Pluses: Where else can you find fried crab, Buffalo wings, shrimp tacos, tamales, and General Tso's chicken all in the same place? The servers keep the glasses filled, too. Minuses: Nothing is really very good; you have to wonder about compliance with the health codes when an open crate of plantains is sitting directly in front of the fish tank. Came here for dinner at 7:30 on a Wednesday night. It wasn't very busy, and we could sit down immediately. Atmosphere is nonexistent, but hey--Chinese buffet. As long as you keep that in mind when you're eating, you'll be fine. This is a place to get filled up, cheap, and it doesn't pretend to be anything else. Might be better for lunch--maybe things are fresher? read more

Mr Wok - Do fish like plantains? - Chinese Near Me - Durham, North Carolina

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Going back a couple of years ago, Mr. Wok was....pretty good. There was variety and the food was tasty. I come back noticing a sign that says "New Mr.Wok" and thought that they had done something to improve the restaurant. Well, first off it was new because the ownership was new. They must've had a different idea in place because the restaurant took a complete 180 spin. Originally, the buffet had 2 long lines of hot food, one of the lines being more authentic than the other and changing depending on the day. Now, there is only 1 line of hot food and it's a mix between authentic Chinese and a more "Americanized" Chinese. Most of the food is fried and the options for vegetables is limited. On the day I came, only green beans were my vegetable options. The food was OK at best. In the back side of the restaurant you can order noodle soups or do mongolian grill or even tacos if the chef is available. They used to do Taiwanese, but not anymore which is something I will miss. The Mongolian grill is new though so I guess that's the substitute for the Taiwanese....which doesn't match in quality. Customer service was definitely a problem during my visit to Mr. Wok. I'm just going to guess that this was just some one time thing due to the recent ownership change in the restaurant, but the woman wouldn't even pay attention to us while we were making our transaction. Overall, I was definitely not impressed. There probably will not be a return visit any time soon especially when there's Hibachi and Super Asian Buffet not too far from my house either. read more

Reasonable prices. Great food. It's always hot and their chicken and broccoli is amazing! They have a great selection of seafood. Great customer service. Make this place your regular lunch or dinner place. The hibachi is good, but you might have to wait a bit if you go during lunch. Very busy. Dinner time is good to go to enjoy the quiet atmosphere while you eat. 4/5 stars! I'm definitely coming back. read more

Mr Wok - Chinese Near Me - Durham, North Carolina

STOP! Don't go in the door because they collect the money as you come in, before you get a good look at the 'food'. Yikes! Literally the worst food buffet I have ever encountered. The Worst! Of course there's the dingy interior and shuffling, indifferent waitstaff to make up for the crappy eats. At first we thought, "Well with all this food spread before us, there would have to be something good." Wrong. We ended up with six plates on our table of uneaten food, I mean we kept trying. There was an Hibachi station where they cooked up your selections to order ... oh my! The chicken tasted like... well, we weren't sure what it tasted like and the beef was tough enough to preclude eating. Another plate of uneaten food on the table. Then we went for the salad bar and the watery wilted salad and dried up shrimp and pans of lumpy (?) pudding (?) were just too sad to even put on a plate. Hope springs eternal though and I dashed up to try something new freshly dumped on the buffet. Hard lumps of (?) chicken dyed brown and tasting a little bit like fish and sugar. Another uneaten plate. And the sushi bar! I wouldn't touch what looked like leftovers from lunch. Every so often a waitress would breeze by and say "Everything fine - ok" never giving us a chance to answer. The cashier avoided our eyes as we left so I guess there was some sense of decency. How this place stays open is a modern mystery. I mean it shares a parking lot with a perfectly decent McDonald's and a newly renovated Wendy's. Why oh why didn't I read the Yelp reviews before we picked this dump for convenience. I hope we don't get sick!! NOW renamed RED STAR! read more

OMG! I don't ever set my hopes high for any buffet place, but this place makes the Souper Salad near SouthPoint seem like a nice place to eat. Honestly, this is the worst Chinese food I've ever had. I had eaten here several years ago. I mean several. And while it wasn't the best food in town, I never feared for my health--which I did at Mr. Wok today. My first clue to turn and run should have been the sanitation rating. It's actually an A, but it's only 2.5 points from a B--and these days restaurants have the opportunity to go above 100, so no telling how bad this really was. The second clue is that you pay before sitting. My husband remarked that it's probably a safety precaution in case you die. Speaking of nasty, he needed use of the facilities and reported they were dirty, creepy, and in ill-repair. The food is not the "all-Chinese" buffet I remember from the earlier days of that location. This is a mix--fusion is way too fancy of a word--of "Chinese", "Mexican", "Sushi", etc. I suppose they are aiming to be a minority food smorgasbord. They missed the mark. The edible offerings were General Tso chicken and Sweet & Sour chicken. I also tried the fried plantains and had to quickly remove them from my mouth. Egg rolls and spring rolls were lukewarm and tasteless. Mixed vegetables were drying up in their space. You'll find tastier, fresher, and more authentic Chinese, Mexican, and etc. food on the Golden Corral buffet--and not be afraid you'll die of some foodborne illness. I'm not sure how the other reviewers have been so kind. I can find little redeeming value to this restaurant. With the loss of 35's buffet in Chapel Hill, my guess is there is no passable Chinese buffet left in Durham and Orange Counties. I guess their time has passed. . read more

My family and I came in on Father's Day for lunch because we heard the place was under new management. The food: Standard American-chinese buffet cuisine, replete with the various sauced and fried staples. They also had a decent variety of sushi, along with pastor taco ingredients and pho/curry noodle soup offerings. Everything was mediocre, except the pho, which had the thinnest broth i've ever had and was bad even for buffet standards. The service: The hostess and waitresses were friendly and attentive. Literally the only positive thing I could note. The reason for the one-star review: Blatant and appalling false advertising. At the end of our meal (five people), we were charged around $53, not including tip. This contradicted the various advertisements and signage that stated the lunch buffet was a little over $7 a person. When confronted about this, the (manager? owner?) pointed us to a sign printed on a single sheet of A4 paper posted knee-height that stated the Sunday buffet was $9.99 a person. Slightly above and to the left of that was a large, laminated poster at least 20 times larger that listed both lunch and dinner prices for all days of the week, which were the prices that we had expected. The customer is the lifeblood of any business. A business owner should treat their customers with respect, and vice versa, especially if said business is a dime-a-dozen Chinese buffet. You can try to scam them for a quick buck, but in the end your chicanery will be exposed. Needless to say, we won't be going back. read more

This Chinese Buffet is huge with buffet quality food. If you come during peak hours, the food is always hot because they are constantly refilling it due to the droves of people coming here from RTP. There are some non-Chinese options on the buffet as well, including chicken wings and fries. read more

Mr Wok - the front of the store - Chinese Near Me - Durham, North Carolina

While Mr Wok is just like another affordable Chinese Buffet during the weekdays and weekend lunch (3.5 stars), the Taiwanese night on every Fri and Sat night is the one of the best places for Taiwanese food in the Triangle Area (5 stars). The Taiwanese/Asian food on the Taiwanese night is very authentic and the specials changes seasonally. Basically the chef of Mr Wok spends most of her free time during the weekdays preparing the Taiwanese/Asian specials. Base on the chef, all specials are made in house. By the way, if you stopped by this place during the summer time, make sure you do not miss out one of my summer favorite, shaved ice!!! Updated: 7/20/12 I am back for the Fri and Sat night special again Today my favorite specials are: white reddish rice cake, Taiwanese style spiced fired chicken, Taiwanese style noodle soup, Thai style basil ground pork, vietnamese pho, clam chicken soup, muchi (Japanese sweet rice ball), and the shaved ice. The mug/green bean cake is nice too. there are many more specials... I just don't have the stomach for them. read more

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The food on the buffet line may have been sitting there longer than the dust fixtures and stained ceiling tiles. However, the one shining spot of this place is a very kind and attentive waitress. read more

Mr Wok - Ceiling tile at Mr Wok - Chinese Near Me - Durham, North Carolina

It's quick, cheap, & fast. The staff is nice. The food is ... Ok. I'm not sure other than I was right here if I would have driven here knowing what I know now. So if you're already in the area and just want something fast ... There you go. read more

One of my favorite Chinese restaurants in the RTP area. Fantastic variety with American favs thrown in too, corn-on-the-cob, french fries, fried chicken wings, etc. Sweet'n'sour chicken, teriyaki chicken, General's chicken on steamed or brown rice is great. Several soups available and excellent sweet iced tea. Reasonable price and fast service make for a great lunch visit. read more

This place food quality has not been good since THEY changed the name and management. The sad thing about it, I do not think THEY care. At least THEY still have one of the biggest waiting and dining areas in RTP. Without that space for a lunch break, there would be no reason to go there. read more

Here's the thing about Mr. Wok (now Red Star): it's a gigantic all you can eat buffet with Asian and Latin American food on it, and it costs less than $8 (after tax). You have to calibrate your expectations accordingly. That said, I think you can have a perfectly decent lunch there if you choose your items carefully. For example, the sushi is perfectly serviceable *for the price point*. (I would say it is comparable in quality to the rolls you could buy at, say, Whole Foods.) The fried Chinese American classics like egg rolls and crab rangoon are pretty hard to screw up, and they don't. Pot stickers, steamed buns, and rice bundles are nothing to write home about, but fine enough. The chaffing dishes full of other American Chinese staples (think beef and brocolli, General Tso's chicken, that kind of thing) tend to be very syrupy and not particularly well seasoned, but I generally find that to be true of most Am. Chinese places, so it isn't exactly a shock. One exception are the string beans, which I think are quite good. As far as the Mexican/Central American part of the buffet goes...the pupusas are the size and texture of hockey pucks. Inedible. The various stewed meats look utterly unappealing, and thus I haven't tried them. Generally, I load up half my plate with some sushi, grab an egg roll, some string beans, and pluck a couple of pieces of broccoli out of something, and call it a day...and I've spent $8 and 10 minutes on a lunch that didn't include potato chips, fries, or a sandwich. read more

Certainly one of the more interesting lunches I've had in a while. Food was low-average quality with some clearly having been on the buffet a little long. Not bad food, just nothing outstanding. Wait staff was about as disinterested as possible, doing the minimum and nothing more. Restaurant was warm and muggy. I know it's probably difficult to keep it comfortable with the hot buffet, but if it's like this in April, I wouldn't show up in the summer. My real question is, who chooses whats on the tv's. On one set we had endless rap videos which would not have been child safe. The other TV was apparently on an endless loop of the crucifixion scene from Passion of the Christ. Watching Jesus repeated stabbed and gushing blood and water over and over was nauseating at best. All things considered, I can't see a good reason to come back. read more

It used to be good but now its the worst restaurant on earth. Food are cold and not seasoned right. The restaurant is dirty and stinky. The new owner is not as nice and pretty weird. And its just too expensive for that. Just so many problems. read more

I found this place a bit dated. Carpets coming apart and the ceiling, fish tank isn't clean, funny smell in the air. Food is below average. I don't know what else to say. I felt sick throughout the meail... read more

After changing owner nothing improved, less variety, missing Friday special Taiwan street food

So i grabbed a to go box and walled over to the buffet. ..either everyone in Durham ate everything or is just the saddest little buffet ever. Not sure what half the food was supposed to be so i grabbed some chicken and broccoli. You can't mess up chicken and broccoli. Got my stuff walked up to the register and the smell of the poorly kept fish tank hit my nose like POW. SO I PAYOFF FOR MY FOOD AND THREW IT AWAY immediately. Didn't want to hurt any feeling by ummmm no read more

Second visit and worth every penny. A lot of options to choose from and delicious Vietnamese soup and grill options. read more

Mr Wok - Yummy fried plantains and fruits for a nutritious last bite. - Chinese Near Me - Durham, North Carolina

The food was good and there was a good variety. It seemed very authentic. I loved the shrimp rice, one of the best I've every had.

Very good. There was lively tunes and the waiter was very attentive, food was good, selection was broad. Would go again.

This is one of the worst I've ever seen. The food was terrible. The decor was terrible. The floor was dirty, walls dirty, the carpet torn. It just seemed run down. I was really shocked there were so many people having lunch considering everything i was seeing. There must have been something great that i was missing, like awesome food, lo mein, egg rolls, rangoon, SOMETHING! Nuh uh. Every selection was flavorless, bland, greasy, soggy, chewy.The entire buffet seemed schizophrenic with everything alternating between "Chinese" and Mexican. Bad Mexican at that. Taquitos next to lo mein? Seriously? Avoid avoid avoid. I only stayed because i was hoping for a diamond in the rough. Nope. Just a lot of rough. Very disappointed. Should have known it would be trouble when they made me pay up front before they gave me a plate. read more

Best authentic Taiwanese food during the Weekends! Kind of a hole in the wall, but the food is excellent on the weekend.

Believe it or not, this is the best cheapo americanized chinese restaurant in the 55/540/40 delta that I've tried, and I've tried most of them. Crucially, the chicken is actual chicken flesh and not a ground processed slurry like most feature. Big buffet variety of meat in sugary sauces. Ok vegetable variety. Didn't try the breaded fried items. Avoided the seafood because that's playing with fire. Big bottles of sriracha in the buffet go a long way on blander dishes. Desserts looked dismal. Big seating area, would be good for large groups. Will return. read more