Fortune Star

Yesterday was the last day for a while. Should be closed for a couple of months while they move to a nearby location. Will really miss the traditional buffet on Sundays.

Fortune Star is great. Very tasty food served hot. I ordered online for carryout and it was ready exactly when it said it would be. The General Tso’s chicken is excellent and their fried rice is above average! Giant portions, so don’t get turned off by cost.

One of the best Chinese restaurants I have been to! They always make my food fresh and extremely tasty. The décor is dated but don’t let that stop you! They offer the buffet, but I’ve never tried that. They are also extremely reasonable with huge portions!

The restaurant was pretty clean. The counter service was good. I had Beef sponges with broccoli and no flavor. If I had not been on my lunch break I definitely would have returned this dish.

Yeah, I’ve had better. But if you were buying and I’m hungry, I’d still eat there. It just wouldn’t be my first choice.
It’s an asian buffet and sometimes the food gets cold. Cold asian buffet is no good.

So I’m pretty sure the first time I went to the all-​you-​can-​eat buffet at Fortune Star is the first time my cold, hard heart experienced love.
Okay, not literally. But in all seriousness, it was wonderful. There’s tons of things to choose from, so be ready to be slightly overwhelmed, but there is definitely something there that even the pickiest of eaters will enjoy! Also, unlike some other Chinese buffets that have either very bland or very over-​seasoned food, their food actually tasted fresh and like whoever made it took time to perfect it and knew what they were doing!
The only reason I docked a star was that the service was a little under par. We waited at the front for an excessively long time to be seated, and maybe interacted with the employees for 45 seconds all together, tops. It was very slow at the time, also, which in my humble opinion means you should have no reason to give anything but great customer service!

Love this place!
Fortune star is a staple of the chinese community, which means they have a great selection of standard Chinese restaurant fare (great lomein!) AND they can pull out banquet style fare for large parties!!!
Like most Chinese Restaurants, FS has a buffet line for lunch and full menu during dinner (I think…). but What I really go for is the weekend brunch buffet!
Their great traditional brunch spread is only on the weekends. Featuring 1 table of standard Am-​Chinese food, and 1 table dedicated to authentic favorites like salted duck, spicy stewed beef/​fish, porridge, hot soy bean milk, chive pancakes, dim-​sum, Taiwanese pastries, and side dishes.
I go for the pastries, porridge and cold side dishes.
the weekends are definitely worth a visit if you like to try new things! (make sure to get there early, b/​c once the good stuff is gone they don’t have any more)

the extra star is for the mint chocolate chip ice cream.
nothing on the buffet was fresh
nothing tasted very good
the rice noodles were crunchy
the egg rolls were soggy
this is probably the 3^rd time i’ve come here because it’s been so long between times that i’d forgotten how much i really didn’t like it. for 8 bucks, you can do much better.
ew.

After moving to the far burbs less than a year ago, I searched, and searched and searched for a new Chinese delivery. I’m happy to have found this place. Excellent szechuan sauce: thick, brown, spice, sweet delicious. They have great Americanized crab rangoon (I like mine less crabby and more sweet, cream cheesy). The garlic chicken is kinda bland, so I like to order mine with a bit of spicy kick.

A lot has changed since my last review. In the recent months, they’ve added the following — homemade pork bun (this is 10 000 times better than the crap they sell at 888 supermarket). scallion pancake, noodle dishes, soymilk, and minced stew pork. All of them are traditional flavor from Taiwan. You can find some of them on Sunday buffet, for the noodle dishes, you’ll have to ask the owner and see what they have available.

I wasn’t impressed with this place. They had a buffet but the choices were limited and they were even out of two items which is a lot when you are starting with a small buffet.

I like this place, my best friend takes me there regularly since she’s friends with the owner. This place offers online ordering and deliver to me, in downtown Overland Park from 119^th St!!! I’m picky with Chinese, don’t believe they use msg. I like their beef and broccoli and shrimp with lobster sauce. Egg drop soup, crab Rangoon and spring rolls are my favorites!

I’ve been here twice before. Once for dinner — ordered off the menu; once for Sunday Traditional Buffet.
I decided to go for the Weekday Lunch Buffet today. For 1 person + drink it was about $ 8.50.
I suggest starting on the far side of the buffet where there are the «real» (traditional) Chinese offerings. Just watch for the line of Asians and follow where they go.
Today there were 4 variations. I tried one dish that I think was pork with pickled vegetables in a light brown broth. There was a seafood dish that I didn’t try. There was also Chinese Broccoli and a yummy pork soup — again a traditional broth instead of the thick consistency of egg drop or hot & sour.
If you’re looking for «lighter» buffet fare then load up on the real Chinese options and add in a few from the Americanized buffet side.
From the Americanized side I had the rice noodles, meatballs, barbecued chicken, honey chicken, general tso’s chicken, chicken and vegetables and steamed green beans.
Everything was good, but the standouts were the chicken and veggies — it had a surprisingly spicy sauce and included nice chunks of zucchini, mushrooms, onions, and peppers. The green beans and chinese broccoli were perfectly cooked — nice and crisp. The General Tso’s and the Honey Chicken were good if you like fried options, but I thought the breading on the honey chicken was a bit too heavy for my taste.
Some of the things are average — not different from any other Chinese-​American buffet, but others are worth trying. My advice on what to choose and what to pass on (nothing was «bad,» just some options are more original and tasty):
Skip the Egg Drop or Hot & Sour soup and go right to the Chinese Pork soup.
Skip most of the breaded/​fried options and opt for the dishes that are in a broth.
If you get appetizers skip the egg rolls and rangoon and choose the Chicken cho cho (on a stick), the chicken wings and the sweet potato fries and fried okra.
Excellent service during the buffet. Very attentive and friendly staff.

I have always been a fan of this restaurant until today. The food is good but the service for carry out is horrible.
I ordered lo mein and got fried rice. I ordered egg rolls and they were missing. I didn’t pay for them but specifically ordered them and was very disappointed.
After calling back to say the order was incorrect, the person who answered the phone was ridiculous. She argued the entire time and never once apologized. I didn’t want a refund or anything free. I just wanted to let them know that I wasn’t pleased and their service could be better.
After being told «So I should just go fire the son…» in reference to the guy who took the order I was done. That was when I hung up and won’t return.

Pretty average as buffets go… but then again it was after 8pm upon arrival… and things had been sitting out awhile.
I really liked the spicy chicken. I love spicy food that can kick my ass and this definitely did. I can only imagine what it would have been like fresh. I also enjoyed the shrimp dumplings. Never had them before. I probably could have made an entire meal out of them.
I was really disappointed to see the grill was shut down. I am all about the mongolian.
Service and atmosphere were good.
All in all not a bad experience. I’d be willing to give it another try… especially on Sunday when they supposedly have a more traditional chinese fare on the buffet.

Decided to try this restaurant based on Tiger’s recommendation :-)
I was mildly disappointed to find the Mongolian Grill shut down when we arrived, but not that big of a loss for me — I go for the all-​you-​can-​eat.
The menu is almost dish-​for-​dish similar to another Chinese buffet that we used to frequent (whose quality has unfortunately waned over the past year or so, and shall remain nameless for this review.)
That being said, I found the buffet at Fortune Star to be quite good — even for 8PM on a Saturday night, when they’re trying to wind down for the evening.
The sesame chicken, General Tso’s, Spicy Chicken, and egg rolls stood out positively. Everything else I tried from the buffet was very tasty (which is unusual — most of the time –something– manages to leave me with a poor impression, in my experience), and the service was good as well.
They also had oysters and crab legs available — and anyone considering this restaurant should definitely note that Fortune Star does –not– charge Extra for Crab Legs. :-)
The décor is understated but pleasant — it doesn’t scream «Chinese restaurant! «like some that I’ve seen, and made for a very relaxed environment.
It’s a little bit of a hike from Gladstone, but I would definitely go back, especially with more friends — the food quality is Worth It™.

Holy hell, those $ 5 lunch portions were large. I’ve seen the good reviews of Fortune Star and have wanted to try it for some time. Unfortunately, I haven’t had the opportunity to try any of the authentic dishes they serve. I needed a quick takeout lunch to feed myself and my dad while visiting my mom in the hospital (see my Johnny’s Tavern review for our other hospital visitation meals). Anyway, I got the vegetable lo mein and I got my dad sweet and sour pork. I know I was very impressed with my lo mein, and let me say again — that container was full! It will probably last me 3 meals, and I’m no bird.
The vegetables in each dish were nice and fresh, crisp, great! My dad was quite impressed with his sweet and sour pork…“this is how we used to get it in Topeka!”…which apparently is a good thing and hard to find (it was 30+ years ago he was nostalgic for).
The service was very friendly, and I highly recommend giving the place a try.
I scouted out the buffet, and it looked pretty standard although there were boiled shrimp on the lunch buffet, which you rarely if ever see.
I’d like to try the authentic buffet they have on the weekends, but that will have to wait until another time

Excerpts from the conversation on the way home from this place:
«Have you ever noticed that Chinese buffets always SOUND like a good idea, until you actually eat there?»
«How did that place get four stars on Unilocal?»
«Did I eat that, or rub it on my face?»
This place was SUPER mediocre. Remember Red Wheel egg rolls that you or your kids sold for fundraisers in grade school? This place may be the Red Wheel mother ship. Egg rolls and spring rolls were mushy and bland, fried rice was standard bad-​buffet fare, and food offerings consisted of the traditional overly-​breaded sweet and sour chicken, sesame chicken, beef and broccoli, and that shrimp-​and-​vegetables dish that’s on every Chinese buffet and always seems to be food poisoning waiting to happen.
The Mongolian grill looked cold and lonely, and there was no sign of anything resembling traditional Chinese food.
Reading other reviews makes me wonder if this place has changed ownership, or if Saturday is their equivalent of clean-​out-​the-​fridge day at home. Based on the reviews, I really wanted to try it, but based on our experience, I will never go back.
Food-​wise, I’d give this place two stars. I mean, it was hot, and there was a lot of it, so if those are qualities that are important to you, by all means scurry over there. I knocked off a star because it took so long to get the check — most buffets give it to you immediately, so you can eat and walk quickly to your car, head bowed in shame. This place seemed intent on keeping you there to wallow in your misery, so you could debate another trip back to the buffet for the salt-​laden rice noodles. Ick.

By far and HANDS-​DOWN, best Chinese food in KC metro area. This place makes Bo Lings taste like hot garbage with a splash of orange burst Listerine. (I didn’t like Bo-​Lings much anyway)
One of my wife’s friends who happens to be from Taiwan absolutely raved about this place. Considering she’s never enthusiastic about much, we assumed that it would be indeed great food.
Our expectations were quickly surpassed and smashed to bits.
On the standard menu, just about everything is delicious. We have had the sweet & sour chicken, General chicken, shrimp & scallops (which BTW scallops are easy to screw up), and chicken Lo-​mein. All of the meats are modestly battered, so you are really getting more meat chunks as opposed to wannabe fritters. They also have the perfect amount of crunchiness.
The buffet is probably the only Chinese buffet within a 300 mile radius worth visiting. Sunday’s equals traditional Chinese food buffet. The regular buffet is actually extremely delicious and the food is very fresh. What we usually do is order a side order of fried rice (Yong Chow as you will read later) because as usual with any buffet’s the rice served on the buffet is not the highest of quality.
The traditional menu is also incredibly delicious. For an interesting twist on soup, try the «Westlake-​style beef soup». It has shreds of beef and mushrooms.
The Yong Chow fried rice is very delicious as well compared to the standard counterpart. The Yong chow has shrimp and pork chunks with green onions and a light fry. The standard (or Americanised) fried rice is much darker (more soy sauce perhaps?) with shreds of beef, chicken and shrimp. Both are very delicious in their own unique way.
If you haven’t tried this place, you are absolutely missing out. And if you don’t find it to be tasty, its because something is wrong with your taste buds and you most likely need medical attention.

I’ve only eaten here twice, the first time was okay (I had the stir fried green beans) but the second time was unflavorable.
We, my boyfriend and I, placed a to go order for some items off of the lunch special menu and asked for no msg. We were informed that we would get steamed rice instead of fried rice which was fine by me because I don’t eat meat and their fried rice has meat in it. Unfortunately when we got the meals home (one a sweet and sour chicken and the other mixed chinese vegetables) we both had fried rice. I also am a vegetarian and ordered the mixed chinese vegetables off of the vegetarian menu and I found pieces of chicken in the dish.