Lotus — Restaurant in Mooresville

This weekend I called to place an order for to go. I specified that I would not be able to pick the order up until 10pm. The girl on the phone said that was fine since the restaurant did not close until 10:30 pm. I placed my order and my boyfriend paid over the phone.

I got to the restaurant earlier than expected -- about 9:50 -- and the place was deserted. A couple was leaving and they rolled down their window to tell me they had been asked to leave because the restaurant was closing. I thought, this can't be right! I tried to go in and sure enough, the door was locked. The manager came out to tell me they closed early since it was slow. I explained that I had placed an order to be picked up at 10pm and that I had already paid.

The manager insisted that I must have called the wrong restaurant and that I had no record of my order, even when I showed him the receipt that was emailed to my boyfriend from PayPal (he used his PayPal mastercard). I also showed him where I had called their phone number at around 8:45 pm. He refused to even investigate my $30 order and just said that he was sorry, he doesn't have my order. He wouldn't even go in to look for a printed or written receipt from their end, not even to help refund the money!

I have been eating Chinese here since I was a kid, even though many of my friends say that it's the worst place to get Chinese due to horrible service. I never had a problem until now.

What kind of business asks people to leave because they are closing early, mysteriously misplaces a paid order, and doesn't even offer to help the person who paid for NOTHING? I will never be back. Luckily PayPal is great about disputing things like this so, no thanks to the rude manager, we might get...

First visit here and I have to test a Chinese restaurant based their General Tso's Chicken. Before I tell you about that I have to tell you that this place is very friendly and the service is on point. Upon arrival I noticed that half of the vehicles in the parking lot were pickup trucks. I was seated quickly and presented with fried wedges of crispy puffs of dough and a bowl of sweet sauce, better than duck sauce, and a spoon to ladle the sauce onto the chips. The sweet tea was dark and full bodied, very good. Now the downside. First I have to say my rice ball was perfect. When it comes to general tso's chicken I have been spoiled by the Chinese restaurants in Washington DC. All of them make it the same way and it is all delicious. The crispy chicken should come in a bowl full of that delicious sauce, chunks of red pepper and broccoli. All of the authentic Chinese restaurants serve it that way as intended by the original recipe from San Francisco. And I must admit that the food was very filling but very lacking in depth of flavor. It was not fiery hot and the sauce was almost colorless and there was no broccoli to be found. Everything around that dish was wonderful except for the main course itself. I love the setting because it's a nice intimate little restaurant with very friendly people. I doubt that I will ever be in that area again but it might be worthwhile to try a...

For the life of me I cannot figure out how this place has anything beyond a 2 star review. We have lived and worked in the area for over 10 years and just recently came to Lotus on a Sunday when Eatabowl was closed. We should have turned around when we saw the buckets of water on the ground from the ceiling leaking, yes is was raining, yes they have severe water damage that needs to be addressed. The entire cealing looked like it was about to cave in. The health department really needs to go and review this building. If this is what the dining room looks like, I would hate to see the kitchen. For some reason they had all the customers crammed into one small room, during a pandemic, instead of using both rooms (L-shaped building) so you felt like you were right on top of the person next to you and hearing their every sound. Their food was also disgusting. I've had better Chinese food in mall food courts. It was this dark meat soggy chicken with more breading than actual meat. We ordered Szechuan chicken, sesame chicken and lo mein noodles. For a table of four they brought us a rice bowl, the size of a cereal bowl... for four people. The rice was about the only thing we could stomach. I would not go here again if the food was free. This is by far the worst dining experience we've had in...