Good food but the service and atmosphere was terrible.Been coming here since its opening night and today ( Friday ) at 8pm we thought we’d pop along. We hadn’t booked but we chanced it. We were the only customers, which is surprising as Bedford/Kempston doesn’t have many good Chinese restaurants and we did class this as our favourite.We tried to order a rose wine ( only one on the menu ) but they had none. They only had one rose on the menu. So somebody clearly can’t control their stock levels. So we settled on a white. It took 3 staff members to remove the cork from the bottle. The server seemed puzzled when we said we would like to try the wine, however it was a really nice white rioja. We ordered the food and as always it was lovely. Could not fault it. The biggest problem was the staff. There seemed to be no passion or engagement. None of the regular staff were there from previous visits and the atmosphere was not the same. It really felt it had been taken over and the staff had no training. Such a shame. To us good service is a very important part of the meal, as is the atmosphere. If you like good Chinese I’d recommend as our food as always was good but be prepared for some service issues, hence the low rating. Will give it ago again and hopefully give it a 5 star review it deserves.
Adliene Edun
We ordered takeaway but the atmosphere was so still lovely and the staff members were very friendly and they even gave us drinks on the house whilst we waited for our food. The food was delicious and still piping hot when we got home. I highly highly highly recommend the kaeng massaman, pad thai and their coconut rice, as well as they green pepper beef and black bean sauce!
Shandy K
Been going here for years due the the excellent food quality and flavour.Recently had a takeaway that was awful. There was no flavour and everything tasted the same. Egg fried rice was brown with no trace of egg and very dry!Left with an oil taste and felt lethargic afterwards.I notice that the usual staff weren't there, has it changed hands?Will have to find another takeaway now!
Helen Parslow
Takeaway. Very slow, wasn't ready despite people coming in after me having ordered for later pick up. Have to suspect was ready as spring roll cold and chewy, prawn balls cold and overdone.Staff were very frazzled but they were
S F The Land Hunter
Went in for mother's day. Food was fairly good apart from my lamb was undercooked. The flavours were fairly average if I'm honest. I've been there a few yrs ago and they were better back then. The biggest issue I found though was they just need to chill out a bit. Servers are circling you like hawks the whole time, every two mins you're asked if you want another drink. After a while it just drives you nuts as you can't relax. It's a lovely restaurant with bags of good points just let down by the chaos in there to try and turn the tables round quickly. I would go again and hopefully they'll take in board my comments
Gillian Liew
Absolutely amazing as usual.The staff was excellent, quick service and nice food. Definitely will come again.
Kieren
Over 2 hours late for delivery and cold food, the delivery drive was quite
Natasha George
Ordered a takeaway which already had a 90mins delivery wait for me and my guests. After 2hrs, I called to be told it's on the way, with no apologies offered. Another 30mins passed with no signs of it turning up or updates. I called again to ask what was going on, to be told 'it's on the way,' I explained my guests are having to leave shortly and I will be left with 6 ppls worth of food and my guests will leave hungry(including kids), what are they going to offer me. 'We can't offer you anything' was what I was told. I asked her to speak to her manager. She comes back to tell me, 'it's on the way and we can't offer you anything, but will call the driver'. The delivery driver then turns up after the taxi for my guests arrive(the taxi, very kindly offered to wait 15mins so they could at least eat something). Food scoffed, with no time for dessert. Not even offered discount/refund/vouchers for our extremely long wait by the restaurant. And, they didn't even throw in any Prawn Crackers, knowing the wait was extremely long. AND, to top it off, I paid £5.00 for this >2.5hrs delivery service. Absolutely shocking way to treat their customers. Recommend you try any other of the Chinese restaurants before this one.
Ayesha Suman
Possibly the worst Chinese I have ever ordered especially for the price. Good quality was just poor. We ordered butterfly prawns that came burnt to the point I had to call the restraint and get them to redelivered . No idea how that was even allowed to be packed in that state. Just overall an awful experience with food,
Ho Lee Wong
Pop by to have a quick lunch. The food tasted good, it came out quick as well. Good service. They still provide complimentary prawn crackers despite I just ordered one dish for a quick lunch.Overall, a good experience.
£15 seafood pad Thai with seafood sticks. Do i need to say more?
Jules D'Oca
Great food. Good portions - one my favourite Thai places for sure. Definitely will come again.
charlottenP8283RH
Absolutely brilliant customer service.. Came here with my partner for his birthday, and I had emailed to ask if they could organise something as it would be his birthday and they put on the happy birthday song and brought out a little desert cake with a candle in (free of charge) then they got us X2 rounds of drinks free of charge also. The food was absolutely amazing and as we was leaving the lovely ladies that had waited on us all night had put some bottles of beer in a bag for us to take a way with us. Can't wait to return to The Elephant!
samantha pugh
Had the most wonderful vegetarian dinner with lovely attentive staff. The salt and pepper asparagus is a-maz-ing!!! Fun atmosphere. Highly recommend Big
Long Thanh Vo
Tasty food; reasonable prices; nice, clean and spacy restaurant; nice, friendly and helpful staff; nice, very clean and very spacy toilets that can accommodate a few users at the same time; NO extra 10% service charge typical of other Chinese restaurants.
Good food but the service and atmosphere was terrible.Been coming here since its opening night and today ( Friday ) at 8pm we thought we’d pop along. We hadn’t booked but we chanced it. We were the only customers, which is surprising as Bedford/Kempston doesn’t have many good Chinese restaurants and we did class this as our favourite.We tried to order a rose wine ( only one on the menu ) but they had none. They only had one rose on the menu. So somebody clearly can’t control their stock levels. So we settled on a white. It took 3 staff members to remove the cork from the bottle. The server seemed puzzled when we said we would like to try the wine, however it was a really nice white rioja. We ordered the food and as always it was lovely. Could not fault it. The biggest problem was the staff. There seemed to be no passion or engagement. None of the regular staff were there from previous visits and the atmosphere was not the same. It really felt it had been taken over and the staff had no training. Such a shame. To us good service is a very important part of the meal, as is the atmosphere. If you like good Chinese I’d recommend as our food as always was good but be prepared for some service issues, hence the low rating. Will give it ago again and hopefully give it a 5 star review it deserves.
We ordered takeaway but the atmosphere was so still lovely and the staff members were very friendly and they even gave us drinks on the house whilst we waited for our food. The food was delicious and still piping hot when we got home. I highly highly highly recommend the kaeng massaman, pad thai and their coconut rice, as well as they green pepper beef and black bean sauce!
Been going here for years due the the excellent food quality and flavour.Recently had a takeaway that was awful. There was no flavour and everything tasted the same. Egg fried rice was brown with no trace of egg and very dry!Left with an oil taste and felt lethargic afterwards.I notice that the usual staff weren't there, has it changed hands?Will have to find another takeaway now!
Takeaway. Very slow, wasn't ready despite people coming in after me having ordered for later pick up. Have to suspect was ready as spring roll cold and chewy, prawn balls cold and overdone.Staff were very frazzled but they were
Went in for mother's day. Food was fairly good apart from my lamb was undercooked. The flavours were fairly average if I'm honest. I've been there a few yrs ago and they were better back then. The biggest issue I found though was they just need to chill out a bit. Servers are circling you like hawks the whole time, every two mins you're asked if you want another drink. After a while it just drives you nuts as you can't relax. It's a lovely restaurant with bags of good points just let down by the chaos in there to try and turn the tables round quickly. I would go again and hopefully they'll take in board my comments
Absolutely amazing as usual.The staff was excellent, quick service and nice food. Definitely will come again.
Over 2 hours late for delivery and cold food, the delivery drive was quite
Ordered a takeaway which already had a 90mins delivery wait for me and my guests. After 2hrs, I called to be told it's on the way, with no apologies offered. Another 30mins passed with no signs of it turning up or updates. I called again to ask what was going on, to be told 'it's on the way,' I explained my guests are having to leave shortly and I will be left with 6 ppls worth of food and my guests will leave hungry(including kids), what are they going to offer me. 'We can't offer you anything' was what I was told. I asked her to speak to her manager. She comes back to tell me, 'it's on the way and we can't offer you anything, but will call the driver'. The delivery driver then turns up after the taxi for my guests arrive(the taxi, very kindly offered to wait 15mins so they could at least eat something). Food scoffed, with no time for dessert. Not even offered discount/refund/vouchers for our extremely long wait by the restaurant. And, they didn't even throw in any Prawn Crackers, knowing the wait was extremely long. AND, to top it off, I paid £5.00 for this >2.5hrs delivery service. Absolutely shocking way to treat their customers. Recommend you try any other of the Chinese restaurants before this one.
Possibly the worst Chinese I have ever ordered especially for the price. Good quality was just poor. We ordered butterfly prawns that came burnt to the point I had to call the restraint and get them to redelivered . No idea how that was even allowed to be packed in that state. Just overall an awful experience with food,
Pop by to have a quick lunch. The food tasted good, it came out quick as well. Good service. They still provide complimentary prawn crackers despite I just ordered one dish for a quick lunch.Overall, a good experience.
Restaurantji Recommends
£15 seafood pad Thai with seafood sticks. Do i need to say more?
Great food. Good portions - one my favourite Thai places for sure. Definitely will come again.
Absolutely brilliant customer service.. Came here with my partner for his birthday, and I had emailed to ask if they could organise something as it would be his birthday and they put on the happy birthday song and brought out a little desert cake with a candle in (free of charge) then they got us X2 rounds of drinks free of charge also. The food was absolutely amazing and as we was leaving the lovely ladies that had waited on us all night had put some bottles of beer in a bag for us to take a way with us. Can't wait to return to The Elephant!
Had the most wonderful vegetarian dinner with lovely attentive staff. The salt and pepper asparagus is a-maz-ing!!! Fun atmosphere. Highly recommend Big
Tasty food; reasonable prices; nice, clean and spacy restaurant; nice, friendly and helpful staff; nice, very clean and very spacy toilets that can accommodate a few users at the same time; NO extra 10% service charge typical of other Chinese restaurants.