Fortune City Chinese Restaurant — Restaurant in Great Britain

Well. This was more than a bit of a disappointment. My brother came to visit for the first time in 3 years (since before the COVID pandemic) and I wanted to treat him. We had not visited Fortune City before but the Google reviews seemed good and the photos made the place look great.

Parking was ample. A front door entrance with a rear car park was odd but fair enough. There was a decent sized waiting area, with a hobbit-hole doorway into the main restaurant and the decor was good - creating a nice cultural ambience and good mood lighting and all fittings in good order. We were greeted and seated promptly. The toilets were ok - well appointed and clean (but there was a random 2-seater table in the corridor to the toilets. I would not have been pleased if I'd been seated there!).

Sadly, that's where the good stuff ended. We were a family of 5 adults and a 6 year old. Our daughter (said 6 year old) had been given a new cuddly toy by my brother at the start of the meal and she wanted it at the table. It was close to 7pm so we thought there was scant chance of more children coming in and we asked for a high chair for the soft toy. We could clearly see a stack of them. We were refused.

We ordered food. We asked for early delivery of food for our daughter and they obliged, but their promise of "if you don't see it on the menu, ask" was a bit of an over-reach. We asked for satay chicken and they informed us they don't sell satay any more. Maybe one of the chefs has a peanut allergy, we will let that one slide... we order sweet & sour chicken without sauce, prawn crackers and a portion of chips. Food for little person arrives promptly: chips ok, prawn crackers crispy and fresh, chicken ok but needs sauce.

I have 2 dishes which I judge a Chinese restaurant by. One is aromatic crispy duck with pancakes (if I was ever on death row, this would be my last meal) and the other is crispy shredded beef with chilli. We ordered both - and several other dishes to boot. My judgement dishes did not really make the cut...

Starters: 1/2 crispy duck: enough pancakes, veg & hoi sin for 1/4 duck. Duck poorly separated. Flavours limited. Crispy salt & chilli squid: melt in the mouth in places, chewy in places. Half good, half bad. Meh Crispy spring greens: usually called seaweed, it was refreshing to see this described accurately, sadly it wasn't that crispy and was barely seasoned. Too little salt & sugar & no nutmeg.

Mains: Spicy Szechuan gungbao chicken: not that spicy at all. Average at best. Spicy Szechuan gungbao beef: slightly spicy but slightly chewy beef. Disappointing. Sweet & sour chicken: ok but nothing special. Mixed vegetables: average. Not unpleasant but nothing special. 2 portions (our mistake) of shredded chilli beef: chewy beef throughout, not spicy, not crispy, slightly too umami to be tasty. Very disappointing, we barely finished one bowl of the 2. On this dish alone, I would not return. 2 portions egg fried rice (actually ok) 3 portions boiled rice (no idea but no complaints)

The best bit was the end of the meal. My brother wanted to treat the family and offered to pay. The bill came to a little under £220. He tipped £30 cash. He explained this to the waitress who took his money and she didnt even acknowledge the tip. No thanks. No "wow!" (as in the UK, 15% is rare, let alone recognising that cash is more tip-friendly), just flipped over the receipt and checked the amount due and dialled it in.

The staff need some lessons on customer service and on inclusion. They need to be aware of generosity and recognise it and appreciate it. They need to cook better.

We travelled 7 miles, 14 miles and 194 miles respectively for this meal. We will not be returning.

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Very disappointed, we went from Knutsford to collect the chinese from them in Holmes Chapel at 5:30, we were told everything would be freshly prepared, but they gave us last night’s egg fried rice, which was stale, overly chewy, jumbled up into big balls of rice. The Kung Pu Prawns we ordered had cashews in it, although their menu doesn’t say that on it, their menu clearly says cashews present in the Emperor Prawns, so we obviously assumed Kung Pu would not have prawns in it. When we called them after coming home and seeing the stale old rice and cashews, the guy on the phone was so rude, he said “you are too irresponsible yourself not to mention your allergies”.... I was shocked, rather than apologizing, he was turning it back to us. He also admitted the rice and kung pu both were old and last nights reheated on our asking and telling that we would report to health...

We've had take away from here during the numerous lockdowns, however tonight was our first time dining in. The staff were polite and friendly, the atmosphere was nice, the decor looks fresh and classy. The food was really tasty and the portion sizes were very generous; we ended up bringing some food home with us. We ordered the pork spring rolls, bbq ribs and prawn crackers to start; it was all great and the ribs were very tender. We had the chicken Chow mein, sichuan chicken, vermicelli noodles and tenderstem broccoli. We knew as soon as it was placed down we'd be taking some home, so I would definitely recommend ordering less! We will definitely return, the...