Lao Xiang - Berlin

I spent an evening here with my wife and her nephew – the first authentic Chinese dinner for him, so it was an important occasion. It had also been a long time since I had enjoyed a proper Chinese feast with my wife, so we...were excited to find this place. We ordered our table full of food, or rather two tables: the staff connected two tables since our order could not fit on one. Everything was great, and I enjoyed all vegetarian dishes: especially the water spinach. I had not had that for nearly 10 years! The green beans were cooked to perfection, the tofu was succulent and fiery, and the mushrooms in the broccoli dish were exceptional. I was also happy to be able to order some extremely strong rice liquor – I absolutely love it, the Chinese version of grappa, really.

My parents and I ordered the 8 course menu. After 80 minutes, they only had brought dumplings and cucumber salad. Wolt drivers continued to be coming to the restaurant, although it was clear the staff could not keep up with the demand! I complained, but...was dismissed by gesture, they did not even offer an apology for the delay! The last straw was that people who arrived later were being served ahead of us! I asked why they are being served first and he replied, these are ‘andere Leute’!!! We decided to leave and only pay for what we consumed, but the owner decided to call the police. I also called them and waited. Suddenly, 3 more plates appeared on our table during the wait! The police officers were very professional and even apologized to us for the bad experience. We only paid for drinks and the two plates and we left. The owner did not offer a single apology, he only seemed defeated. My father died a few weeks later, so thanks for ruining one of the last nights out ever with him!

I was looking for some head and neck sweat level spicy food in Berlin, which is a real challenge because most Germans cannot handle the spice and the cooks don't want to scare people away, but this place treated me right! We started with a...2 chili cold beef salad, which was excellent, then shared the Degenfisch and chicken with cashews, which I asked for extra spicy. The chicken spicy was really hot but the fish tasted better. It was more than enough food and I was very happy with the authentic tastes and spicy level. Also, the chef came out and talked to us and gave us some of his homemade spicy sauce of chilis and garlic and then they gave us a small bottle to take with us. Our waiter from Hong Kong was on his own, but he also had a good sense of humor and as the guests thinned out he became more attentive and by almost closing the manager was also talking with us. I really appreciate service when they appreciate customers who are genuinely interested in authentic food.

We liked it very much and would recommend. The portions were big and the waiter was really nice and kind.

We used to like this place but not anymore. This Wednesday we came to eat but the restaurant was full of people. Some tables were not cleaned up so we had only option to share a big table with stranger. We left. This Friday we...gave another try which turned out miserable result. We ordered two main dishes. It took more than 40 minutes to be served. Some customers came after us served several dished before us. As other people mentioned, the dishes were totally different from the photos in the menu. I didn't it feel that those dishes worth more than 10 euro event though they are. At last but not least, the waiter didn't even say anything to us when we paid. We felt that we were not welcomed as customer by them. We won't come back.