China Restaurant Laoxiang — Restaurant in Berlin

First of all, food was better and more authentic than in most German "Asian/Chinese" restaurants. I appreciate having original dishes rather than the German standard, which is mostly a mix of Viet, Thai, Japanese and Chinese, in a terrible qualitiy.

However, I ate much better in other Chinese restaurants in Berlin and the food is still "Germanized" and nothing special.

Which made the experience so bad is the service, starting at the moment we stepped into the restaurant and ended, with getting the bill.

We were not greeted, only got a table assigned after actively asking for it and waiting for the menu for a couple of minutes.

Doesn't sound too bad? The "waiter", who was a grumpy elderly guy who obviously hates every minute of his day, did not say a word to my wife or me, throwed the menu on our table and walked off. When taking the order, he asked my wife if she doesn't understand English (her English is probably better than his Mandarin) because of a misunderstanding and couldn't be bordered to even look at us. This elderly guy (was the oldest one by far of all waiter) should work in a fullfilment center without human interaction but not at all in a job where he has to communicate to any other people. We could notice the same rude behaviour from him to other tables.

When trying to pay, we were asking several waiters for the bill and had to wait 10 minutes + for it. For the first time ever I was actually considering leaving without paying.

Were we rude at any time? Not at all. We came in joyful, expecting great food and at least an "OK" service. However, non of this happened and the "service" was worse than going to any German authority (if you have dealt with them, you'd know how terrible the service is).

After spending a long time in China, HK and also Taiwan, I would say I can tell what is an original dish and what is not. Indeed, Laoxiang does do an OK job but you will find much better places in Berlin (check out "Good Friends").

Which "stands out" at this place is the extremely terrible and rude service (especially the elderly guy, who even seemed to be in charge) and therefore, I would recommend to anyone to avoid this place...

edit: 2024. the worst peking duck i’ve had the misfortune to have. Went for my birthday dinner, after having eaten here a couple times and upon the new year Chinese restaurant recommendations of a IG food blogger. The pancakes were tortilla bread cut into triangles (like the the supermarket kind)! The duck tasted like just regular fried duck (Chinese german style?) and served chopped into pieces with all the bones rather than served the traditional way with crispy skin and with bones removed for ease of wrapping in thin round pancakes. how are you supposed to wrap duck bones in a pancake? It felt insulting to be served these dishes ( but most Westerners have nothing to compare it to) and also disappointing for a birthday dinner. The food doesn’t match the enticing pictures in the menu. The crispy roast pork and CHAR SIU (CHINESE BBQ PORK) was equally disappointing. German roast pork belly would have been better. I guess i’m just used a much higher standard from average casual eateries (not even upmarket restaurants) in both china and australia. the sichuan boiled beef was terrible compared to what i’m used to. The special fried rice was very bland (and i love my fried rice!) Maybe their dim sum is better. The radish cake was tasty. They didn’t have the egg tarts on the night. For what it’s worth i had great peeking duck in Madrid at an affordable price...so i know it’s possible in europe. I just can’t afford to keep trying places in Berlin.

2022: Nice find! The chilli fish oil pot is great and the rice dough rolls are genuine (actually fresh and not frozen packages from the Asian supermarket- which always makes me suspicious of Berlin restaurants when the dim sum is available at Go Asia). Looking forward to trying more. The dine-in menu is much more extensive than the delivery options on wolt. If eating-in they have a lunch deal. The eggplant with meat was also great. Surprisingly good for Berlin! Oh and the congee was a generous portion unlike a nearby place also reviewed. It’s not cheap, but I don’t feel ripped off, because there are more expensive places with...

One star is already too much for their terrible service and attitude. 😡 Yesterday we went there to celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival, ordered 4 dishes in total. We got the starter and one main dish, then the boss brought us a dish we never ordered. After I pointed it out to him, he said “well, you can returned it” and just took it away with no explanations nor a “sorry””. Soon after he brought us the “double fried beef” we ordered, but from the first piece I tasted there was a fish bone in it, the meat was also too soft to be beef.. we asked the boss again, to see if it was another mix-up, he consisted that it’s beef despite seeing the fish bone on my plate, then said again” you can return it”. And took it away. They didn’t care to bring the other dish we ordered, but at this point we were already super disappointed and even shocked about how they are dealing with the situation. Throughout the whole time we were there, they didn’t apologize even once for this bad experience and didn’t say “goodbye “ when we exited. Being Chinese myself, It’s so sad to see my “Laoxiang” doing business in such demeaning manner! I’ve visited here once a year ago, now they raised the price but lowered literally everything along with it! Definitely not coming back anymore, and I will never recommend this terrible experience to...