The Lotus Chinese Floating Restaurant

James W. ( 40s, Male, London )

Terrifyingly bad…

My partner and I headed over to this restaurant on Friday night (29th Jan) at around 7.30pm for her birthday meal. We were seated, ordered drinks and took a look at the menu.

After ordering Dim Sum and Vegetable Spring Rolls for starter, we followed that up with an order of Five Spice Pork and the Fishcakes, with a sideorder of Singapore Noodles. Upon ordering the fishcakes our sullen waitress informed my partner that the fishcakes “Were not like we knew them”. Okay, so what are they like, we asked, intrigued… “Not like fishcakes” and “not like fishcakes” were the helpful responses after more detailed questioning. My partner decided to give them a go anyway…

Dim Sum was off apparently, so I was thrown a menu and told to re-order. I did, and the ribs were actually OK. The spring rolls were dry and tasted strongly of onion. The final straw however was the quality of the main courses. The pork dish was tasteless, chewy and stringy. The fishcakes? Slices of “fish” in a grey, glutinous substance, and the taste was bitter, the texture chewy. We really could not tell what (if any) fish was in this ill-described product, but would not recommend them…

The Singapore noodles were overcooked, and tasted as though they had been heated for hours prior to being served.

Upon attempting to catch someone's attention I was told to wait. And then wait. And then wait. In fact, is wasn't until my partner and I put our coats on and headed towards the exit that someone noticed us. Ido believe that their only concern was that we would leave without paying. After a fruitless conversation attempting to explain my concerns, I received NO apology, NO explanation. The staff acted as if they really and truly did not care at all. I paid, and left, never to return. I now regret paying at all… but as it was my partners birthday I didn't want to start and long and fruitless argument…

For me to bother writing a review shows how passionately angry I am about the service we received and the food we (did not) eat. The restaurant was busy, so some people must enjoy it, but I found the whole experience to be quite awful. On the positive side… no, hang on…