Lian — Restaurant in Braintree

This was a premium restaurant back in the day serving well prepared food. In service, nothing was out of place. And I would rate the experience as a good 8.9/10. Sadly, it has lost its edge. The establishment itself hasn't changed. it's still pleasant to be in and lovely and clean. What has changed is the important bits. Table etiquette is poor,given hot towels before we ordered but not after finishing the meal. Dirty cutlery placed on table cloth after clearing a course to be re-used. General lapses in basic service. Lovely staff but not trained well. The important bit. The menu. We went for the set menu as we wanted to chat, not choose. So, I didn't really look at it in depth. Mongolian lamb was very dry, yes, served in lettuce but no plum sauce. Followed by equally dry crispy duck with a bucket load of hoi sin sauce. Pancakes had scorched. How i don't know. Then mains had zero moisture chicken with cashew was like toffee and not eaten by any of us. Generally poorly cooked with no real depth to the flavours. Dessert was sesame apple fritters, which are also dry inside. But ok. Although we did ask for some ice cream as they would be hard to eat. 20 years ago, food 8.9/10 service 9.8/10 value for money 10/10. Alas not anymore. I give it an overall today of 5.8/10 That's a real shame. It's just another Chinese restaurant now. There's nothing to...

If I could give this zero stars, I would.

This meal was advertised as being ready in 30 minutes from ordering. I arrived 25 minutes after ordering, and was left waiting on the street for a further 2 & 1/4 hours waiting for my order, in 0ºc temperatures. Literally, freezing. No explanation was given, no updates were offered, no apology was given. I was left to wait endlessly until I pushed for information. I had to go inside to get this information, increasing the risk of Covid transmission, should any of the other 33 people (at one point) also waiting for their order have the virus. I guess we'll find out in 4-5 days if I'm hospitalised or not.

Finally, when I received my order and got it home, the meal was very poor. A number of dishes were cold, some food had congealed as if it had been sitting out for some time, and was way below the standard I would expect for having paid this sum of money.

This was meant to be a pleasant evening with a takeaway at home with my wife. Instead, it was a night waiting on the street in freezing conditions, potentially catching Covid, and ultimately eating poor quality food. A poor meal, and an...

I am very impressed with Lian Chinese, we had a takeaway for my birthday last night and I would definitely buy from here again! I was very impressed at how COVID secure the staff had made it - there were minimal people at the counter, no queues outside (in fact the time slots meant no one from the public was there at all when I showed up), no need to touch doors, I was given a specific time to collect and there were great facilities including spaced waiting area, alcohol gel stations, floor markers etc. The staff were very friendly and wore their masks, and were generally very efficient. The food was absolutely amazing, not like a lot of takeaways that are full of grease, Lian Chinese food is clean, delicious and well packed so no leakages! Everything was cooked to perfection and the meat was lovely and tender! The price is a little more than most other Chinese takeaways but my gosh you do get what you pay for! Will definitely buy from Lian Chinese again, a well deserved 5* from every aspect! I look forward to the day we can eat in the...