Mandarin Kitchen — Restaurant in London

Service is bad. We were asked to go in and take a seat. No menu was given to us. We were completely left out and they were serving other groups which came behind us. When we asked why isn’t a menu given to us, they replied “I thought you guys have ordered and I didn’t bring you guys in”.

The whole restaurant, only 4 groups were dining in, but we were the ones that got left out.

The first impression, just spoil our whole experience here.

Ordered the lobster noodle and assorted mushroom, completely salty.

—-

The claims made below by the restaurant of us just walked in without informing is untrue. We had waited by the entrance, there’s a lady in front of us. We were told by a lady staff, who were setting up the tables and chairs outside the restaurant, to find any seats available and take a seat. Beside that, the service staff have lack of situational awareness knowing we are in sitting there and don’t even know what we are there for and just assuming we had placed our order without even checking on us. Deeply disappointed. We had videos, which my friend took of the restaurant outside, as it’s our first time here, showing I actually waiting by the door for someone to attend to us.

Below screenshot, it’s a video which showed, we actually waited by the entrance and was told to be seated.

Picture 1 - clearly showed my finger, showing indication of 2 pax dining in.

Picture 2 - we are standing by the entrance and when the staff told us to take any seat.

Picture 3 - waiting by the entrance door, a lady staff came to us.

If your cctv showed we just walked in and just sat on the table without informing anyone, it’s a false allegation. Do show your cctv for prove please.

Always think, before you talk. And don’t create stories, without evidence.

——

A reply to your reply, again.

You mentioned you do not need to lie or create unnecessary stories. Please proof to me by sharing the cctv you mentioned I walked in unannounced when my images here clearly showed I request for a seat of 2 pax.

Your service is extremely disgusting and worst than a fast food restaurant. I hope people who are looking at reviews on this restaurant, do look at other people who rated 1-3 stars. They have the exact same experience with me on their service and the way they reply customer (even on google review) is really rude for a service...

I would give them zero stars if I could! When I rang up to book a table, they advised me that I’ll only be able to have the table for 1 hour 45 mins because Sunday noon is a busy time for them to which I said ok. My friends and I arrived on the dot at 12:00 but were advised that they were not open yet because their employees were still having their meal – ok fine. Doors later open at 12:15pm. We took about 10-15 mins to order our food (12:30pm) and at 13:30 – no food to be found. The place was very under staffed and no one really cared about us. We tried asking for our food to be checked, but nothing really happened. At 13:50 – all our food arrived so that was 1.5 hours of waiting. While waiting, we asked for the wine menu but they brought us the dessert menu. We told them we asked for the wine menu and she insisted that we had asked for the dessert menu. We ordered a bottle of wine by pointing at it on the menu and said to bring 5 glasses along with it, it needed to be repeated two times, after which another guy came to clarify, again!! One dish of ours never arrived so we enquired about it and was told that dish was sold out. By then we thought, ok – whatever, as long as it doesn’t show up in our bill later, but the dish randomly appeared after. So information earlier was incorrect. Their food portions are quite small so neither of us were full even though when we ordered, we asked the waitress if it was enough and she said yes. We ordered 8 dishes between 11 people. We decided to add more food (3 dishes) and we waited a further 20 mins for the dish to arrive. To be honest, by the end of the seating, I was so over the restaurant that I just wanted to pay and get out. After all, it was 14:30 by then. They also claim that they serve yee sang, but please don’t go there for it. It only has a few pieces of vegetables, no crispy stuff and quite a bit of raw salmon. That’s not...

It was my last night in London after a 2 year hiatus from travelling. Friends had also told me that it's pricey & I was prepared to pay for it. I am the type who don't mind spending on good food and I was looking forward to trying out the 'best lobster noodles' in the world.

The lobster was coated with a thin layer of flour and deep fried before cooking. This caused the meat to be hard and overcooked. The noodle also tasted like it had been fried before mixing in with starchy gravy. The result was oily soggy noodles that was kind of overbearing. The gravy was just the usual starchy type used in seafood horfun or crispy noodles and lacked the umami flavour of lobster broth that I was expecting.

I have had better lobster noodles elsewhere. There are restaurants you will want to keep going back (like the roast duck from Gold Mine down the road), restaurants to try at least once in a lifetime but won't want to go back again and those that you regret wasting your calories. I will put this under the last category.

Lastly, the price was not shown on the menu. Upon request I was told the lobster was £42 and additional £4 for the noodles. This was a big jump from before (my airline crew friends who recommended the place said it used to cost £28). I was hoping for that the price better be worth it but unfortunately it was not.

Above is my personal opinion. I have had really good lobster noodles in random Chinese restaurants when I was traveling in San Francisco and I was looking forward to some warm hearty noodles soaked with the unami flavour of lobster broth and fresh, tender springy lobster meat. MK unfortunately fell...