here for a treat of a weekday lunch! Pro tip - make sure to get some hot and sour soup too, it comes with the buffet and is some of my favorite around. read more

They gave us shrimp that wasn't devained. Nasty and the egg rolls were not cooked throughly.

I ordered chicken fried rice... everything was okay except the chicken... tasted a bit old with a strange texture... i eventually picked it out and only ate the rice. It was definitely Not as impressive as the reviews made it out to be. read more

First Wok - Chinese Near Me - Cincinnati, Ohio

I have been going here for years. It used to be very good, but has continued to decline. The food is now awful. The eggrolls are inedible- there is nothing in them, definitely not any vegetables. There is so dry pink stuff, don't know what it is. It is mostly the wonton wrapper. The sweet and sour chicken is a joke. What looks like a nice piece of chicken is all batter. The chicken inside is tiny. The shrimp egg foo yung had maybe 3 pieces, not shrimp in them. I have noticed they changed their carry out containers- they have gotten smaller while they continually raise their prices. The food has gotten so bad I felt compelled to write this. Customers should know what they are getting and maybe the owners will read this and do something about this . read more

I have had many gen . tho chicken dinners from many oriental places .....But the dinners I just got from here was the most tasty meal I have ever eaten. The fried rice and veggies fresh and very favorable. I will definitely be back. Thanks for a great meal guys. Stan Dillon read more

Always good quality food made fast. Definitely my go-to Chinese restaurant! (Nut allergies should be careful though, as they do have some dishes that would be off limits. They've always been nice about my allergy though.) read more