Lotus Garden — Restaurant in Upland

The Food here is top notch. It is perhaps a little expensive though. However, you will not find food this good at a lower-cost Chinese food place. They seem to use nothing but fresh ingredients, and their chef is obviously a master at his craft. He neither overcooks, nor undercooks. Nor does he over-fry things in the wok. Nothing was soaked in oil (which means he doesn't just throw everything in a wok and let if fry... the way cheap places do). The menu had many items, and if the main courses are too expensive, they do have some delicious appetizers if one has less money to spend. The food here is perfect. It is nice they have some good vegetarian options, too.

The decor is fair. Just a fast food-looking kind of a place, but with better food.

Although the workers there are all very nice and all do their jobs.... the service is set up in a fashion that is not very intelligent.

If you "eat in" they want you to have a seat like a regular restaurant where a waitress or waiter takes your order. This is all silly pretentious overkill. And it's a waste of tip money, and a waste of everyone's time.

They should treat "eat in" orders as the same as fast food. Just call it when it's ready and have the customer pick it up at the counter. That would be way faster.

Instead... we had to wait for the server to come to us.... which oftentimes could take 5 or 10 minutes. So silly, when I can just get up, go to the counter, and get what I want or pay my bill instantly without waiting for the silly notion of a waiter or waitress to approach the table. They should get rid of all table service, and make EVERYTHING "to go" fashion. Even for those who eat-in. Furthermore, if you "eat in", they don't give you a fountain drink the way they do "take out" people. Instead they give you a can of drink and a glass of ice. This is a nice attempt at class, but it comes out as pretentious and unnecessary, when a fountain drink is such a better deal in the amount of drink one gets.

So go for the food, but I suggest you order it "to go" even if you eat-in. Customers want self service. Not slow, expensive hosted service. This place is small. No waiters or waitresses...

We were looking for some Chinese food for Mother's Day. We first called Bamboo Garden. Someone answered the phone and said they were closed. Okay... time to formulate a plan B. The next call was to China Pepper. They said they were out of a few things and it would be about an hour to get a to-go order ready. Szechuan Garden in Montclair is always a good choice but no one felt like driving that far. I noticed Lotus Garden on Google Maps over in nearby Upland. I had passed by a few times and the name caught my eye because there used to be a Lotus Garden in San Bernardino. There's probably no connection however.

Anyway... we placed a call to Lotus Garden and ordered Almond Chicken, Chicken in Black Bean Sauce, Beef with Snow Peas, and Chicken Fried Rice. We were told it would be ready in about 20 minutes. I headed out the door and arrived about 15-20 minutes later. Our order was waiting for me when I got there. I paid and was quickly on my way.

I forgot to take a photo of the food in the containers but you can see a little of each on my plate here. It was really good. They did give us Shrimp Fried Rice instead of Chicken Friend Rice but no one seemed to mind. I think my favorite dish was the Chicken in Black Bean Sauce. I would definitely...

I had ordered for delivery a wonton soup, sweet and sour soup, an order of veggie egg rolls, and an order of chicken and shrimp eggrolls. When I was ready to eat, I began to notice that my wonton soup was instead an egg drop soup and instead of my chicken and shrimp egg rolls, they had sent me a side of rice and green beans with chicken plate. This had been my third time they had mess up my order but tried to give them another chance. When I called to informed them about the mistakes, the owner who I ordered with began telling me that it was my fault even though I doubled checked my order with him. He didn't want to send me my correct order even though I told him we had not touch the green bean chicken. He was very rude and made me feel terrible for wanting my order corrected. The sad thing is that I use to really enjoy this place but now will not be returning ever. The poor delivery boy felt more bad and apologized for the error more than the owner did. Goes to show how that place must be managed. Never had a place scream at me for an error they had committed with my food. And ontop of that they wanted to charge me 10 dollars more to receive my chicken and shrimp rolls that was part of my...