Lotus Chinese Floating - Tower Hamlets

From start to finish this was a disaster but having not seen family for a while and wanting to celebrate a special birthday together we waited patiently at our prebooked table of 14 to be even offered a drink. After 40 minutes without a drink and asking many times can we order a drink members of our party went to stand at the bar to be served. Became clear only two staff on and one member was more worried about his phone than the people in the restaurant. This was booked weeks ago so no excuse for not staffing correctly but they clearly wasn't breaking their backs to serve us anyway. 1.5 hours later our starters turned up with one set menu starter absent. We remind them over 5 times it's missing and everyone had eaten theirs by the time they brought the extra starter dish out. They then brought the mains 2.5 hours into our sitting. During which time we were all asking for drinks the kids were crying they were hungry and asked for prawn crackers whilst we wait for food to quieten the children they said they had run out!! Food was warm not hot as you would expect in a restaurant and all dishes in the set menu weren't brought out, again reminding them we are still waiting for many dishes. They ignored us completely in the end we asked for the bill to see they had hit us with an 800£ bill and service charge. I asked for this to be removed due to such poor service and they said fine but no other discount. Given what we had been through there was no way this was good value for money and relatively expensive per couple given many dishes were missing and there wasn't enough food. To be honest we should have left without paying a dime. Every time I asked for a drink the man behind the bar said we had to wait for his colleague as he doesn't know how to serve drinks. His colleague was downstairs outside on the phone for most of it and even when he came back in he was on his phon ignoring requests for drinks food etc. the restaurant area is very dated and hasn't been looked after in years. A true shame as 20 years ago on my last visit the owner couldn't do enough for us and was an awesome place to eat. Never again.

We booed this based on our last experience a couple of years back, look at how much it's changed! We booked a table and tried all of the possible entrances to this Chinese restaurant and all of them were locked. We all stood there in the freezing cold waiting for someone (staff) to come and unlock the doors even though it was way past 12.00pm (opening time). The staff looked straight at us but did not come to not unlock the doors so we waited some more in the freezing cold. We had no choice but to leave after a while. Do not recommend at all!

I don’t know where to start…. I came with a group for a Christmas meal and our reservation was for 5:30pm and we were not served until 8pm!!!! And the manager was rude and condescending. Some of our group tables were served hours before us and we pre ordered our food weeks prior to us coming and yet still we had to wait hours to be served. And the worst part is some of our group had to help serve our group food to their tables as they were not bringing out the food swiftly so we were also waitressing for the evening!! And they added service charge!!! It was the worst experience I have had in a restaurant. And I would not advise anyone to go to the Lotus Floating disaster.

Felt like we were being upsold, not very delicious. Very greasy, all the dishes we had tasted the same.

Firstly the telephone number did not work and I had to book via email super quick response from the team, so cannot knock them for that. Secondly,the menu I viewed online is absolutely nothing like what was in the restaurant (very basic!!!! However, when we sat down for food it all went downhill. I enjoyed the duck. But that really was it. My partner asked for chopped chillis on the side to add to his dish but they looked at us like we had asked for caviar and said no. Odd considering chillis are in most dishes. Then the main was served. 'Aromatic chicken ' we was told it was like crispy shredded chicken..... OMG NO. It was Chicken foot.... I was crunching on bones and the most disgusting thing I ever tasted. We ordered singapore fried rice, they sent egg friend rice. From start to finish it was a shambles. Sadly for a great setting, we will not be returning.