Garden Chinese Restaurant in Eastbourne

This restaurant has awful customer service and letting their own children disrespect customers. The staff were rude and over charged. They commented on a customers weight. The food was stale and had molde I do not recommend this restaurant.

We arrived expecting a substantial and excellent lunch to find the place closed. We reserved our table on Friday by phone. The lights were on, the tables were laid and there was a member of staff visible. I rang them and it went to messaging. We knocked a lot and the staff member ignored us. Something is very wrong here. I don't feel that I can trust any booking. We won't be back until we hear from the restaurant personally. We actually just hope that they are OK.

Their change from buffet to menu should have been better thought out and information provided about what is and isn't available as buffet (some items are still help yourself). We had extreme difficulty ordering as the waitress was unable to clearly explain the menu/buffet items. Having placed the order for food and drinks we helped ourself to some prawn crackers. These were soft and stale. When the waitress brought our drinks she also brought a bill which she expected us to pay before even seeing the cooked food. Who pays up front for unseen items? We decided that we would cancel the food order and just pay for the drinks (which we had started to consume). My wife visited the disabled toilets but decided not to use them due to the state the toilet bowl was in. It would appear that murky water, perhaps from washing the floor, had been poured down the loo, together with some grease and a number of paper cloths/napkin(?) and not flushed. Photo attached.

I visited this restaurant yesterday before attending a show at the nearby Hippodrome Theatre Eastbourne and enjoyed eating a delicious meal. I chose items from their extensive all-you-can-eat menu, which were freshly cooked and brought to my table piping hot. All the ingredients tasted fresh, not too salty and nicely cooked. The staff were friendly, polite and helpful. Fresh drinking water was freely provided. It’s amazing, after taking in to account ever increasing food prices, that they only charge £16.99 per head 👍🥳😋

Fantastic buffet, you order from a menu so everything is fresh and far better than a load of cold food served in trays. Everything we ordered tasted fantastic and was lovely and fresh. This is the best buffet I have been to in years and far better than any buffet where you help yourself. The staff were very pleasant and we will definitely go back.

Ordered on an app through Uber Eats Spent well over £100 and got a good discount, total charged just over £75 Received a phone call after about 15 minutes to say the soup I'd ordered was not available, I asked for a refund but was refused and told I had to order something else. The woman who rang could not understand me and finally she said she'd send two instead of one dish but when I check afterwards, the dish she chose was a few £ less, so I wasn't pleased about that. When we received our order which took well over one hour, our grilled chicken dumplings were missing - they cost £6.80 for 6. I tried to ring this place but no one answered the phone and I left a message, no one rang back, so I went on the app and Uber had a missing part of order which I put everything on and then got a refund from them for £4.96 instead of the correct full amount - so don't use the Uber app as it's useless and no good. Dishing up what we received, the cauliflower and pork belly dish was full of red chillies - no mention of that on the menu, so could not eat that as we hate chilli. Most of the dishes were very salty, I didn't like the taste of anything except for the egg fried rice and chicken balls - they were all that I found ok. The BBQ spare ribs had hardly any meat and what was there was very tough and they did not taste of BBQ. My husband and son were both very fed up with all of the food too, we got a dessert of custard buns - tough as old boots when we each bit into one and the taste was horrible. Avoid this restaurant, we will never return

Wow, just wow. The food was amazing. Great service. Highly recommend this place. By far the best buffet in the area. Buffet Time and Yous need to step up.

Absolutely appalling! They changed the policy from buffet in which the food displayed and ready to having to order to cook first. Service is so slow when there are onlg 3 tables occupied and they were very misleading as the buffet containers are still on display ehile empty so we thought it was like before. The lady did NOT tell us that we have to order to cook prior to making us pay. We've already payed once she gave us the menu to choose from. You can choose as many dishes as you like but you have to wait a long time before it arrives and you cannot order starters and main dishes at the same time. Each time you order, your plates must be empty first. DISAPPOINTING 'BUFFET'!! Not worth the EXPENSIVE price. Do not come here if you are hungry. For my fellow asians. Your rice wouldve been cold before your main dish arrives.

Isn’t realise it had changed names till I was in and sat down. Place looks nice but was disappointed that I thought by buffet you helped yourself instead had to choose of menu and food brought to us except food was brought out in dribs and drabs so took quite sometime to get through the starters food lovely but brought out on dishes but no serving spoon so had to use knife and fork and juices ended up on table not sure why it has changed to the food being brought to you bit disappointed but wish them well but sadly no longer for me

It appears to be family run, as in mum and 10 (ish) yr old son take order and serve food, and dad is the chef. Very understaffed with long wait times between dishes… including courses coming out in dribs and drabs. It was fresh and it was streaming hot …. But taste …. Lacking! It was very greasy noodles, egg rice that tastes like pure salt, and the desserts were lacking even the ice cream was so frozen you could not scoop it no matter how hard you tried. You had to pay before you ate… and the quality was not worth the cost at all. Avoid.

Absolutely fantastic meal. Food cooked to order from the buffet menu, very tasty, very hot. Would highly recommend and we’ll definitely return

Fantastic quality food and freshly cooked to order. Best Chinese buffet we have ever had ( we have had many!). Very friendly staff and a helpful, delightful young waiter Robert. What an asset to the restaurant.

I would like to warn people against going to The Garden Chinese Restaurant ( formerly Cosmos). A group of 4 of us went last night, thinking when it was booked it was a buffet Restaurant. It's now order as much as you want from the b menu. This was explained to us by a child working there who I would say was no older than 10. He then got the card machine for us to pay upfront ( no issue with this). We asked for the bill to be divided in half so we could pay per couple. At first this was refused but it was sorted. I know this is my fault for not checking but the bill was £99.50 including the drinks. We got charged £57.50 each. We ordered starters. Asking that each starter was for 4 people. They came out in dribs and drabs and only every one for 2 people ( ie. 2 prawn toasts. 2 prawns). I complained and the waitress said that the chef said if we want more order it. The chef happened to come out so I complained to him. He stated shouting at the waitress, then said to me " no English" and walked off. Iv also complained that the child was taking plates before people had finished. He was polite and I felt guilty about complaining about a Child, but he should never be put in this position. The main courses all came out separately. One of our party had finished his rice before the his Curry came out. Some people had finished their mains before my Duck came out. My noodles never arrived. Felt Ripped off and felt I supported child exploitation

This place is a joke…. Tried it twice now just incase it had improved since the take over… so not waste your money… £16.99 for lunch buffet… get in there, seated and drinks order taken… wasn’t offered a menu… so if we didn’t want a buffet then tough…. So grab a plate then get up there and literally nearly every dish they had was nearly run out… wasn’t even busy in there… max and I’m being generous 7 tables with people on.. so I asked the lady could we have some shredded duck made as none left, spring rolls none left, prawns none left… she said yes she would sort some out… fair enough she did and she told me it was ready… so we had that then went back for our mains and it looked terrible…. All the trays were empty and dried up… I asked for various things to be cooked and again she said she would sort that out…. As we were waiting she came over to the table half way through the meal and asked for payment!!! I paid it thinking these the dishes would be re stocked but after sitting there for about 10-15 mins nothing had appeared… by this time I’d had enough… told the lady that the burger should be half price as the dishes on show were empty… it was a joke… don’t waste your money… what we did notice is that if your Chinese you are looked after… they had a menu given to them plus there meals weee freshly prepared and looked amazing… seems the English got the scraps and dried up stuff…