Lantern Chinese Restaurant — Restaurant in Columbus

I have been coming to The Lantern for over 20 years. I've always loved it. That's why it pains me to write this review. Management/ownership changed maybe a year ago and I'm seeing the place steadily decline. Today at lunch I was seated and when I scooted into the booth my feet slid on the tile under the table and I fell into the seat. I asked the young waitress if the floor had just been mopped but she said no. We moved to another table and same thing. I've never noticed this before but the floor did appear very dirty, especially the grout.

I ordered two of my faves, the combination sizzling rice soup and the shrimp, asparagus appetizer. The soup came out first and I couldn't eat the shrimp, they tasted horrible, hard to describe but very dirty like the kitchen sink. And the beef was very fatty & spongy. Yuck. The appetizer came second and was only luke warm.

I've also noticed the last three times here, I had a migraine (I am prone) after eating, so today I asked if they've changed and are using MSG (one of my triggers). The waitress checked and returned to say yes. Strangely later, she said they told her no but thinks it would be good to always order without MSG. (???)

I've also sadly noticed the place is not as clean lately. There was a nasty smear on my table today that was there from a past diner. That, combined with the floor was gross.

I truly and sincerely hope the management here takes the extra steps needed to bring the place back up to par. There are far too many restaurants in the area to keep me, or anyone coming back...

Well, where do i begin? Moving down to columbus and trying to find a good chinese restaurant is hard considering the options. My travels brought me to Latern chinese restaurant and after buying and driving home I found this to be a mediocre at best spot. Authenticity is key in ethnic cuisines and this one doesnt miss the nail with the amount of fish oil they pour into there meals. I mean its excessive in taste to the point that the Pork fried rice and the Crab meat wraps felt like it was cooked in fish oil. When going tona Chinese restaurant I always stick to the basics and order Chicken and Broccoli and again an order that needs to pizazz was bland, watery and only had a flavor of salt and more fish oil or paste. Im glad I didnt order the egg drop soup as i would imagine there would be a watery viscosity instead of its thicker soup counterparts. My girlfriend agreed as well, she ordered the "Spicy" orange chicken, which suprisingly had the right texture of breading. However the sauce had a taste of what i would say more lemon grass then anything and Chinese Lanterns signature fish oil/paste flavor. Crab meet wraps were okay nothing wrong here other then the oil flavor, but 10 small wonton wrapped crab meats for $9.50 Yikes! Thank God i ordered white rice would recommend just in case. All in all, dinner size chicken and broccoli, 2 crab wraps, large pork rice and dinner size orange chicken $38.50 is extremely steep for a 2/5 stars kind of place. But...

My son and I ate here tonight. He got the Orange Chicken and I got the Honey Walnut Chicken. Now I just want to say that I normally get the Mongolian Beef and that stuff is usually amazing. Tonight I decided to try something different and my son wanted Orange Chicken but didn't want Panda Express. The Orange Chicken had so many LARGE pieces of orange peel in it that he kept getting bites of it (it was hard to see in the sauce when his plate was full) that he said it was bitter. And there was so many red peppers in it that he said it was like eating through a minefield. In fact, 20 minutes after eating he said he was going to rinse his mouth out because he couldn't get rid of the bitterness in his mouth. The Honey Walnut Chicken was good but first of all, the description didn't say it was a cream sauce...I don't normally like cream sauces. Also, I expected more of a honey flavor...no. There was apparently mustard in the sauce (not in the description) and the mustard flavor was so strong that I could only eat about half of it. And I LIKE mustard! Nothing in the description indicated a honey-mustard sauce, which I normally do NOT like.

We also got pot stickers and spring rolls which were both excellent.

I will still go here again for the Mongolian Beef but I'll be a little leery of trying anything else on their menu after...