Crystal Palace Golden Dragon in Harlow

Worst Chinese I’ve ever had. Had absolutely no taste, delivered after an hour and a half and order was wrong. Wouldn’t recommend!

Ordered via just eat app. Food came super fast considering I live out of the area- it all arrived hot. I don’t understand the negative reviews? Our order was excellent- the portions were more then enough. We got a free dish plus prawn crackers. The salt and pepper chips tasted strongly of garlic and ginger which was exactly what I was craving. The beef and black bean sauce was spot on. The duck and pancakes were delicious and really well prepared- duck was moist with crispy skin- not dry at all. And the chicken balls- the batter is like doughnut batter- never had those before but I can see why they are so popular. Won’t hesitate to order again xx

Absolutely Disgusting Food Garbage !!! Horrible cold and tasteless. DO NOT WASTE YOUR MONEY. I do not recommend buying from here. Save your time and money. Disgusting food. !!!!! Trust me, wish I could give negative stars.

review finds you well. I am writing to formally express my dissatisfaction with the service and food quality I received from your restaurant through Just Eat on 25/05/2024 Upon receiving our order, we found that the food was cold, and more alarmingly, the chicken dishes were raw. This not only rendered the meal inedible but also posed a significant health risk. Disturbed by this experience, we immediately contacted Just Eat to report the issue. They offered a voucher as compensation for some of the food, which we found unsatisfactory given the severity of the problem. Following this, we attempted to resolve the matter directly with your restaurant. It was a challenging process; initially, we were asked to return the food. However, we retained the food as evidence of its unfitness for consumption. The driver sent by your restaurant was unable to communicate effectively due to the lack of a phone, and he insisted on retrieving all the food. Despite making several calls to your restaurant and being assured of a call back from the manager, which never occurred, we were eventually promised a full refund. However, a week later, we were informed that no refund would be processed because we did not return the food. This contradicts our agreement and the assurances given by your staff. Furthermore, Just Eat has not issued a refund either, contrary to what we were told by your team. This entire situation has been extremely frustrating and unacceptable. For your reference, I have noted that the restaurant's online reviews are concerning, with an average rating of 3 stars and a 3.2 rating on some platforms, which reflects broader issues with service and food quality. I am requesting a full refund for the order due to the significant inconvenience and potential health hazard we faced. If this issue is not resolved promptly, I will have no choice but to report the matter to the local Environmental Health Officer (EHO) and pursue other avenues to reclaim my money. I expect a swift and satisfactory resolution to this matter. Please contact me at your earliest convenience to confirm the details of the refund process. Thank you for your attention to this serious issue.

Disgusting service. Ordered through uber, arrived over an hour late and cold. Whoever I spoke to over the phone, shouted at me and told me he was sending the driver back to collect the food, because I wanted a refund for the fact that the food was cold and late. I wouldn't recommend to anybody! Just look at the rest of the reviews

Not impressed. Hardly any chicken in the not so chicken chow main, food was luke warm, no free dish for spending over £30. Chicken balls are tiny and tasted frozen. Food didn’t taste fresh at all, won’t be ordering again.

Absolutely disgusting, honestly I would give it no stars everything was chewy salt and pepper chips were soggy and did not taste or look like salt and pepper chips, the chow mein was dry and over cooked rubbery noodles, the spring rolls are disgusting they where undercooked and the prawn toast was chewy , £31 for nothing I wouldn’t feed this to my dog!

I brought a family dinner for £40 pound more like £1.50 in the bin ,The delivery was quick but the food was not fresh and not good quality it must of been made in bulk.No One in my family liked the mains so we had to have the rice. The food was cold.But at the end of the day I am happy we had food

Worst Chinese food ever but to be fair complained and some was reimbursed once food was picked up

Absolutely discusting, food got delivered, chicken balls tiny, duck was cold and all fat!! Got put through to the manager i said I hadn't touched the food, she said there was nothing she can do, £22 down the drain!!!! Would never order from here again

Normally order from this place but we ordered food tonight, 2 hours late, was told the food already out for delivery then turn up 30 minutes after, we said the food was cold but they said its fresh. Absolute joke

Now under the new name ‘peking house’ found on just eat, food arrived quickly, and there was a free dish, which was a nice start! However that’s where the excitement ends… unfortunately everything was abit ‘bland’ the special chow mien, the chicken balls, the crispy duck, the ribs, spring rolls… just nothing blew us away… I remember ordering from these guys years ago when under this name, and it was great, not sure what’s gone wrong. That will be the first and last time we will order from ‘pekin house’ - there is much better in Harlow.

First time ordering from here.. Sweet & sour chicken was awful the sauce was red..never seen anything like this before tasted dreadful! Egg fried rice had big bits of uncut egg which was again awful! The salt & pepper squid was like rubber very cheap quality food! £30 in the bin so could not recommend this place to anyone.

Ordered a family meal with half duck and various other dishes including chicken chow mein noodles and other chicken and vegetable dishes. The guy that took the order was extremely rude to my daughter and talked abruptly to her, to be heard by us all. We disregarded and he charged us £57 for the meal. When it arrived, the duck was so dry (cost £17) was disgusting. It’s usually crispy on the outside and moist inside but this was hard and dry through, so clearly it’s been left warming up for some hours or just overcooked. The noodles, which are usually tasty and moist were also dry and tasteless. I called the restaurant and spoke to the same rude man. He said if the noodles are dry, put sauce on them. What sauce? Should be able to eat the chicken noodles on their own, without sauce. He said for the dry duck I should shred it. I said I’d had it a lot of times before over the years and I always shred it. He was just as rude and it was very poor customer service and not deserving of a 5 Scores on Doors.

Pork balls and pancake roll were not crisp. Sweet and sour sauce too sweet. Old mushrooms.

Food was so poor they must cook in bulk shambles really not one thing was fresh and they love deep fryer by looks of wont be going here again

Got order wrong, cold below average food very rude over the phone shocking service wouldn't eat here again if they were paying me. Steer clear

Cold noodles Chewy "non-crispy" Beef A strange cardboard taste for the starters The chicken balls we not even chicken balls, more like popcorn chicken The ribs were 95%bone % 5% fat The duck was shredded as requested £75 wasted - Avoid

This chowmein was supposed to have chicken in it! 2 pieces…… was so dry and tasteless - I actually thought they’d given me yesterday’s leftovers. Anyway, moving on- I’ve had better salt& pepper prawns elsewhere - nothing like what it’s supposed to be! Pls improve your service in quality.

Gook from here is bland tasteless chicken balls are soggy sticks.. honestly nothing beats King Du don’t bother.

What an absolute shame food was good, what we had compared to what we ordered. Some of the order missing yet paid for it, when trying to discuss with the restraunt what a shambles. All I kept getting told was Madame it's not on your order I have here. I told the woman I have proof to what I've ordered, absolutely useless waste of my Saturday night. I asked for the manager who then phoned me, then had the cheek to ask to send him pictures of my order on WhatsApp, which clearly I did. Still no reasonable answer, so I ended up paying for food I didn't get. I did have a bad experience with this restaurant prior with under cooked chicken balls, which they came and collected. But I thought I'd give another try not no more. Better Chinese restaurants in harlow other than these robbing liers.

Disappointed. Please do not waste your money. Sweet and sour chicken tasted like vinegar and chewy chicken. Never again

Ordered a takeaway recently and it was bad. The food was bland and the duck was very dry. Wouldn't recommend - there are better places out there.

Take away, delivery. Chicken curry... Chicken Not edible.. looks and tastes uncooked.🤢 Photographed. Asked for refund.

Am not really sure if these hugely negative reviews are even referring to the same restaurant!.. Food was great, all very hot, tasty and possibly the fastest delivery of any in the Harlow area. Even extra portions included!

Very bad food.The chowmein was so dry..didn't taste like chinese

Food was terrible! This is not authentic Chinese food. There was no flavour, no colour, no seasoning. An absolute waste of money, this is my first and LAST time ordering food from this takeaway.

I normally use kingsmoor but they are closed on mondays so I tried this one. It just horrible bland and tasteless I probably could of done a better job at cooking it myself. I won't be ordering again.

I appreciate the hard work in working through lockdown, what stars they are! However, I've just eaten the worst meal for a long time. First of all, we were there to pick it up in the 20 mins we were advised, but the food was stone cold. A blast in the microwave later, I found nearly every dish overpowered by salt. It was also greasy and the sweet and sour was the brightest orange I've ever seen! Both my partner and I started to feel quite queasy half way though and I left mine. What a shame, I always want to support local business in Old Harlow but this is one I'd not go back to.

Just spent over 50 quid on my birthday meal. We usually eat in the restaurant and travel 20 miles to do so. Tonights food made the three of us feel sick...didn’t enjoy any of it. Crispy duck seemed microwaved. Ribs were too fatty, satay seemed under cooked and smoked chicken was over cooked and dry. Most went in the bin. Shame. My bubble has burst

I would never order from there again when I got my delivery after waiting for a hour and half the order was all wrong and they didn't care when I phoned up to complain all that they said they are busy so there wasn't anything they can do at the moment is that the right way to run a business.

Waited 3 hours for delivery and still hasn't turned up and they wont answer the phone

Moved to harlow in October, randomly tried this place and boooom best chinese I ever had 🤣🤣

My regular goto place for Chinese during lock down But the last take away was disappointing The salt and pepper ribs were dry, the sweet and sour chicken didn't taste right and the sauce was really watered down Giving it two stars as usually the food is ok

Ordered takeaway and received a pile of crap! Food In cartoons was masked with vegetables instead of meat and when you did find any chicken, beef etc it was like eating jelly. Poor quality meat is used and portion in container wouldn’t even feed a hamster. How any chef could finishing packing this order and think “ yeah that’s a great standard, they will love that!” Is beyond belief. Do yourselves a favour, if you fancy a Chinese from here, put some bread in your toaster instead.

Makes me remember my grandma's cooking! Excellent food! Highly reccommend!

Ordered over the phone and received my order in just over 15 minutes! so it was still hot and fresh. The food itself was absolutely delicious, wasn't greasy or oily, also tasted very good with fresh ingredients. Full enjoyment. Verr cool, very nice, I liiiiike iiiiiit 100/100

Ordered a takeaway delivery through Just Eat but there was a mix up somewhere along the chain and the food didn't arrive when expected. Phoned the restaurant who were very apologetic and expedited the order. When food arrived they had included a couple of freebies and a partial refund. Mistakes happen, it's how they're dealt with that matters and in this case it was handled very well.

The ribs had gone off so I couldn’t eat it. Had to eat just the rice alone which was very dry. Wouldn’t recommend.

We arrived at this restaurant for lunch. my friend recommended this restaurant. Well, it was a winning. the staff members were so friendly and we felt very good. The meal was fresh and delicious. We loved this place very much and we will definitely return to this restaurant. Warmly recommended.

Yet another superb meal. Always hot and on time if not early. So tasty and to receive extra dish/dishes is a bonus. Totally recommend. Thank you 🤗

Ordered delivery few times now, food comming hot and very nice. Always very happy with our meals, thank you !!

First time back after the closure. Called in for a cheeky K for Two to go. Still excellent - plenty enough for two (would feed 3 happily) - good mix of "proper" Chinese ingredients - water chestnuts, bamboo & corn and an authentic taste, too - not over spiced and not overdosed with the dreaded "taste powder". Fast service, too, Don't understand the bad reviews - ignore the trolls, it's good as ever it was.

The food was good and i’ll definitely order from here again.

Just had another big takeaway from here. Hot food arrived quick and we got an extra dish on the house for no apparent reason, this happened before but I thought it was an error but this time he told me when placing the order we would get a chicken dish so happy days. We order different dishes from here regularly and have never had a problem. Definitely one of the better takeaways in Harlow and their Thai side isn’t bad either.

Waited over an hour for cold food to when finally arrived was disgusting and cold the staff then continues to row with me over the phone saying the food is fine and at first refusing a refund and said we had to go to them to return the food even though they delivered it finally after twenty mins of arguing they agreed to refund. Disgusting service never again and would never recommend

We had a fantastic time at this spot. We enjoyed the great atmosphere and the food. The staff are very affable. I’m content we ultimately managed to try this place.

Really nice Chinese with the option of sit in or takeaway. Good vale for money.

The food is disgusting and inedible!! Save your money and go elsewhere Very unhelpful staff

Went down hill a while back. Now back great food highly recommended...

This is our "go to" Chinese takeaway!

Always love a take away from here. Consistent food quality and great service. Perhaps should give the restaurant a try sometime...

Really bad service, random food in our order and missed one meal completely, 2 hours before the missed item was sent and the chicken in it was raw! Will never order from here again.

Where do I start, probably at the fact that I ordered 2 meat dishes that came with 2 pieces of meat and 2 tiny prawns. Food was tasteless, colourless and greasy. Had to add a lot of soya sauce just to have some flavour. Very poor quality and £3 for a 1.25l of coke!!!! Over priced for something that the chef has obviously lost interest in making. Such a shame

Just spent £50 on aload of tastless food where everything just tasted of nothing. Infact i cant even eat it , its so bland. So disappointed

Amazing meal and friendly service from the staff.

Good choice of either tie or Chinese

Omg what has happened to this place. Food arrived cold, just mush and tasteless with a hint of greasy. Loved the food here before. Won’t ever use again. All gone in bin. Thanks Crystal Palace for such a crap meal

What has happened to the food. Ordered the same dishes i have for the last 10+ years. The most flavourless chinese food i have ever had. The chicken chowmein was dry egg noodles with pieces of chicken cut up and added on top, dry as can be, Shredded crispy chilli beef horrible and not crispy. Kung Po Chicken again was terrible and bland. What has happened to your food, and the sauces you use. If this is what we now come to expect i guess your regulars wont remain regulars. Wont be hurrying back to this poor quality again

i would recommend this restaurant despite my above opinion as the other food is very good we have used them for years

Excellent value for money and lovely food

I travel for work a lot, and sometimes treat myself to a chinese. Results can be very varied, from tasty to so awful it stayed uneaten.I tried the Crystal Palace Golden Dragon and it's the best I have had in years. From the quality of the ingredients, cooked to perfection, to the flavours, and the excellent service. I had the speclal (mixed) crispy noodles and Kung Po prawns, I have never had this dish anywhere near as good, the prawns were tasty and melted in the mouth, served in a beautiful piquant sauce. The variety of the ingredients in the noodles dish was excellent, authentic and fresh, in generous proportions. Harlow, I hope you realise how lucky you are to have this gem on your doorstep!

Lovely food. Fantastic service as always

I won't be ordering from there again as everything I ordered was cold and when I called up to complain the guy was rude and told me he can't do anything

This restraunt is a joke, food arrived cold, and when I rang them the guy was rude and said I cannot speak to the manager and that they can not do anything about our order. Won't be ordering from here again.

Very disappointed we went there to celebrate a family birthday and we were restricted on what we could order being a large party of 13. The drinks were £5 a pint and £4 for pint of coke and was told the pub and restaurants within the area were a lot more expensive! Sorry to nice staff but we need to let owner know he missed out on 13 customers being satisfied

Delivery was 25 mins after stated time Spring rolls were cold as was the soup

I took my husband for his birthday . The banquet menu is very good and service was very good . The banquet menu you have a starter 5 dishes and the middle menu you can have two courses and the main course you choose 4 dishes .By the time you come to the main course you are up to the eye ball.This is the best restaurant for valve and the food taste nice to me i do not like too much salt.If you want more taste salt or hot in taste let them know they are accomadating .

this place burn down for a reason , thought the food would have been better , me & my wife was so wrong about that!! , also over paid when we added out food up , NOT Happy

Just ordered here and it was digusting didn't even taste like Chinese and was cold was well looking forward to it as its my sons birthday so sad night for him. We called the man and he offered no refund and hang up so rude. Will never go here again.....all I've heard it's good things I've never been here before so very very disappointed....

The food in this restaurant is very good, it is fresh and tasty. The service from the staff is of a very high standard. While we in the restaurant I did not feel very well and was looked after by them and until I felt better. We eat from the buffet menu which is extremely good value for money.

We went for an evening meal and had a like a set menu. You can choose your starter and second course crispy aromatic duck . The main course was rice and noodles. You can have prawns, chicken, beef.I tell you it was a good amount and it taste good They had a variety of choices it was good the waiter Alex and Andrew will explain it to you and they are helpful. I just want to say it was good thank you all.This is my first time their eat in the restaurant.The restaurant is changed to Sams restaurants. We just walk in to have our meal.

Delivered earlier than expected, food was fantastic , hot and the duck was unreal wow !! Great food highly recommended !! Will 100% use again !

Good service as always and good food.

Friendly staff & fantastic food. 5☆☆☆☆☆

Fast delivery. Food is gorgeous. Best chinese I have had in a long long time. Will definatly makes this my regular chinese x

This one star was too much credit for this restaurant. Long hair found in the prawn curry. Called to tell the owner Sam of the find and was told no one with long black hair works there. One hour later found another hair in the sp fried rice. £57.00 WASTED

Food was cold! Found a hair in the rice and the chicken tasted off! Rang the restaurant to be confronted with a rude member of staff who refused to refund me or even offer to bring me a replacement! We used to be regular customers but never again am I ordering from this restaurant again!!!!

Don't order Chinese food often, had used Golden Dragon for last 10 years with no issue, after tonight's meal we will look for a new Chinese Takeaway. Rice was "stodgy" all dishes were lacking flavour, Crispy Duck was not crispy at all, very disappointed 😕

Awful food, totally overpriced and the drinks were too £4 for a pint of lemonade? Greedy greedy greedy. Never again.

Nice friendly staff, great food, kids were invited to have a go on the Karaoke and got goody bags. Couldn't do enough for us.

Sorry will not be back it was not very good before the fire and is no better since it reopened the takeaway they opened a couple of doors away was the worst food I have ever had and put it in the bin will not be going back

Decided to try a new Chinese take away. Big mistake everything arrived cold but the chicken balls. Phoned back and spoke to owner who accused me of lying and said he would only replace the chicken chow main as long as I give him the old one back?? Why so he can remove heat it again for another customer...We had to re heat the food and ended up throwing it all in the bin as it tasted horrible. Ended up picking up a take away from king du noodle bar and the food was amazing as always... Lesson learnt stay away from this place..

First time back since the fire and I won't be back again. The duck was so dry, I think we had all the skin from the cucumber and the spring onions were dry and all curly. My friend could not eat her veggie middle dish coz it was so strong with garlic. The rest of the food was tasteless. Plus we were over charged by £20 and we only realised the next day... Some of the staff were nice, some were rude. Not going back or recommending anyone else to go.

First time ordering and feel like we have wasted £35. Everything seems re-heated and it's the worst Chinese I have ever had.

Requested a collection at 520 when o arrived it wasn't ready so waited, must say the staff were very friendly . Got my food home and the duck had no sauce and the pancakes were more like a popodoms. I called them to advise this and within 15 minutes they had delivered the sauce and freSh pancakes :-) then I opened my chicken chow mein to find no chicken in it and chicken curry to find the onions were still raw and the chicken Was still pink . So all In all I may as well have flushed £20 down the toilet as eat nothing . Won't be going here again or recommend to anyone :-(

Friendly service need to pre order fish

WORST CHINESE EVER HAD 🙁 We actually can't eat it really disappointed was looking for to it so Much 😞 EXPENSIVE TO King prawn curry tasted awful, (salty) curry sauce thick and stodgie also cold . Black bean sauce ..... no taste all bean sprouts very little veg no flavour ..... Chow mien was ok 1/4 of a duck well it had so much silver foil round it we were very disappointed when we finally unwrapped it ..... tiny is not the word DONT BOTHER ..... Stick with what you know Won't be getting it from there again WINGS GARDEN ALL THE WAY FO US

Really lovely food fast delivery, will be ordering from there again. Not very many prawn crackers, so if there is a few for dinner may want to order some more, we got a free portion of spare ribs So no complaints here.

Lovely food. Lovely people. Always make you feel welcome. Banquet is just awesome 💖👍👍

Food is consistently excellent. Would recommend to one and all

My all time favorite Restuarant. So glad it's back. Due to the fire there is a reduced seating area, they advise to book table.

Tried about 15times to get through in phone which we eventually did, very surprised there's not more than 1 phone line ? We ordered really basic stuff - chow mein, chicken balls, prawn toast and pancake roll as we wanted a quick fix. The man on phone said 30-40 mins, I said but we have a really small and easy order but then he explained we were in a queue etc which I understand. We are less than 1 min away from the shop and we my husband got home we dishes it out and it was stone cold. Not through walking home but because it had sat there sweating as everything was really soggy !! The chicken balls were lovely and sauce spot on, the rest was average. I won't be rushing back that's for sure !

Had 2 takeaways since moving here and been quick and tasty both times. Ordering our third now!

If you want anything other than deep fried fatty meat don't order from this place . Rude lady on the telephone also

Have been using this restaurant for takeaways and dining in for nearly 20 years. The staff are always polite, they are very welcoming to young children (my children have never left without a huge bag of sweets gratis) and the food is consistently excellent. Would recommend to one and all!

A very friendly and welcoming restauant. Excellent service and some of the nicest chinese food I have had for a long time!! I had the banquet menu, which they happily did just for one person and I was certainly not dissapointed. Fresh and very well cooked and the duck and pancakes was fantastic!!! I would certainly have no hesitation in recommending this restaurant.

THEY WERE TERRIBLE AT DELIVERING AND DIDNT PICK UP THE PHONE

Lovely food, good service and reasonable cost. What more could you want. Definitely recommend.

Good food, not great, but no problems. Staff can be a bit off sometimes. Take away is good quick serice. Overall a good standard chinese meal, not special, not expensive.