Lai Ling — Restaurant in Birmingham

Myself and my friend came to those restaurant as we wanted a Chinese buffet over a nice meet up. When we arrived, we were led to our table (2 person table), which was fine. However, when a family of 4 were seated next to us about 10 minutes after we got there- then it felt like I was shoved into a corner and the lady next to us was that close, when she flicked her hair back, it hit my table and nearly my food (not her fault of course, but it was not good enough as there were plenty of other tables they could have been sat at). In terms of food, myself and my friend ordered our starters separately & when it arrived, everything was on 1 big plate, meaning when I tried to separate my food from hers, half of mine went on the table as I wasn’t given a big enough plate to accommodate my yuk sung- this might sound picky, but if I’m paying for my food, I want to eat it :( Next of all, we were told that with our main dishes, they will be on separate dishes (yay!). However, because the plates are small, we ate them quick as we only chose 2 each & we’re ready to order our next ones- it took a while for these to be ordered but that’s okay as we understand there were other people too. By the time out dishes came, they were really small for mains so I had lots of rice left over from the one dish & I couldn’t eat the other as it not only looked inedible (see picture) but the texture was like raw chicken! I really politely apologised that I couldn’t eat the food as i physically couldn’t swallow it. I was told that I’d get charged an extra £5 because “it’s a waste” even though id already paid for my buffet meal. As well as this, my friend’s other dish didn’t arrive. We waited ages for it & when we asked the manager where it was, she said we had to eat the dishes we had on our table before the next could come out. This was a bowl of rice and cold curry (cold from waiting for her chips to come out). All of our food was vile it was frozen food that had been cooked there and then gone stale from waiting to come out. When we asked the waitress to help us understand why we wasn’t aloud to get any other food or else we’d be charged (we were really polite about this), the manager came over & pretty much butted in & said that “if we have any complaints don’t gossip and talk to her”. At this point, we were hungry & frustrated because we were being treated like idiots (not by the waitresses but the manager). Even though she was saying this in a polite manner, it was very passive aggressive and confusing because we hadn’t done anything wrong. This might sound silly, but we felt uncomfortable with how their sea life was kept. There were multiple large fish (about 15 fish) in the tiny A3 sized fish tanks; call me picky but there were too many in the tanks compared to the regulations of how...

This used to be one of the best Chinese restaurants in the west Midlands. Went there tonight for the 'all you can eat' buffet. This used to be amazing from start to finish. Unfortunately the establishment must have changed hands. The decor is appalling, looks just as it did when it was a public toilet, Unfortunately I think there was more food in there when it was a public toilet. Also each table is segregated by a shower curtain! I'm being serious! The portion size was atrocious, for my starter I ordered duck pancakes (1 pancake) yuk sung (1 lettuce) satay chicken skewers (2 tiny fillet less filling than cheese and pineapple cocktail sticks) and salt and chilli chicken wings (2 deep fried tasteless wings) it takes 15 minutes each order and you have a maximum time of 2 hours. I left not only feeling hungry but questioning who would actually be full after paying £21.50 for this horrendous buffet. They also now make you pay before you order. This must be due to them knowing you will not be happy with what you have got for your money. Maybe even having lots of people in the past refusing to pay for it. I genuinely feel that this buffet would not fill an umpa lumpa never mind a 6ft 4 Scandinavian like myself. I think it is actually quite insulting giving these portions to people especially when everything tastes so bland and boring as it did. Also I ordered a glass of coke which was £3! It's cheaper to buy a massive 1.5ltr bottle from the service station at Hopwood. Management looked at us like lunatics when wanting to order more. If I was to give anyone thinking of going there any advice it would be.... get yourself a bigmac meal, it has much more flavour and is a lot more filling. And ofcourse less than a quarter of the price. Also, they have no care for animal rights. They have as many as 20 fish in one small tank that was that dirty and murky that you could not even see them until they swam up to the glass. Absolutely...

Absolutely awful experience! This restaurant used to be a lovely place and had a lovely atmosphere where the waiters and manager could not do enough for you. Not the same at all! Avoid at all costs especially if you have allergies! My 10yr old daughter is celiac and we told them in no uncertain terms she could not have gluten as she would be very ill. They told us they had a lot of gluten free options and talked through the menu saying it could all be done gluten free. Due to their advice my daughter ate the prawn crackers while we decided what to eat. I double checked that the food she was offering was fried separately to which the waitress replied no! So actually nothing was gluten free and my daughter had already eaten some contaminated food! My daughter had the rice noodles as they are gluten free and they assured me these would be fried separately. The food came out and we began eating, thankfully my daughter didn’t tuck into the noodles straight away as the waitress came running out and starting asking if she had ate anything yet because the noodles had been cooked in soya sauce and therefore we’re NOT gluten free! My 10yr old daughter has suffered all day with an extreme stomach ache (I dread to think how ill she’d be if she’d eaten the noodles) because of their lack of knowledge into food safety and allergens. I would hate for this to happen to anyone else who trusts them when they say their food is gluten free and become very ill. The food we did get was either extremely burnt or mushy like a paste, not to mention tasteless. When I told the waitress the food wasn’t very nice she laughed! No apology or acknowledgment at all! First red flag should have been them asking for us to pay upfront! My own fault, should have read the reviews first... needless to say we didn’t eat much but what little my daughter did eat has made her poorly and so it has...