Ming Court Chinese Restaurant & Lounge

I'm reviewing this based on other options available in Walla Walla - which are seriously lacking.  We are recent Walla Walla transplants from Southern California, and were so happy to finally eat some decent Chinese food.  Like another reviewer said, nothing stands out as fabulous, but everything was tasty and hit the spot.  We tried two other places in Walla Walla and were grossed out by both.

When we feel like Chinese food delivery this is the only place we call.  Consistently good food and decent prices!  It's not gourmet people - it's not P.F. Changs for crying out loud!

Beware that another local joint is advertising their phone number as "Ming's Chinese Court" and you'll get the nasty food we got by mistake once - always double check when they answer the phone you're getting the right place!  I have to wonder if some of the bad reviews came from that.

Disclaimer: I only went here once, and it was for the lunch buffet. Once was enough for me, though.

So, I'm not claiming to actually have gone into their kitchen and checked, but I have a sneaking suspicion that Ming Court got a really good deal buying a ton of brown gravy mix. At least that would explain why everything seemed to be slathered in some version of it.

Put briefly, this place lived up to every fear I had about Chinese food out here in the boondocks. It WAS a step up from eating paste, because paste doesn't have any vegetables in it - not even gooey limp ones. The predominant flavor palette was:
a) Grease.
b) Salt.
c) Brown gravy.

Maybe you're into that. Maybe your idea of a walk on the culinary wild side is putting snow peas in your boiled dinner. If so, you will love this place, because it is a temple to Insipidum, God of Blandness.

They get an extra star because the place was clean and service was fine. That counts for something, I guess. And the white rice was totally everything white rice is supposed to be, so, nice job there guys.

It'd probably be more fair of me to go back and order something off of the menu; perhaps they put a little more effort into stuff that won't be spending two hours in a steam tray. Honestly though, I'm not about to gamble on it here, as I walked out feeling like I'd just slurped up Asianized gruel. Girlfriend and I looked at each other as soon as we got out the door and just said, "Wow."

And not in that good way.

This place can be great .... Or poor. Service is good but the food varys from day to day in the quality of it.