Tai Lake — Restaurant in Philadelphia

Terrible Horrible Customer service!!! The five of us went there a night after Sixers’ game. We wanted to have light dinner since we already had some food in the game. After we sat down, we told the waiter that we needed a couple minutes. While we were talking about what to order, the waiter overheard us and suggested their pricy dishes on the menu in a joking tone. We didn’t think much of it. Since one of my friends is vegetarian who would have physical discomfort after eating any meat, we mentioned multiple times that she cannot have any meat, and her dish must be vegetarian! However, she wasn’t feeling well on the way home. The most ridiculous part was after we get our check. While we were trying to figure out the numbers, this waiter came over and said to one of us “Do you know how to tip?” Then he pointed at the tipping suggestions on the recipe and goes “look at that! Now you know how to tip right?” That was absolutely unbelievable! I had never experienced such horrible customer service ever!!!! Our bill was $57, we ended up leaving 15% tip, but compared to how we were treated, we gave way more than the waiter deserved!!!! If the waiter was joking the whole time, none of us thought any of that was funny! If he wasn’t joking, then they really need some serious customer service training! Paying customer should never be treated like that!!! Here is some suggestions for whoever wants to know how this place is: if you want to have some good CHINESE food, Tai Lake might be one of your many choices in CHINATOWN, but if you are looking for a pleasant dining experience, this is definitely the last place you...

Came here for dinner while spending time in Chinatown. It's a Cantonese style restaurant focused on seafood, but also serve all the traditional dishes. As soon as you walk in, you'll see several types of fresh seafood waiting to be prepared. There's only about 8 tables inside, but was seated within 10 minutes. Service was extremely prompt. Waiter came by immediately upon sitting down to take the drink and appetizers order. Throughout the meal, he constantly stopped by to check on the meal and refill the drinks.

Started off with the Crispy Spring Rolls and the Hot & Sour Soup. Both were good, but I preferred the Hot & Sour Soup. For the meal, ordered the Pan Fried Noodles with Seafood and Sautéed Jumbo Shrimp and Scallop with Hot Garlic Sauce. Both of them came out together in about 10 minutes. Both were freshly hot off the stove and looked great. As everything is family style, both dishes were very large. Both dishes were amazing. The Pan Fried Noodles were perfectly crisp that slowly softened when mixed. All the ingredients and seafood were very fresh, flavorful, and plated nicely. The Shrimp & Scallop dish was equally good in terms of ingredients and presentation. Over the meal, had a few teapots of the hot tea that was really good.

Overall, very authentic Cantonese style restaurant serving up fresh, flavorful dishes. If it wasn't so much food, I would've loved to try more dishes. Great food and...

I usually don't write reviews, but the service I gotten today from the staff there was unacceptable. I am giving 2 stars just because of the food. The service became annoying after awhile as if they were trying to rush us out as quickly as possible because of the line that was forming outside. Basically watching over our table like a hawk while me and my friends were trying to catch up with each other. Constantly cutting our conversations off to keep trying to replace our plates when we already told them no from the beginning. At some point it became uncomfortable to eat in peace. The bill came and it was extremely high for the food we have gotten. But we did not think anything of it, the bill came to 200.. We were like okay, a bit skeptical just thought they added the tip into the bill. We were in the middle of paying, they were watching our table handling cash back and forth between each other. We paid the 200 and as we were getting up to leave. They stopped us and told us we had to pay 15% on top of the 200. We were confused, because we thought because of how high the bill was, the tip was included. Not sure where they had the pin up in the restaurant that the service fee is 15%, but it would have been great to know that ahead of time to avoid any misunderstanding. Basically forced us to pay the tip, We will not be returning to this restaurant. This is my take of this place, food is great....