Lakeside Chinese Cuisine — Restaurant in Rancho Santa Margarita

Lakeside recently changed ownership. What once was an awesome restaurant has now degraded into subpar quality. This was my favorite restaurant but I must say the food is no longer delicious. New ownership did keep the original menu; however, the quality of the food and serving size has greatly suffered. The food lacks flavor and freshness. My husband ordered Orange Chicken,, which came out more like hard tiny bits of deep fried flour lacking chicken. It was too hard and dry to eat. Spring rolls are now 1/3 the original size and are mainly fried roll with very little filling. Not sure what the filling was, it was mushy and dark colored, while the dough was rubbery. The spring rolls were NOT what you would expect. Finally, One of my favorite low carb dishes, Seafood HAPPY Family, which used to have an abundance of grilled succulent fresh giant shrimp and large scallops and chicken breast with steamed veggies and white sauce now is a mush of small shrimp and dried chicken coated is a slug of flour and corn starch. There was only 1 tiny bit of scallop. The dish tasted of gooey starch. Freshness of vegetables was lacking. Instead of big broccoli flowerettes, the dish was loaded with thinly sliced zucchini and carrots. The new owner may have kept the original menu but ingredients are no longer the same. In addition, staffing has changed. What once was a friendly and warm atmosphere has turned into cold indifference.

It is a shame to see a once friendly and generous restaurant degrade into sad dishes...

I have always liked this place. The owners, servers and staff are friendly. I continue to buy their food because I want to be able to go back after Covid. I hope everyone is doing the same. Try their hot tea when that happens. Also their hot mustard is unbelievable. Don't use your normal amount as it will clear or tear several passageways when it hits. I love their less known dishes and they have lots of them such as their house garlic special. A lighter brown sauce that has an amazing flavor served with the meat of your choice. By the way almost all their dishes are customizable with your preference of meat, veggies, tofu, veggies, seafood or nothing at all. Their moo shoo is awesome. They have a pork cooked 3 times dish and their sizzling rice soup which are very simple and delicious. I love that they remember me and give me extra sweet and sour for the kids and make sure I have enough fortune cookies for everyone. Help support them through Covid and let's hope they are here...

My girlfriend and I wanted to try this new Chinese restaurant and what a huge mistake that was. We should have stuck with our goto (Asian Kitchen - The best in Orange County). We paid $25 for a quart of house special Lo mein which they call Chow Mein and an order of pot stickers that looked like they were frozen out of a box. The Lo mein was awful and it tasted like nutmeg. In the entire portion, there were 4 shrimp that's it. I would never go to this place again. We sat down to eat (take out) and we both looked at each other and said, this is bad. We ended up having cereal for dinner. We through $25 to the win and hope that many people avoid this place at all costs.

I am a New Yorker born and raised and worked in NYC for over 18 years. Chinese is one of my favorites and I know good Chinese food when I eat it. Lakeside...