The Elephant — Restaurant in England

This is quite a smart restaurant with.a nice interior. It has a new modern feel and everything was clean. Arriving early in the evening just as they’d opened we have free choice of which table we wanted and picked a round one in the corner. This gave plenty of space but to be fair everywhere is spacious and there’s also good options for large groups. Each of the tables had a bowl of prawn crackers on which was nice, although it would have been nice for these to be topped up throughout the meal.

The staff were friendly and quick to bring menus and take drinks orders. Unfortunately they were down to the last bottle of my beer of choice but there’s plenty of other options. The food menu is equally as varied with both Chinese and Thai dishes. There’s also a number of set menus and given the apparent value of them opted for the second on the menu.

This was a great choice since there was plenty of food for two people and all of it really tasty, with the exception of the crispy chilli beef which didn’t appear to have much meat in at all. Each of the courses was brought in a good time without making us feel rushed and the crispy duck was shredded and prepared at the table.

Throughout the early evening there was a constant stream of people arriving to collect takeaway orders which demonstrates the quality of the food and the restaurant also filled up quickly creating a good atmosphere; although I feel it would have been nicer to have some more traditional music reflecting the cuisine rather than the random UK chart hits which were playing.

Overall it was decent value for money with friendly staff. The quality of food was pretty good and for more of an occasion it’s well worth dining in rather than...

Good food but the service and atmosphere was terrible.

Been coming here since its opening night and today ( Friday ) at 8pm we thought we’d pop along. We hadn’t booked but we chanced it. We were the only customers, which is surprising as Bedford/Kempston doesn’t have many good Chinese restaurants and we did class this as our favourite.

We tried to order a rose wine ( only one on the menu ) but they had none. They only had one rose on the menu. So somebody clearly can’t control their stock levels. So we settled on a white. It took 3 staff members to remove the cork from the bottle. The server seemed puzzled when we said we would like to try the wine, however it was a really nice white rioja. We ordered the food and as always it was lovely. Could not fault it. The biggest problem was the staff. There seemed to be no passion or engagement. None of the regular staff were there from previous visits and the atmosphere was not the same. It really felt it had been taken over and the staff had no training. Such a shame. To us good service is a very important part of the meal, as is the atmosphere. If you like good Chinese I’d recommend as our food as always was good but be prepared for some service issues, hence the low rating. Will give it ago again and hopefully give it a 5 star review...

Ordered a takeaway which already had a 90mins delivery wait for me and my guests. After 2hrs, I called to be told it's on the way, with no apologies offered. Another 30mins passed with no signs of it turning up or updates. I called again to ask what was going on, to be told 'it's on the way,' I explained my guests are having to leave shortly and I will be left with 6 ppls worth of food and my guests will leave hungry(including kids), what are they going to offer me. 'We can't offer you anything' was what I was told. I asked her to speak to her manager. She comes back to tell me, 'it's on the way and we can't offer you anything, but will call the driver'. The delivery driver then turns up after the taxi for my guests arrive(the taxi, very kindly offered to wait 15mins so they could at least eat something). Food scoffed, with no time for dessert. Not even offered discount/refund/vouchers for our extremely long wait by the restaurant. And, they didn't even throw in any Prawn Crackers, knowing the wait was extremely long. AND, to top it off, I paid £5.00 for this 2.5hrs delivery service. Absolutely shocking way to treat their customers. Recommend you try any other of the Chinese restaurants...