Watermargin Chinese Restaurant in Cornwall, Isles of Scilly

We visited the Watermargin early on Wednesday evening. The food was excellent as always, and the staff helpful and friendly.

What a great place! We thoroughly enjoyed it. We had the all you can eat. The food was delicious and the staff lovely and very helpful as we were novices. We'll definitely be going back.

Had a takeaway, it arrived very late and was cold, they couldn't find us but didn't bother ringing. Cold on arrival and they sent 1 starter and we'd paid for 2. We're local and won't bother again. Very disappointing.

Excellent restaurant. Delicious food and great service. Very polite and kind.

I wish I had gone to bed hungry. I feel like I have been bent over one of their many dirty tables, violated and splashed with whatever overly salty sauce they had spare. We arrived as so many other places in town had closed. We were seated and waited for some time before deciding to fetch the menus ourselves. The waiter did apologise for this. In fact it seemed he apologised for something every time he approached us. Complimentary prawn crackers were delivered to our table with an unexplained brown sauce appearing on one of them. The waiter inspected this, asking "what is that?" before shrugging and walking off. There was no organisation and it appeared our waiter had little confidence by way of social interaction. When the food arrived at the table, my immediate thought was that there must be more to arrive. This was not the case. The chicken satay skewers I ordered were sparse, were not cut before being placed on the skewers and the satay sauce was cold. The duck in plum sauce was more or a starter but at the price of a main. The other guests with me struggled to contain their laughter. It sat in a pool of sauce that was overly sweet and sickly. The second person who came to our table brought food over and just left it on the side without handing it over to the appropriate guest. The service was inattentive, the food was hugely overpriced given the measly quantity and that's before we get to the quality. The word 'poor' would be an understatement but there are restrictions on the language you can use in these reviews. The decor was so bland, dated and uninspired. It is without a doubt the worst experience I have had in a restaurant and would have been happier to have headed straight home for cheese on toast. I honestly could not wait to leave.

Simply the worst Chinese I've ever had in my life. Service was abysmal and lacked atmosphere. Very disappointing- avoid!

Went for all eat buffet great for us as don't eat Chinese that often nice to try different dishes

Been working on a project in St Austell for a few months and tried a few chinese takeaways, my favourite is Watermargin as they are always very helpful with making dishes suitable for vegans, their tofu offerings are pretty good. Food is always cooked well and tasty. 5* from me.

Absolutely terrible experience. We had a table booked for 7pm. Arrived early. Sat waiting an hour for our first appetisers, then another 45mins for our second. Another 40mins for any main courses. Then at 21:30, still eating our first set of mains we were asked if we wanted any more as they were closing. Absolutely terrible service, the staff were very unattentive, service was, as I've said, terrible. The food was so salty that you could see loads of it in the bottom of the bowls and the rest wasn't very good either. I absolutely wouldn't recommend here, nor shall I be returning.

If I could give it Zero I would. We booked for the all you can eat menu, for which they ask for payment upfront due to circumstances beyond their control! Well I can certainly see why! We arrived for our 7pm booking, we had to wait 20 mins for a drinks order to be taken. We then had a further wait for our appetiser order to be taken, we then waited 45 minutes to arrive. They gave the excuse that they were busy however there are only 10-15 tables in the whole restaurant and they only do one sitting a night! Once we had finished those we order a second round along with the crispy duck and 2 portions of soup. Well I'm still waiting for my Chicken and Sweetcorn Soup. Once finishing the 2nd round of appetisers (you can only order 2 rounds) we sat for a further 45 mins to order the mains. At which point I physically had to get up and look for the 5 waiting staff who I found having a jolly in the entrance to the kitchen and requested that we ordered our mains to which the response was we didn't realise you hadn't! By this point a number of the tables had left and we were surrounded by tables covered in dirty dishes and leftovers which I also pointed out to the staff who were busy talking. Eventually the mains arrived however yet again we were dishes missing and they came out so sparadic that by the time everything had arrived half of it had gone cold. The food was so salty you could actually see it heaped up in the bowls. Halfway through eating these we were asked if we wanted anymore as it was last orders on food, to which we pointed out it would be nice to able to finish eating what we had and that it was hardly fair considering the amount of time it had taken them to serve us! Apparently we had been given a grace period as they normally call last orders at 9pm but as we had been forgotten about and hadn't ordered until 8:50pm a concession was made. The manager came to our table to 'apologise' but it was by no means sincere and gave us the drinks on the house, more to shut us up than it was an apology. All he could tell us that was that they were busy and a chef down. So busy the staff could stand around talking rather than serving. Ending his apology with you are entitled to our opinion and that you can't go to a restaurant without waiting over 2hrs for your food it's normal! So if you want slow service with salty inedible food by all means try the all you can eat, but you have been warned!

I loved this Chinese restaurant. We went to the buffet. The food was excellent. The portions are individual so order enough for yourself. An enjoyable evening. The food was a bit slow at times due to only having one cook. The waiters and waitresses were lovely and worked very hard.

do not go here... Rip off restaurant... Eat as much as you want...if it ever gets to your table... Was wary to go here as there are no reviews after sep 23 but thought it can't be that bad...it was

💸We pay FULL PRICE for 1 appetiser and 2 main dishes(not all you eat). The size for the main dishes is just very tiny. DON'T GO TO THIS RESTAURANT unless you want to be ripped off. The restaurant's manager Joanna is a joke🤬. Unfortunately, too angry to take photos of the kids meal.

Great food great staff couldn’t fault the service.More than happy to change the dish the cater for my vegetarian wife would defo recommend for anyone who is in the area.

We received a very friendly welcome, unfortunately the food wasn't good. I traditionally have sour and spicy soup ("Peking soup") at every Chinese restaurant I visit for the first time, including here. I've had many bad soups like this, but this was the worst so far. All they did was take any broth and add too much vinegar and way too much pepper to make it sour and spicy. The soup didn't have any significant taste of its own. Unfortunately, the rest of the dishes weren't any better either. The ingredients were inferior, unimaginatively put together and the seasoning/sauces of the dishes were at the lowest level. It almost didn't matter that the noodles were far too greasy and gave the impression of being fried with old oil. We had take-away. I can't tell whether it was a cultural misunderstanding that we didn't get rice with the dishes that required a side dish, or whether the restaurant forgot about it in the hectic pace of the battle. All in all, it was an experience that I wouldn't want to repeat.

As a Coeliac Girl, I haven’t had a Chinese in over 2 years… this place is amazing for gluten free dishes! Our server Ryan was incredibly knowledgeable about the menu and safe dishes and the kitchen went above and beyond for me, even making epic stir fry rice noodles. 80% of the menu is gf anyway, but it was so comforting to have the security of Ryan and the team’s knowledge. Definitely will be coming back!

One of the best Chinese restaurants I have ever eaten in. Charming staff, delicious food

Absolutely amazing gluten free food. Chef managed to make everything I wanted. Haven't had a chinese for 3 years due to being gf. Definitely will return!

It has been quite a while since we last went to the Watermargin and thought it time to make another visit. We went for the Eat as Much As You Like deal. The restaurant itself is very clean and well laid out. Tables are not close together so customers are not on top of each other. The choice on the EAMAYL menu is a good selection of items from the main menu. The plate sizes are smaller, but then again you can have as much as you wish to eat. THe only dish we werre not pleased with was the spare ribs which were a bit too fatty for our liking, but everything else was tasty, well cooked and well presented. The staff were all friendly and pleasant and each round of choices delivered at the same time. We intend returning in the not too distant future.

Food is always great whether dining in or getting delivery. Great at catering to vegans, lots of options and it all tastes great! Nice atmosphere and friendly staff. Best Chinese in the St. Austell area :)

This is the best, it's like visiting friends, everyone is so wonderful and nice. Love this place

Only reason for no 5 star review due too dishes ordered never arrived and some dishes took longer too come out left me sitting waiting wilst others was eating and finished and some dishes very greasy and st austells finest riff raff causing scenes in reception area im afraid I will not be a returning customer felt very expensive for what food I actually got too eat sorry for a rubbish review it was how I left feeling

We were staying in Bodmin holiday park phoned and asked for delivery although 25 minutes away very efficient service with no charge for delivery and great food definitely recommend

The food is fine, but they came to your table so slow. We tried it yesterday, and it was so irritating waiting for the food

Delicious! Yummy Chinese with excellent customer service. Delivered on time and really tasty!

Food was top notch. Clean and tidy restaurant. Excellent quality food

We have been using the water margin for at least 2 years but last night we arrived at 6 , there were only 3 other people in the restaurant, our starter and drinks arrived at 6/45 but our main meal hadn’t arrived at 8.05 , absolutely disgusting they just can’t cope with the takeaway food and the restaurant, we were just left to wait , no complementary drink or some nibbles it was awful, we just paid for our starter and drinks and left , never experienced anything like this at a restaurant, don’t recommend the water margin at all , we will never return , appalling customer service

We went here for a meal in March and ate off of the " all you can eat menu". We live locally but hadn't been in before. We found the menu to be good, with a wide variety of dishes on offer. The staff were friendly and attentive for our whole evening. The price is extremely good value for money. We definitely preferred ordering our dishes( which were fresh and tasty!) to a standard buffet! Everything we tried was well cooked and tasted lovely! Can't fault this place to be honest!

'All you can eat for £20' maybe, maybe not. We sat there for three hours as tiny portions gradually were served, not the whole meal at once but over time and not all 5 of us together either. The photo shows my friend's meat serving and the veg part arrived about 15mins later after she had consumed the meat. You could order more courses but by the time one had finally received one at the table the will to live and eat had all but dissipated. For my twenty Quid I would have had more nutritional value in a slice of beans on toast. Pathetic!

We had a takeaway from here and were very impressed. The premises were clean and inviting (with a 5 star hygiene rating), the guy behind the counter was very welcoming and the food was great. It wasn't greasy, had a nice amount of heat in the Singapore noodles and the chicken with black bean sauce was very tasty. We will be back!

Good food, good service but the restaurant was very quiet.

Great quality on the food not been disappointed, in face I am going there again today with my 4 brothers. Parking is good and the all you can eat deal is very good.

Was very disappointed we could get table l know we should booked table we had to wait long time for our food we had take away after wait hour for our food was average but nothing special

Amazing food. Amazing service. Would’ve been great atmosphere but was a bit empty, at the end of the day though it’s st Austell in winter.

Passing through and needing a Chinese fix so checked Tripadvisor and believing this place to be decent I ordered up - just awful. Sweet and Sour balls weren't cooked, crispy chilli beef was crispy and barely any beef. So poor! Even the chicken fried rice was poor... I would not recommend eating from here.

So disappointed - been there four times before when visiting family in St. Austell. This time we were asked to pay up front as they had had some people who left without payment. This made us very uncomfortable, did we look that type????? On top of that when we ordered from the "All you can eat" menu and I asked for the Chinese Veg in Oyster sauce (I am vegetarian) BROCCOLI came ???? this is not Chinese Veg - Choy Sum or Pak Choi or even Chinese cabbage would be good - but I was told it was "only seasonable veg" on the ALL you can eat menu, BUT Chinese Veg was available on the MAIN MENU. I feel I was conned and will not be returning.

We went to the all you can eat evening. Small portions of lots of different choices and the food was excellent.

Super meal , good value for money, will definitely return ...

Lovely food, and lovely staff. Can be a bit slow serving sometimes. Wasn't very busy when we were there midweek.

This is one of the best places to eat in St Austell. We had a rather disappointing food experience during our stay in Cornwall until we tried eating here. They kindly accommodated us despite being close to closing times on Wednesday evening. The food was made fresh and everything we ordered was very tasty. Their veg singapore noodles were bursting with flavour. We liked them so much that we ordered them again. Everything had a nice kick to it. The staff was very warm and polite and the service was professional. we'd definitely visit here again on our next visit.

Best take away around but FAR! Staff are always super friendly and the food is scrumptious!

We tried the eat all you can option. The dishes were small but had a great variety to choose from. My partner had some dietary restrictions and felt they accommodated a lot of things she usually could not eat in your usual Chinese restaurant. The food was great and serving time was also good.

Car-park is like a wasteland, and the two members of staff we interacted with were both unfriendly. Definitely not welcoming place. Avoid.

I love love love this restaurant. The sharing starter platter is excellent, especially the garlic prawns and ribs.The crispy duck is delicious and the portions are just right. There is an extensive choice of mains and the ones we have tried, as regular diners, are consistently tasty. The staff are all very pleasant and helpful and the buffet evenings are excellent value for money.

Good food but very slow service

First time here and devastated that I live a 6 hour drive away. Food was so delicious that I think they've ruined all other Chinese restaurants for me forever. Quite honestly the most tender, delicious, flavourful food I've ever had. I was upset that I became full so I had to stop trying the dishes. Oh well, I'll just have to go again.

Nice food, not a lot of choice though. Friendly staff great service.

One of the best Chinese meals I have ever had. The Prawn crackers are to die for.

I enjoyed everything here, I think my favourite was the roast lamb with pancakes. There was lots of choice on the menu, including a decent amount for vegetarians. Was impressed with the disabled accessibility of the restaurant- it looked like there was both a lift and a disabled toilet.

Went for the all you can eat, 45 mins in and only had our first set of starters, as we had gone as a couple we didn't realise we had to order x2 of all dishes so all portion sizes were pretty tiny (our own fault but maybe could have been explained better) was 4 or 5 more tables in the restaurant as the same time as us and service was slow, after 1.5 hours our second lot of food came but I think we were maybe over hungry from the wait so seemed to fill up fast. Came to £50 after drinks so definitely didn't seem worth it really :-( food was tasty of what we tried but would definitely prefer to spend that amount on take away next time! Take away menu seemed to have some interesting dishes on so will try that.

Amazing gluten free food Never had such a range of gluten free Chinese food before! Staff were really friendly and helpful!

I would highly recommend the water margin ,lovely food ,very friendly staff ,and attentive too , will go there again

Great food, owners very welcoming, very enjoyable experience. Eaten here many times as takeaway and eat in and it has never disappointed, recommended especially the all you can eat evenings which are a good way of trying new dishes

Worst chinese we've had!! We visited this restaurant a few years ago on holiday and looked forward to returning. We have come away SO disappointed. We realise many will just complain but we will only complain if there's a genuine reason. The curry was virtually inedible as it was so hot. There was a jelly like substance in one dish they said was onion, it wasn't, it was clear jelly!! The satay chicken was so tough we could barely get it off the skewers. We got several wrong dishes when ordering. And after this they still charged excessively for drinks. The waitress acknowledged our problems with food as correct but NO apology. Disgusted to pay over the odds for this. Gave up on the buffet as the food was not worth eating. Avoid!!

I don't usually leave reviews if I have not really enjoyed something, but the food from here has made me really poorly and I've been in bed for 3 days. I got bad food poisoning from the lemon chicken. It was not tasting the best anyway as the chicken was rather flobby, with mixed bits of gristle and definitely a questionable lump of something jelly like. I am not a fussy eater and love lemon that much I carried on, and put it down to the soggy batter. Bork! But halfway through the meal I had to check it because it was tasting so bad and I saw some of the the chicken was uncooked inside. So I left the rest. But the next day I was feeling nauseous the whole day which sadly effected my holiday day out. But the following 3 days after I have been in bed vomiting with severe food poisoning. Please do better and do not get complacent when cooking just because you do it all day every day. That's how people end up getting sick and I've had to take a week off work Sorry to say, but worst experience with take out ever.

We were in Cornwall for the weekend and decided to get some takeaway for ease. It wasn't until half way through the meal we realised the chicken wasn't cooked properly. The next day my partner came down with severe food poisoning and has had to be off work. AVOID PLACE AT ALL COSTS!!

Best Chinese food in Cornwall. Staff always friendly and helpful. Very quick for takeaway collection.

First time visiting this restaurant but it definitely won't be our last really lovely meal, served hot, and the service was excellent. Thankyou watermargin

Am in town on business, asked for a table for one person and was refused as they don't serve lone people.

wonderful food, IMHO best in cornwall

Great value, good food and friendly staff. Recommended

Food was good really enjoyed all of it! Service was good but took a long time to get our food out to us which is a shame.

Food is great, 80% off staff are also great. The man who welcomed us as we came through the door is wonderful and very accommodating There is a young lad who works here and I am sure he tries but hands in pockets, not knowing the menu at all and “can I get you lot summin” isn’t the service you expect I’m afraid , the younger staff maybe need some training Long waits on food but once it gets to your table it’s delicious (also not being rude towards the younger staff !! Just constructive criticism) Would probably go again if in the area

¹/⁴ of a duck between 4 people very disappointed I don't know why thay call it all you can eat cas it not you are limited to what you can have and you get things you did not order will I go back no would I recommend no

Good food good service what more could you ask for

Really accommodating even though we arrived quite late. Food was excellent, will definitely return when next in town.

Usually good but I ordered noodles I specifically asked if there were prawns in it as I can’t eat them due to being pregnant I was told there were no prawns so I proceeded to order, when the food arrived and I dished up there were huge prawns in it, I put what I dished up of the prawns with noodles in the dog bowl for the dog as I Diddnt think they’d ask for it back when replacing the noodles so I then had to scrape it back out of the dog bowl back in to the container to give back to them, also I ordered half a duck, the meat on the top was lovely nice slices of duck but under that layer the majority of the duck was strips of dried skin and fat that I could not eat there was more skin and fat than actual meat at this point I couldn’t be bothered to ring back up and also complain about the duck as I had to wait for the noodles to be replaced, I ordered the banana fritters with ice cream, as my son dosent like Chinese I thaught he could have the ice cream it was only when it arrived I realised there was no ice cream and he was very disappointed as he was expecting it, I was told that the ice cream was only in restaurant I should have been told this over the phone, I won’t be ordering agin!

My name is Mary Cook and was with a group of four ladies at 6.30. First time for us and definitely won't be the last. We were greeted as we came in and made to feel welcome. Two of our group were unable to make...

Came here for all you can eat last week and I did not regret it. Service and food was both outstanding. Definitely the best Thai green curry I’ve ever had! We will definitely be back!! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Love it....we'll be back soon ❤️

Absolutely amazing food cooked fresh!

Having been before, I was a bit disappointed this evening. Food took a long time to come out. This time we had the all you can eat and the mains portions were very small. If we go again I'd go back to the set menu.other than that, service was great as always and the food delicious

Our first visit to Watermargin. We were looking for somewhere last minute so spontaneous. Glad we did, excellent food, very friendly staff. Good value for money, highly recommended.

The takeaway was fabulous. Quick, tasty, we will be back soon!

Lovely Chinese place, food is delicious and very good quality, the staff are friendly and nice place in general. Definitely worth a visit if you feel like Chinese!

Great food lovely team, always stop in if in the Area..

We have had many takeaways from Watermargin over the years which have generally been at least good if not always excellent. However, last night, 2 of our dishes were awful. The chicken on the chicken satay skewers was rock hard, dry and tasteless. The spareribs...

My wife and I had a take away from here this evening. Starter, followed by 1/4 duck and then two mains and rice. It was extremely tasty, not overdone and certainly not gloopy like some Chinese restaurants. We both totally enjoyed it. Slightly expensive, but...

Fantastic food, friendly family run restaurant. Highly recommended!!

We went with my son and his partner on a Friday night when it's all you can eat for £20.00 a head. There is a small amount of parking at the back of restaurant which was o.k. as we went early 6.00p.m. but I can...

We had a fabulous meal with friends. It was all you can eat. Food very tasty and hot. It was very very busy so service was a bit slow. But definitely worth the weight. We a a lady in a wheelchair in our party and...

Very nice food A warm welcome. We didn't book so they were very accommodating to get us in. Friendly staff. Well worth a visit if you are in the area

A good value, quality restaurant. Food allergies are well marked in the menu. Nic atmosphere and do several all you can eat evenings

Very nice atmosphere. Staff friendly and approachable. Very good value for money.

Been a few times which were always good food with slow service, the last visit was exceptionally poor. The price had gone up again (for the 2nd time in a few months) but fair enough we thought, cost of living and all that. You are...

Such a shame - food is OK... service is so slow and the staff are nice but so disorganised. Two hours to serve 3 rounds of food, lots iof restrictions on all you can eat, not good value for money, and the quality of food has gone downhill. We had a nice time but thats because we laughed our way through how bad it was

Service was a little slow but to be fair one of them was new so still learning but food was great and would definitely recommend it. The ribs were amazing.

First time here. Very friendly and welcoming. Not long to wait for the food once we ordered. Food was tasty and hot. Each course we ordered was plentiful

Gluten free 90% of there menu.... The food was amazing... Absolutely out of this world good!!! Had a totally gluten free meal love it thank you

We visited the restaurant last night and received a warm welcome. Ordered starters which were beautiful, then the wait began... almost an hour to have part of our food brought to the table, couldn't find anyone to order more drinks so went to the bar,...

Where do I begin? The service, the food, the price, the food, the service??? Before all 4 of us had looked at any menu we were asked what we wanted to drink! Give us a minute please! When we were eating the starters we were...

The Food is really good here and the buffets on Wed, Fri and Sun are really good value for money and a unique way of doing the buffet, so you can try lots of different meals. Owners and staff are great.

Having moved to Cornwall from West Sussex we have really struggled to find a good Chinese. We booked Watermargin for our 10th wedding anniversary celebration and we were not disappointed at all, infact both of us came away saying this was the best chinese we had eaten. The food was delicious, the waiting staff were very attentive and happy to help. There was a decent gap between courses and we left feeling full and content. We will definitely be visiting Watermargin again for an all you can eat. I'm so pleased we found this little golden nugget. Thank you x

Staying at hut and hound holiday camp....was recommended by the owner of hut and hound...ordered for delivery to the camp....very fast delivery and the food was very good.....the only thing we didn't like was the curry sauce as more fruity than curry tasting....but the rest of the food was great. Prawn balls in batter, a mixed meat dish, beef fried rice, pancake rolls, banana fritter and curry sauce.

We visited the Watermargin for my brothers birthday meal last Sunday. The service started off ok, but went downhill very quickly! The food is delicious, however we were kept waiting 2 hours before getting our main courses! We did have starters and drinks, but at...

We were returning customers and were looking forward to a great meal especially the starters. We arrived at 7pm and by 9.30 we’re just finishing. We waited for our drinks order, for each food course and for our plates to be taken away. This we...

Great place to eat. Best Chinese food we have ever had. Staff friendly and attentive. Highly recommend.

Love this place the food is always amazing, it's spotlessly clean and the staff are so lovely. Always come back

The place was clean but the slowest service I have ever come across. The food was ok but not worth the price.

Was always our go to place. Unfortunately for the first time last week we felt a little ripped off. Why increase your prices and decrease the portion size? Either one or the other!