Lantern — Restaurant in Chapel Hill

3 Strikes in One Night

I had not been back to my previously favorite restaurant since they reopened from their COVID shutdown. So for my residency graduation I went with my best friend and girlfriend for a graduation dinner.

This is a review about the horrendous service we received. Our server was *

When he asked for our drink order and we requested a few whiskey sours (the traditional way Lantern makes them with egg white) he told us that actually he and other coworkers had made 140 whiskey sours for a party earlier and he couldn’t justify cracking an egg for a whiskey sour if we wanted one… I’m sorry, but this is a premium restaurant. I’ve been to many other restaurants in Chapel Hill and they crack an egg for a whiskey sour. Lantern should be doing the same for guests and not saying “I can’t justify doing that for you.” How does every other restaurant in Chapel Hill justify that and the top Chapel Hill restaurant cannot?

We ordered appetizers. As we contemplated over the options we decided on two apps- Pork and Chive Dumplings and Japanese Crab Cakes. When * came by our table for the appetizer order we told him that and as he repeated back the appetizer order he added in Salt and Pepper Shrimp when speaking to us. When he did this, I clearly specified we did not want the shrimp and ONLY the Pork Dumplings and Crab Cakes. Our apps then get delivered by a food runner: Dumplings and Shrimp. Seems to be half correct right? Wrong. As we bit into the dumplings it was clear they were not pork. The dumplings were instead their other dumplings: Pea Shoot and Scallion. When * came by, I asked him if these were the Pork dumplings we ordered and his response was: “No, we were all out of the Pork dumplings so I ordered these so you could have some food on the table.” THE IGNORANCE OF ORDERING SOMETHING DIFFERENT WITHOUT ASKING US OR CHECKING FOR FOOD ALLERGIES? This is deceptive ignorance. I also reminded him that we did not order shrimp and instead ordered crab cakes but wanted to be easy so we agreed to eat the shrimp since it was already out.

10 mins later * returns for the main course/entree orders. My girlfriend ordered the Wok Seared Rice Noodle dish, my friend ordered the Seared Red Poll Beef at medium temp and I also ordered the Seared Red Poll Beef at medium temp. * clarified the temperature for each beef order and a reasonable person would understand that it was 3 separate entree orders as he asked each of us what we wanted and spoke to each of us directly when ordering our entree. The entrees came out by a food runner and it was only 2 dishes: 1 Beef dish and 1 Noodle dish. When asking the food runner if there was another Beef dish on the way, she was bewildered and said hesitantly “no.” * came over shortly and when I brought up the entree issue he specified that there must have been confusion when we gave him our order and he thought it was just one Beef dish and one Noodle dish. This was clearly his mistake as he had already demonstrated numerous times before, but instead of owning it and apologizing for his mishap, he blamed it on us as if we were the ones confusing him. As my girlfriend and friend finished their food my Beef dish arrived for me to eat.

None of this night was what I grew to expect at my favorite restaurant. I’ve been a waiter, it’s not an easy job so I always give waiters the benefit of the doubt. * was awful. He didn’t own his mistakes or apologize for them.

Before COVID shutdown, I frequented this restaurant over 10 times a yr, and if this is what the service has become I will not be back and will tell everyone I know to not go. We did not have a manager come and check on us. No one came to apologize for how we were treated. No items were complimentary despite all the mistakes made. And no real apologies- the one apology given was * for OUR misunderstanding to him. This service was horrendous.

**A manager contacted me the day after writing this review to listen, apologize & quickly respond to my concerns of my experience...

Haven’t been back to Lantern since 2020. Prior to 2020, my family and I frequented Lantern at least 2-3 times per month. It was one of my favorite restaurants in Chapel Hill and I was very proud to recommend this place to visitors. I absolutely loved coming here for the food, always feeling satisfied. Heartbreakingly, last week’s visit will be my last.

Service: -fast but not rushed, order was correctly placed, server was attentive -server did not however ask me for steak temp, beef came out medium, where I would have preferred medium rare (did not send back, did not want to be wasteful) -water was always promptly refreshed without asking

Ambience: -cozy -wooden bistro chairs are uncomfortable, too small (we are small people), sofa portion is fine

Food: Apps -bento box has changed, they used to have fresh wasabi, the pickled cabbage is now very acidic and overpowers the fish, the trout is still tasty -pork dumpling filling was over salted, unpleasant to eat with the soy sauce based dipping sauce -roasted oysters I didn’t understand, no flavor just oily. I did not taste any yuzu or hot peppers. We would have been happier if they were just raw -icy cucumber soup was oddly thick and had a sour almost spoiled taste -heirloom tomato salad was ok, it included fresh ripened tomatoes not plastic, but the sauce was not as umami as it used to be in the past, also while the dumplings were over salted, the tomatoes lacked any salt at all, a few Maldon salt flakes would have been sufficient to bring out the tomatoes Mains -tomato and veg stew was dry, not saucy, lack of flavor -shaking beef was over salted and as mentioned above not the temp I would have wanted, the watercress was saturated with the over salted sauce so unpleasant to eat -the Vietnamese prepared local fish was the only dish where all the flavors melded together, no complaints, perfect dish Dessert -panna cotta texture was off, appeared to be more in line with dense American Jello that was coconut flavored. In the past the panna cotta used to be soft, creamy, and light -chocolate cake was just ok, the strawberry ice cream was extremely icy and overly sour and had what appeared to be dried strawberry pieces in it(??). Once upon a time their strawberry ice cream was the best I have ever had, fresh strawberries and creamy.

Before, a dish that was consistently on their menu was seared beef, sticky rice, fried basil, sauce on the side for dipping, and grilled shallots. That dish was phenomenal. Every flavor complimented each other. I kept coming back just for this dish. My fault for expecting this to be available when we came in, but I was hoping something similar would be on the menu. Sadly, not the case. Not sure if they even have it anymore.

We ordered a lot of food, almost the entire menu, so the ~ $260 price tag was I guess warranted. However, it’s concerning that 90% of the items we ordered were so shockingly unsatisfactory. The price did not match the restaurant’s previous quality and caliber. Unfortunately, given the prices, I will not be able to come back and risk having another sub par...

I had wanted to go to this place for a long time, and boy was I disappointed with the experience. I’m rounding up to 3 stars because I can’t give half stars, but the experience was very mediocre for the price. We got a ton of food and drinks and the service was slow and inattentive. It was maybe 15 minutes from when we ordered drinks to when we got them. When the three of us had empty drinks, the waitress asked one of us if he’d like another and ignored the rest of us even though we would have liked to order more drinks. We didn’t finish eating until almost 9 despite having a 7pm reservation because the food was that slow to arrive. Throughout the night the server seemed to focus on one person, asking him what he wanted and ignoring the rest of us. Extremely strange. There are paint cloths on the wall for some reason. Food was good, but not at these prices. Of the food we had:

Dumplings: 10/10, fantastic, would order again

Green tea: 10/10

Oysters: 9/10, hard to mess up, very good mignonette

Sashimi: 8/10, very good, excellent sauce and crust

Pork ribs: 8/10, well cooked and seasoned, needed more than a butter knife to cut with

Hot chocolate cake: 8/10, also hard to mess up

Catfish: 5/10, most of the flavor came from the sauce, catfish itself was very bland

Tofu with noodles: 0/10. Fell into the very common trap of “vegetarian food doesn’t get seasoning.” Somehow the tofu was both burnt and soggy. Absolutely no garlic flavor, just bland noodles and rubbery mushrooms. The crispy onions could have maybe saved it if there were more than 2. Really terrible.

We probably won’t be going to this place again, which is sad, because I love dumplings. Good thing there are better dumpling places in town with less...