Crystal Chinese Take Away in Merton

Phoned to ask where delivery was after 90 minutes … was told it was on the way. 30 minutes later phoned to ask again and told the same .. out for delivery.

Don’t bother ordering because you wait hour and half for delivery ! This review has also gone on the Nextdoor App ! Never ordering again

Had a takeaway last evening 09/12/23 including a quarter of crispy duck. It was just superb. Previous posts on here are dated. We have been ordering from here for some months and had no complaints. Thought they deserved something more recent.

Placed an online order which took over an hour and half to arrive. When it did, it was missing an item- another hour later and that finally arrived. When I phoned, they were extremely rude and didn’t even apologise for the time of delivery or for the missing items. I’ll never order from here again!

Haven’t really experienced a decent Chinese takeaway in South West London until now. Recently moved to Raynes Park and have been here three times so far, food is really nice, easy website to order online and always delivered fast and hot! Slowly making our way through the menu, bbq ribs, chicken wings in honey, duck spring rolls, chicken sweetcorn soup, beef curry, vegetable curry, fried rice, mushroom rice and prawn crackers are all delicious. Will defo be back again!

This is the 3rd time ordering from Crystal Chinese. First two times were OK, nothing to write home about, but today the food is really good. I hope they keep tonight chef on

Do not use this Chinese disgusting hygiene delivered food to the wrong house by mistake who took the food in and did who knows what with it then when realised they had delivered it to the wrong house went and picked it up demanding if you’ve touched it you need to pay for it, they then took the food back and then delivered the same food to the next customer. Knowing this is how they behave I would never trust them with food again.

Absolutely inedible, this worst food take away I’ve experienced… even the dog wouldn’t eat it. Payed on a credit card link with the substance taking 2 hours to deliver

This is a local old school Chinese if that’s what you are looking for. It’s funny how good has moved in over the years and although edible the food here can only be described as ok!!

Inedible. Very disappointing. Standards have dropped considerably recently. Used to be my favourite. Trying other restaurants now

It took 2 hours for our food to come every time we phoned were told the food was on the way which was a lie.We were offered no compensation for the delay and the food was lukewarm

Ordered from them, it arrived 30 minutes late, and then I discovered the worst Chinese food I’ve ever had

Ordered here through JustEat. Food was hot fresh and extremely quick to arrive. The crispy chilli beef is delicious. Ordered for four people but would have easily served six - maybe I just over catered!

I live around the corner from Crystal and thought after living here 8 years but ordering from my favourite in the area McChina that I would try this local. All I can say is it was ok, if nothing else was open and perhaps after the pub.

Some of my earliest take-away memories were of this take away establishment at 413 Kingston Road in the late eighties. For a long time it was the 'Phoenix' Chinese take away opposite the now demolished Emma Hamilton pub which has now been turned into flats, and used to appear regularly in the episodes of ITV's 'The Bill' TV series. Around about 2005 it changed its name to 'Crystal' but it's still the same family that run it as I understand things, just the next generation, and whilst they didn't revamp the kitchen, they did revamp the menu, and it's never been quite the same since. So why am I rating this 4 stars? It's good, just not quite as good as it used to be. The portion sizes are decidedly generous, the flavouring full of gusto, salt, fat and all the bad stuff that makes this style of traditional British-Chinese take-away cookery so delicious. But sometimes they don't get the rice quite right, I have known it to come out a bit too wet and clumped together. Also the char-siu and duck can be a bit overly fatty and membraneous. On the flip side, I've never had a problem with the chicken or pork. King prawns are good - sometimes a bit overly battered. Normal prawns (shrimps) come are not de-veined, so bear that in mind. The squid is nice too, although the batter is very thick and heavy. I'd also recommend the Singapore Fried Rice - just ask for it extra hot. In general, Crystal is the standard by which I judge all other Chinese takeaways by. If they're better than this, I consider them 'good', if they're the same or worse, I consider them 'acceptable'. Other people I know would disagree and rave about this place and would give it 5 stars any day of the week, but I'm not convinced. That said, the most appealing aspect of Crystal is their pricing, which is very fair and reasonable: the Wimbledon Chase / Raynes Park area has suffered from some very silly price-hikes in recent years on their takeaway scene and it's nice to see a place holding fast to sensible pricing. So fair do's on that one and that's why I'm giving it 4 stars instead of 3.