Taste of China in Brentwood

So rude and three times argued the toss. So I've basically been called a liar three times. Ordered a meal to collect, got home, pork instead of chicken. Phoned about it... was told that what I got is what I ordered. Arranged for a new meal to collect and my wife this time repeated our order... girl at the desk argued with me again when I got there to return the 1st meal and said what I ordered she wrote down... I stood my ground and was served the new meal... wrong one yet again... argued with me a 3rd time... eventually the boss came forward with the right meal. That is my lot... we must have spent thousands of pounds with them over 20 years... never, ever again. And it was barely warm!

Absolutely disgusting service. Placed an order over the phone. They confirmed this would take 40 mins (45 mins max). An hour later I call to ask if my food had been sent out for delivery. They confirmed it had left 10-15 mins ago…. I live 3 minute (max) drive away. Said they would call and find out where it was and call me back - nearly 15 mins later still no delivery and no returned phone call. Called back and was told the delivery driver had said they called me but I had no calls or missed calls from anyone. As according to them the driver (at this point) had left half hour ago I said my food would now be cold. The person on the phone just wouldn’t talk or answer my questions. I was asking is there a way this can be resolved and she just wouldn’t speak. When I would say hello? She would say hello back but clearly just avoided sorting the issue. All I wanted was my dinner. Absolute sham! I feel generous having to give them 1 star!

This used to be my favourite Chinese take away, and to give it credit (or at least two stars) the food was good. However, despite the online order saying it was ready for collection I had to wait over an hour for my food. During that time I witnessed the staff lying to customer's on the phone ("We're just waiting for the delivery driver to come back", said the receptionist/delivery driver), and they misled people over wait times that they were simply plucking out of the air. They said their credit card machine wasn't working (evidently that has been the case for a while now). Clearly this is sadly an under staffed, unreliable place to go nowadays.

I am usually disappointed with Chinese take-aways as they never seem to live up to what is served in a restaurant. However, arriving home late last evening we decided on a Chinese take-away from a place in Shenfield we hadn't tried before and were very pleased with our meal. We could hear the food being freshly prepared in the kitchen and it arrived in attractive cardboard containers, not plastic ones. We both found the food very tasty. My choice of Schezwan fried vegetables contained a wide variety of vegetables in a flavoursome sauce. We also ordered fried rice with egg and spring onion and there was a generous portion of vegetable Singapore fried noodles. My partner had a beef dish. I used the leftovers in a soup the next day. There used to be a restaurant on the site too and there are plans to reopen that later in the year or early next year. At the moment only a take-away service is available.