Big Lantern — Restaurant in San Francisco

I love Big Lantern.

I honestly feel that this place deserves a higher rating than it currently has (4.2). I have been here multiple times, in person and ordering online.

In person the restaurant is your typical old school Chinese spot with aunties taking your order. The place has no frills, it’s a very straight up and down Chinese restaurant. The waitress was quick to take our orders. I wouldn’t expect the service to be at the same level as a fine dining establishment, because it just isn’t.

When ordering online, you can order directly from their website (FREE DELIVERY). Don’t support Uber eats or DoorDash when these Big Lantern employees will get you your order faster than you could pull out your chopsticks. There’s no tracking information but believe me my order came to the door in less than 10 minutes (I also live

dim sum veggie combo platter - 9/10 great fried taro - 8.8/10 great but a bit too fried pumpkin bun - 7.5/10 very good meatless chicken congee - 9/10 great mapo tofu made vegan - 9.4/10 great general tsos meatless chicken - 9.4/10 great chow mein - great 9.3/10 wood ear mushrooms and tofu - great 9/10 veg fried rice - 8.8/10 great, liked that it wasn't too fried turnip cake with meatless chicken - 9.5/10 excellent veg crab cake - 9/10 great, but wish is was less fried Vegetable turnip bun 9.3/10 Big Lantern spicy chow fun with meatless chicken 9.2/10 meatless chicken w/ satay sauce - not sure if we were given the right order because it didn't come with satay sauce. It had these delicious crispy seasonings throughout it, with onion and peppers. braised tofu with bok choy - 9.5/10 excellent Meatless chicken traditional rice pudding - 7/10 good, but dry and should be paired with something saucy like garlic eggplant Sweet rice tamale w/ meatless chicken - 9/10 great Tofu vegetarian roll 10/10 excellent Garlic eggplant 8.8/10 great, pairs great with the dry traditional rice pudding chive dumpling - 9.3/10 great Rice roll (vegetable) - 6.5/10 had a weird burnt taste inside, but without that would have been great

Love the amount of vegan options, but would be really helpful to have all items that are vegan or plant-based be clearly labeled as such on the menu. You have to ask at the moment.

Second time going, they seemed confident when we stated to make sure everything in the order was vegan before...

I ordered salt pepper fish, chicken chow main, steam rice and a fried flounder during the pandemic. I waited 25 minutes for the order, the expeditor gave me the order and said is allready, when I checked the order I was missing the flounder. The expeditor acted surprised and said ohhhh, and went back to the kitchen. The lady food expeditor finally came back and said it was going to take 10 minutes. After 10 minutes I asked the cashier (young lady that was texting all through out the length of this terrible experience without a care of what's going on around her) for a credit on the fish because the fish wasn't ready on time. Oner of the cooks joined the conversation and said that he could not gave crediting for the transaction, I said that the fish was not ready and that it doesn't take 40, minutes to fry the fish because I had it before. The person having the conversation kept arguing and finally another person said something in chinese and the fish was put on a to do container and deliv9to me. I want to said that "none of the cooks were wearing face masks". I was hesitant about the way the food was being handled during the Covid19 emergency and did not eat the food. Bad and rude service and worst than everything else not safe...