Imperial China — Restaurant in New Forest

Oh my; what can I say? I don't think I've ever come across such a rude person "greeting" (I really am using that word loosely) yet at the same time causing me to chuckle away to myself.

As we arrived he was dealing with a couple before us - by dealing with what I mean is they asked "Can we have a table" to which he replied "No, we are booked full". Short, sharp and to the point, however, they left muttering away to themselves, quite angry as how they had been spoken to; they also mentioned how there were a dozen empty table (we just assumed the people for those were turning up later).

Then it was our turn; we were also asked "what do you want?" (in an extremely blunt manner) to which replied "can we place a takeaway order, please?". Our reply, as he pointed to a sofa against the wall was "sit there; I'll get back to you" and he walked away. At this point we did consider leaving, yet we'd driven another town to get there and didn't really want to waste our time looking elsewhere.

Several people received the same treatment at the couple before us, although he did tell one of them "try at 8.30" before walking away from them. Finally, he was ready for us, he looked over and shouted across "you want to place an order, come with me". We did as we were told.

Once our order was placed we were told to sit back down again, and our food would be with us in 10-15. It took 25 minutes, but ho hum; it was wildly entertaining to sit and watch how he dealt with people. He really would give John Cleese a run for his money.

The food was 'ok' and edible, but there was nowhere near enough sauce for the sweet and sour chicken balls one of our group ordered, and the batter was hard, and burned in a couple of places. The egg fried rice was very bland and I can honestly say I never saw a single thing which could have resembled egg. It was also about 15% dearer than other places in/and around, the area.

I doubt I'll go back for food, but it's a great place to keep yourself entertained for 20 minutes if you're bored on a...

This used to be a "treat" restaurant... Unfortunately it doesn't feel much of a treat anymore. An unhealthy number of hygiene stars greet you as you walk in to boot. Went there for a takeaway at 9pm on a Saturday. The place was unfortunately dead. Am glad we weren't eating in! The food was good. The crispy lettuce start (sorry used to be the crispy lettuce starter) was good but bring back the lettuce!! Duck for pancakes, lamb for lettuce!! All in all, the food was good. I do struggle to justify Restaurant prices for a takeaway but living where we do, it's our closest and I appreciate they are operating out of a restaurant so there are additional overheads. Hopefully the next review will see a better hygiene rating and a...

We went for lunch on December 31st and were made to feel unwelcome because they were closing at 2 pm and had to prepare for New Year’s Eve and made sure to tell us several times. If they didn’t want to be open to customers before the evening they should have closed for lunch. As such we felt rushed.

They brought our food quickly but we had to flag them down to get soy sauce and another coke.

The so called spicy tofu was sweet and looked nor tasted nothing like real Szechuan tofu (aka mapo tofu). The egg fried rice was really good. The spicy crispy beef was good according to my spouse but the birds nest it was served in was terrible.

Tea was hot and plentiful. The meal came with two wrapped...