Eastern Empire — Restaurant in England

Usually buy my Chinese when driving through Crowlas. This time I ordered from home. The food was fine, but noticeably overpriced. Ordered by phone as did not trust on online order page to work. It was however easy to add items to basket.

Was told on phone that 40 minutes which I thought was long for a small order. When I arrived not only was the price 10% higher but I had to wait an extra 15+ minutes over the 40 min quoted.

What seemed clear was this business is largely focused on deliveries, that’s why so many of us were waiting excessive time. Maybe telephone orders get priority or staff do not know timescales to tell customers who ring or walk in. Timescales showing for online orders seem a lot longer, maybe they are more accurate? Over an hour for a telephone order and nearly half as long again to the time given has put me off ever using again.

And that 10% extra if you order on phone and come into collect? Nothing I saw on website or menu. Prices are clear online but seems they don’t apply if you phone or walk in!

When you have ordered, turned up after possible very long wait time, you are greeted with a piece of paper stick by till - 10% extra if not ordered online. Bit late then . . .

So order online seems to be route, food is fine and wait is easier if it’s being delivered. But I felt conned and extra long wait made it an easy decision not to return. I’ll leave space for all those online ordered and deliveries. Clearly most now use that route as many more packages exiting when I waited than serving those in waiting area.

Business should alter website to make clear its prices only apply if ordered online and those who phone in should be told when ordering that 10% surcharge to prices...

We ordered for delivery and recieved the food within 15 minutes. I already thought there was no way this is fresh. The chilli chips were wet on the outside from the seasoning but drier than a sandal in the centre. They had obviously been sat around for a while. The sweet and sour sauce was okay but all coagulated so again was obviously not fresh. The bean curd skins were soggy even though supposed to be deep fried and we had the same issue with the 'crispy' chilli beef. It was all soggy and chewy. No crunch to it at all. The curry sauce tasted like flour, very bland, nothing like I had tasted before. The bang bang chicken was nothing like bang bang chicken. It was some shop bought pre cooked chicken strips chucked on a little lettuce and some sort of peanut mayo. Overall this is probably the worst chinese takeaway we have ever had. Nothing was fresh and nothing tasted good . We were first time customers and I will tell you we will not be back. Maybe we just ordered the wrong items but with it all not being fresh and not to any standard we have had before I feel this is one to miss for sure. I would rather eat my...

Bought Chinese for 4 people. Spent a good amount of cash. We were told the wait would be 20 minutes so we decided to get a drink while we wait. We weren't allowed to sit at a table even though the restaurant was completely empty and we'd spent just as much (if not more) than someone would in the restaurant! BAD SERVICE and very rude way to treat good paying customers. We had to put our bottle of wine on the floor while we drank standing up staring at a restaurant full of empty tables. Unbelievable.

Got home and didn't have the beef curry we'd ordered and paid for. The batter on the sweet and sour prawns was far too thick and stodgy. The chicken foo young was like scrambled egg with chicken, rather than a chicken omelette.

All in all a very bad experience that we will...