The Lantern in Eastbourne

If you like overly salted or overly sweetened savory food you will love this place. By item ordered and associated price we have approximately £60 of an £80 order going in the bin as inedible. Satay sauce, where the game was, guess where the peanut is in the swamp of honey. Similar with the shredded chilli beef as in where's the beef in this conjealed lump of who knows what. Seaweed, (okay we all know it's fried cabbage), drowned out by sugar. Bland chicken chow mein, prawns in Peking (salt and honey) sauce. Beetroot coloured sweet and sour sauce that was similar to wallpaper paste was the icing on the cake. I could go on but would add that we didn't get the free prawn crackers or spring rolls either. We got the prawn crackers we ordered in addition to the free ones we were expecting but most of them were singed. I'm unsure why this place is more highly rated on Just Eat than our usual go to, China Garden. I've given 5 for service as delivery was prompt but I'm guessing my experience of their food means they have plenty of spare capacity, as in not that busy. I won't be making the same mistake again.

This has to be the absolute worst chinese in Eastbourne. We ordered a takeaway over £70 and it was bland and absolutely full of salt and sugar.

This has to be one of the worst chinese restaurants in eastbourne. The food was absolutely bland full of salt and sugar and all tasted the same. We threw most of ot away after trying the dishes we ordered online.

Really amazing food the other night, all dishes tasted really especially the chilli beef. chicken ball battered was incredible

I would normally recommend china inn, but after today experience I would not.

Never disappointed! So tasty and the portion sizes are great.

perfection. Best chinese I've ever had

Fabulous food as always. Always hot and delicious.

Ordered Szechuan Pork for a change and mixed this with beansprout chow mein. It’s was full of only bamboo shoots and noodles and not well looking pork. There was no spice to it and just tasted of salt. Put me off the dinner completely and threw it away. I did have dry ribs and those were very good I must say.

bit expensive but good food can't complain

Really delicious!! especially the salt and chilli chicken. Have been trying to find a good Chinese in Eastbourne for ages and this is the only one I'll be going to now. My only criticism is on the Tom Yum Soup, it would have been good to have more vegetables in it and to have been Spicier. It was quite watery with just a few prawns in I think and not spicy.

sweet and sour chicken was tough and over cooked and the rice did not have much in it unlike other special fried rice but edible.

Not enjoyable. Black bean tofu no vegetables, just lumps of tofu and very little sauce. Kung Po was fluorescent orange and no flavour. Rubbish unfortunately,

Delicious, generous portion of crispy chilli beef, and a huge special friend rice. Will definitely order again 👌

Food was really tasty. Good sized portions. Breach vegetarian options. Really fast delivery, and piping hot. Definitely will order again.

Chicken in the chicken balls was still pink and cold :/

First time ordering from here as our usual is closed, definitely making this our regular. Food was delicious and generous portions. Chicken balls were more like holders!! Excellent value for money

Iv had some bad chinese take aways in Eastbourne but this one was by far the worst. My usual one was closed went here and half of it was inedible.

Price has gone up so l won’t be able to treat my family every week

Have ordered salt and chilli ribs and chicken wings numerous times previously. However tonight’s offering was well under par. It arrived early but cold. The wings were ‘wet’ inside and covered in a sauce instead of being cooked in a sauce. The salt and chilli ribs were inedible. They were so dried out they snapped! Really disappointed for over £30 weeks had just chicken balls and 1 chicken noodle to share between us.

Absolutely gorgeous food. Good quality and very tasty! Will be ordering from here in future.

Delicious food will definitely order from there again

Always go to Chinese, so tasty and come hot and on time. Not greasy!

Was delicious 😋 hope it stays positive. Thank you 👍

Exceptional quality and quantity.

Was a big order but all good arrived still hot and was very tasty

Delicious as always thumbs up to the chef.

Says 10pm on thier website but they close at 9.30 - I came from town only to find them closed - not happy

Was very tasty sweet and sour pork, the honey ribs were large and meaty. Only thing I found uncomfortable was just how spicy the Singapore vermicelli is; I have them as I enjoy chilli heat but they where next level, possibly tame them down just a bit as it almost ruined flavour of them to being almost a synthetic heat rather then natural chilli pepper, I'd say they where 3 chilli pepper icon heat rating.

Great quality food. really tasty and great portion size. very highly recommended

The food is always good better than the last owners all day long, but sometimes the young lad gets orders wrong and also sometimes he's rude it's not his fault he's only young all round a pleasant experience

Meat dishes were wonderful including Chinese style pork and A duck dish, other than the chicken in hoisin sauce which didn’t taste much like hoisin. We were going to buy 1 egg fried rice, 1 curry sauce and 1 chips but it was roughly £2 cheaper to get the box deal which included all 3. It’s around £8 and it’s a tiny portion of each hardly enough for even one person so definitely get all the bits separate if you go here. Also the side bits (rice, chips, noodles) were fairly cold and tasted like they’d been sitting a long time before delivery! If the carbs were like the meat then it would be 10/10!

Such a nice Chinese, one of the best I’ve ever had. Not too greasy. Very tasty!

Food was barely warm. Overall was quite testy but they forgot to give us the sweet and sour sauce for the chicken balls. Bit disappointing as I was looking forward to that.

Quick delivery of hot food. Love the special chow mein and thai curry tasty with good amount of meat

What an amazing service. For some reason it was for collection but when I said I couldn’t pick it up they brought it too me. What great customer service. I would recommend first class service

We pre-ordered for delivery, well in advance, but it was 20 mins late, we ordered the special salt n chilli mix box, salt n chilli king prawns & pepper beef....The salt n chilli prawns were warm, wet and sweaty, the salt n chilli mix box was crammed into a take away container, which made everything in the box, wet and sweaty, there was no salt or chilli, but a strange brown covering on some of the chips, partner said pepper beef was ok, but, like everything else, it was just luke warm... restaurant really needs to put the contents of the box into pizza box style delivery containers, so it doesn't sweat and make the contents soggy, threw most of it away, won't be ordering again

4/5 for me. The food was nice. It was warm. Maybe could have been hotter. The drink was warm. Very generous portions. They gave us free prawn crackers. I would definitely order again. Much better than chopsticks who i ordered from last week.

First time trying here - portions are large!! We didn’t finish even half of it so that can be lunch tomorrow!! 😅 Will happily order from here again! Food came incredibly fast too.. - chicken balls are easily the best we’ve had!

Great tucker . First timer here but highly recommend

Sadly didn't enjoy the Crispy shredded beef it had a very odd grainy/powdery texture

Food piping hot and very tasty, fast delivery .

Excellent food and lots of it. First time but will definitely use them again.

Lovely non greasy Chinese good size quick delivery

2 stars simply put: 1 star for chicken curry that looked more like sweet and sour sauce, no curry taste at all, a sauce with a little something for heat thrown in. 2 stars for the size of the spring rolls. Only ordered once, but really going to need a drastic improvement to get me to order again, emphasis on quality, not quantity, before I upgrade my rating. This used to be LANTERN takeaway, my always to go to Chinese Takeaway (note: Takeaway not Dine In), and when it was, you would never see it shut at 21:30/22:00, especially on Friday or Saturday nights. Now I have worked out how to make my own Chicken Curry by adding a few tweeks, can save myself and family a small fortune and the 2 fussy girls love it.

Best Chinese in Eastbourne, hands down. Let's hope the quality stays this way. 🙏

Food was hot tasty and lots of it ! Really impressed and delivery was very quick!

I spent money which ended up being wasted. I asked for sweet and sour sauce and got chicken, I’m a vegetarian so I couldn’t eat it, I also use the sweet and sour on my other things so I couldn’t eat much of that either, shame as it was a bit of a wait too

Delivery was late. Food wasn’t very good. Food yung and chips were bland and tasteless. Curry didn’t really taste like curry and chicken in curry felt like reformed meat. Disappointing.

Ordered my food today ,it arrives on time !!! Hot and delicious. Best Chinese in town

Amazing food could not fault any of.... fresh and hot and even arrived earlier than expected, which was a bonus as was starving. Friendly delivery driver .. Will definitely be ordering from again 10 out of 10 .

A lot of the food was tasteless, and one item wrong, shame as it’s usually really good from here

Always delicious, hot and on time. Best chicken balls ever, we won’t use another Chinese Restaurant. Thank you ❤️

It's always hot ,always yummy 😋 never disappoints

came on time came with a smile came hot and tasty

Phenomenal food. Portion size, quality ingredients, full of taste and flavour with no grease.

The food was good, but I had to contact the restaurant about a missing item.

Food was nice but ordered rice and was sent noodles. Also considering it was 20 mins early temp was at best tepid

Bland, warm and late. Never again!

Was given pork instead of chicken - to be fair, they did make another and had it delivered free of charge but chips etc were cold by the time I got it

Our large boiled rice was missing but we didn’t mind cus it was so so yummy! Lots of good options and our fortune cookies topped it off too Thankyou 😁

Delivered far too early. No notification it was on its way. Delivery driver was awful.

I ordered beef with cashews nuts & got chicken with mushrooms instead????

The food arrived very early and was delivered by a sweet little Chinese lady. Included were free fortune cookies and prawn crackers which I was delighted with as most Chinese takeaways don't seem to do free prawn crackers anymore and I haven't seen a fortune cookie for a few years! Main dishes were piping hot & delicious. I ordered the mixed sweet & sour balls, the chicken "balls" were the biggest I've ever seen! I also ordered a special chow mein and a special foo yung which were equally delicious! I have chicken & sweetcorn soup for later! I always order too much so it can last me a few days! Thank you China Inn! 🇨🇳 😊

Very disappointed this time as we ordered chicken with oyster sauce, however we received chicken with mixed vegetables. It wasn't very nice and we couldn't eat it and it is still in the container it was sent in. Having looked at the printed menu that came with the order, it states that the chicken is IN oyster sauce and not WITH oyster sauce which is what we had to order on the website menu. Whether the correct description is WITH or IN oyster sauce is irrelevant as this was clearly not what was delivered. We will think again about ordering from The China Inn.

No spice in Singapore chow mien even though it was asked for. Tasted bland and yuk. So disappointed as usually really tasty and nice from here but that last order is enough to put me off ordering from here again.

Food was amazing;) they make mistake with our dish but we like what they sent;) definitely I would like to order another meal from them

Absolutely love the food here. Always hot and tasty. Very good value. Huge menu. Will always use them from now on.

Ordered from here a few times now and it's always been great. They do really good 'veggie chicken' options. The veggie chicken satay is so good!

Was OK, chicken balls are big but the squid dish could do with more flavour but then it all could of done, not the best chinese I've had not helped the fact it wasn't pertucually warm when it turned up either

It’s was hot & yummy! will definitely order from there at as in

For over three decades, I have consistently enjoyed exceptional meals at this establishment without any disappointments. However, since the new owners have taken over, my recent experience was merely average. It seems that the previous owner, Ping, has sold the business, resulting in a multitude of changes. For instance, the homemade chips have been replaced with packet chips, and now only one size of dish is available, eliminating the option for larger portions. Most importantly, the flavors of the dishes have changed, and unfortunately, not for the better according to my personal taste. Despite these changes, I still extend my best wishes to the new owners. However, I will be exploring other dining options moving forward.

Good standard of food. Delivered on time. Would order from here again

Satay was way to watery, veg rice only had small amount of veg in, not much variety in it. Was not the nicest.

Food arrived quickly, however there was so much salt in every dish it was completely inedible and had to be thrown away.

Food arrived incredibly fast, hence 2 stars for service. The delivery driver (Just eat, to be fair to the restaurant) had his stereo up so loud the whole street knew we had a takeaway delivery. I pity people with small children in bed when he's out. We ordered crispy beef, beef chow mein, egg fried rice, chicken balls, chips and curry sauce. The crispy beef was actually very nice but everything else was seriously over salted (and I'm a person that loves salt) apart from the chips which had no salt. The food was so salty it made my partner feel ill. A real shame to ruin food with such a basic culinary error.

The food was far too salty to the point that I could not eat it.

The food arrived really early but the ribs were really salty We ordered the same menu on Friday evening but tonight the quality of the food was not the same and the ribs were not edible

Great food, and lovely delivery lady :) Would highly recommend China Inn.

Totally shocking food Totally disgusting the satay chicken very sweet the fry seaweed very sweet the egg fried rice not taste pork ribs that's lots of fats don't waste your money this China Inn Totally disgusting. The service the women was laughing at me and refused to gave my money and because I had some out of it so gave me 16 pound out 40

Some food was OK but seaweed was covered in far too much sugar and chicken chow mein was so salty that it was unpleasant to eat - and I like salty foods! First time ordering from this place and I don't think I will order from them again. Delivery was all fine.

Really fast delivery, nice food.

Hadn't tried this place before and it was fantastic! Beautiful food without being greasy.Great stuff and great service.We’ll definitely order again.

Excellent food, speedy delivery I was surprised at how crispy the shredded beef was as it usually goes soggy in the chilli sauce.

The food was delicious and the service was excellent. The best China food in this area. I will definitely order again.

Food tastes salty, it has made me and my fiancé feel sick after it! We won’t be eating from there again! Very disappointed :(

Being going here for year but over the last couple months they seemed to have changed recipes. And dishes are all different. Definitely not as good as it was. So won’t be going bk anymore.

Delivery person was really friendly, food was really good too. Definitely my new Chinese takeaway of choice. Have zero complaints.

Great tasting food, would definitely order again!

Piping hot food. Sweet delivery girl. Can’t really ask for more. Thank you x

The greasiest Chinese I’ve ever tasted and never normally Luke that

Great food and portions as always. Had egg fried rice, the bbq spare ribs had alot of meat and sauce which was fab! Spring rolls and the crispy chicken balls with sweet sour sauce was lovely too. Crispy chips too. Loved it. Will order again soon.

Shredded beef was very nice 👍 Chicken chow mein was bland, especially the plain white unseasoned chicken. Noodles tasteless Chicken balls were lovely 👍 cooked just right with a good crisp. Not soggy Seaweed was bland, I prefer more salty Salt and chilli chicken good flavours but quite dry

Superb, tasty and hot food. Will use again for sure. Best in Eastbourne, seriously!!

Lovely food, good price. Will order again 😊

Ordered a chicken curry with boild rice well the chicken wasn't cooked properly and the rice was hard. Will never order from them again.

Fabulous again. Food is outstanding. Delivery driver is so lovely too. What a happy chappie.

Chicken chop suey was inedible, soaked in a very pink, very sweet sauce. Can only think it was a mistake. Other orders seemed to be OK.

Very good food and fast delivery. Thank you very much.

Lovely Chinese, always arrives nice and hot, would recommend