China cottage 4 bell street Shaftesbury in North Dorset

I've ordered food from China Cottage many times over the past few years since moving here from Hertfordshire and it is consistently the very best Chinese food we've had – my family all agree. Thank you China Cottage!

Delivery driver welcomed themselves into my home whilst our children was inside. Demanding for payment yet I stated multiple times we live within the Delivery status to either be taken via online or free. We have ordered from here many times and never had this problem! The food was cold and unfortunately inedible. Had a call from the shop apologising for the delivery lady. We've again never had this issue normally gorgeous food and service..what a let down and an event that put us off our food..

Had chicken Hong Kong chicken. It was quite dry and chewy. It's normally ok

I live in Tisbury but this Chinese is just fantastic from the moment I place my order to it arriving is so easy to do I'm disabled and all the drivers give me time to get to the door they don't bang on my door they ring my door bell and that's it the food is fantastic always hot and all the staff are amazing friendly catering people so thank you 10 out of 10 for me

The food is excellent here and the waiting time is not very long at all. Staff polite and also they do orders online

Popped in on the way home and ordered 2 meals to be delivered. I can honestly say it's the worst Chinese meal I have ever experienced. The curry sauce was a peculiar khaki green colour, slightly sweet, congealed and cold. The rice was OK but far too much of it and was also cold. I suspect that both rice and curry sauce had been reheated, although not very well. The cost of £25, including delivery which was less than a mile was exorbitant. You live and learn and I have learnt not to repeat this experience. Don't waste your money, just buy a chilled meal from a supermarket, it'll cost less and you'll be able to eat it.

It was certainly a good idea to place an order, since everything was delicious and ready at the time we ordered it. Very friendly staff. Totally recommended.

Lovely staff, food is amazing. Spring rolls.,BBQ spare ribs, king prawn balls, prawn crackers and of course sweet and sour sauce.. amazing food here..

Its a nice clean looking place with excellent food, but they were VERY slow last night.

I ordered a meal for collection on Friday, I collected the meal and the staff were not very friendly. I headed of home to enjoy my meal. I had pork with mushrooms which turned out to be pork with vegetables and a few extra mushrooms that was different to the rest of the dish. The chicken curry had been pre cooked then warmed in a microwave and was split, cold and rubber chicken. I also had pork noodles and pork fried rice which again was barely warm and seemed pre cooked as they had a fridge smell and flavour. If they are not going to cook fresh they should say on the menu so people can go to Iceland and get a better take out.

Decent Chinese and delivery is always prompt in my experience. I highly recommend the hot and sour soup and the Mongolian crispy pork. The salt and garlic chicken is excellent too but the salt in the name is not lying to you.

Ordered a food delivery last night. Expensive and absolutely dreadful. Never again!

During our stay in Shaftsbury we wanted a Chinese. After reading the mixed reviews we were a little unsure. But i must say it's one of the nicest Chineses we have had. Food was piping hot when it arrived, it was very tasty and super quick delivery. Highly recommend to anyone who is unsure. You will not regret it

Can only pay on cash and PayPal :( House chow mien stinks :( Singapore noodle was sound :) Chicken balls was a dub with lots of great sauce :) The ribs were soaked in sauce yet somehow dry and had no meat :( The Mongolian chicken was flames :) Prawn crackers were ight :/ Mid would go again Only go if you hungry

I used to love getting a takeaway from here. Nowadays however, you never know if your food will have the same quality as last time you’ve ordered. It’s always a lucky dip. I have had amazing food and I have had food that wasn’t so great + cold. Moreover, this is the 2nd or 3rd time now within 6 months that the prices have massively increased. What used to be a fairly reasonable Chinese takeaway is just overpriced now. You might as well go out eating in a restaurant and end up paying less P.p. I do know that inflation is a massive thing right now in the UK. However the price increase of £3 -£3.50 PER dish within 6 months is unreasonable. The prices at this Chinese rise faster than the highstreet prices. Just extremely expensive! Unfortunately I will not order from here anymore and order elsewhere in Shaftesbury/Gillingham which really is a shame as I have regularly ordered here over the past 5 years.

Take away and delivery only. Decent Chinese take away. Best one locally.

Food arrived on time, nice and warm, taste good too.

Always order from here, been a loyal customer for years. Only ever had 1 issue and that was during covid which I’m sure we could all agree, 1 issue in many years of great service is nothing. Always recommend for their customer service, freshness of food and range on the menu.

Quick and fast take away, food always lovely, welcoming on pick up, clean and friendly

Reliable service, quality hot food.

Really decent chinese that also does delivery. Definitely the best around here. Recommended.

We are local but this is not our local Chinese but on our way home tonight, we might now drive an extra 15mins it was a really delicious Chinese takeaway, the flavour and quality of each dish was fab. We all agreed it felt a healthier less oily heavy Chinese but with so much flavour. I never leave reviews but wanted to share this feedback.

Really good food ! Lovely friendly staff

Lovely food. Really tasty and very quick service.

The food isn’t bad but they now only accept cash. It’s 2022 guys - get a grip

So... We placed a very big order. There was a Singapore noodles missing and we received a bbq ribs instead of salt and chilli. Despite that however, the 20 or so dishes we ordered were competently prepared and tasted freshly cooked. 3 separate orders that all arrived at the same time. 6.5 (lost a point for the mix up on the orders so should be 7.5) /10 and yes, I would reccomend.

The prices here are OTT. The food was fresh, no grease whatsoever, and so simple, not much flavour. The tiny bag of prawn crackers were stale.

Shame. Just open the new shop and I turned up at opening time. Reheated chips and ribs. So I left it a few weeks and just went in at 7pm. Again reheated chips but with the added bonus of a poisonous young blond serving. My advice is to go elsewhere as these guys really don’t seem too care anymore!

Excellent service and food was lovely, price is reasonable compare to other take away shop.

Food is average, but the prices since they moved are overpriced, for Chinese food, do they really think that there customers are stupid . Ingredients used in Chinese food are very cheap !

Pretty tasty food, pretty standard prices.

Absolutely lovely. Best takeaway Chinese around.

Food cold had long wait for food not to usual standard

Great food, service and fast delivery!

The Chicken was disgusting and slimy. The food was so salty it was inedible and when we phoned them to return the food they refused because "we had tried it" I will never order from them again! No compensation offered or any solution to resolve the situation. Horrible food and even worse service. Shame I have to give them one star.

Friendly family home feeling good food worth trying

Absolutely fantastic!!!! Tried this earlier in the week and I’ve got to say that whilst there was a little bit of a wait for the food it was the best Chinese food I’ve probably ever had! The food was so fresh and cooked brilliantly. Top recommendation from me.

i paid by PayPal and the delivery was made, the driver told my wife how much it was and she payed cash plus a delivery tip as she didn't know it was payed for, now in a dispute with the owner who seems to think the delivery driver is more important than, us the customer?, the delivery driver who works Monday Wednesday and Friday has lied, saying we gave him a £1 delivery charge and a £1 tip, this guy is very dishonest and i hope he has been sacked

Perhaps not as spicy as some other takeaways, but good portion sizes, and generally tasty.

Please dont go there it's not a very nice place

What a fantastic food. Full of fresh meat and veg. Takeaway dish totally stuff of magic. We are out of time and just came across this place in line. TOTALLY RECOMMENDED

Delicious Chinese food. Very fresh, vegetarian dishes are stacked with vegetables, and not greasy at all unlike many other Chinese takeaways. Good value. Would highly recommend.

3 hours for delivery!! Nothing here I ordered but am gonna eat it!!

Not great. Dim sum tasted rubbery and weird. Chicken cashew +yellow b sauce the chick was slimey and just too sugary. Pork balls v generous but offputting size with doughy batter. Prob not helped by 1¼ hr wait for delivery. Beef and ginger; chow mein; mix veg in tom yum were fine. So, a mixed bag. Unsure whether we'll order again.

Ordered food at 18.30. 2 hours later and still not here. Not impressed glad I ordered with PayPal at least I'll get my order refunded. Terrible customer service called twice first time was told 20 minutes, rang again 40 minutes later and told the driver was leaving. Doesn't take 30 minutes to drive 3 miles up the road. Won't be ordering again.

Lovely Chinese just maybe little bit less salt and hot and sour soup wasn't very nice when to bin

Disgusting inside and food poor. Service worse

Lovely and hot on delivery. Always tasty and good portions. We never feel the need to try elsewhere when we always enjoy our Chinese takeaway from China Cottage.

Served me raw chicken and gave me food poisoning, avoid like the plague. I wish I could attatch my photos as proof

It has been a year since my last review. The food is still the best available locally. It is always freshly cooked, very tasty, and very good value. Highly recommended.

Nice food. My takeaway order ready very quickly. Use this regularly.

Great food but lacks atmosphere. Don't be put off

A hidden gem in Shaftesbury. The take away seems to be busy but the restaurant is usually quite empty so it lacks atmosphere. Don't let that put you off because the food is absolutely fabulous!!!!! Freshly cooked and delicious and if you eat from the "All you can eat" menu, it's less than £20 each. We've been going here for about 10 years and never had a bad meal yet.

Awful meal, don’t know what they use as chicken, but I certainly didn’t have chicken looked like lumps of stewed far, slimey I ate the noodles and some rice had to throw the rest away, won’t order again.

Not a great experience. Customer service can be improved further. We wanted to eat in and mentioned that on reception. We picked the wrong menu and was not told that menu to eat in is different. The lady at the end gave us the order as a take away. They didn't do anything about it even later.

Excellent vegetarian tofu dishes, generous portions all round. I enjoy the pork and duck rice dish - great value for money.

Great food delivered fast and hot to the fishing lakes :-)

The decor was tired and run down. It didn't look promising when going in however the food was very reasonably priced and quite good, certainly value for money.

The food taste is absolutely gorgeous!!

Good portions. Good price. Nice service. Not bad food.

Slug in my food cold made me sick and the bloke didnt find my house nor shut my gate so disgusing!!!!! Never ever again.

Excellent, very good food, excellent service and good value for money