The best restaurants serving Chinese food in North East

Oh dear....how the mighty have fallen. We used to visit the King Neptune when my wife and I first met...30+ years ago. It was EXCELLENT!! and we were regulars there. We haven't been for around 15 years to be fair but thought we'd celebrate our wedding anniversary there. What a mistake. The Neptune used to have a fabulous large fish tank, a real centrepiece!....now gone and just a gap where it once took pride of place. The room is also starting to look a bit worn and tired. We went a la carte rather than 'banquet' style and ordered : Prawn toast, chilii salt squid as starters then chili salt king prawns, szechaun chicken, crispy beef in cantonese sauce and fried rice. Drinks were 2 small proseccos and a pint of John Smith's. The good - the chili squid, chili king prawn and fried rice were very good indeed. The bad - They don't supply chopsticks!! Only forks, I mean REALLY?? No chopsticks in a Stowell Street Chinese?? Forks only. They also don't have the heating plates they used to, the metal tray like contraption with small candles underneath to keep the food hot. Now they just plonk it in front of you on cold plates so it cools down quite quickly , not great and the food suffered as a result. The crispy beef was average at best, and became just ' yuck' once it cooled down and coagulated, I left half of it. The Szechaun chicken was just okay with no real flavour to it at all. Prosecco came in a tiny 200 ml bottle at £7.20 each!! Really? You can buy them at £2-2.50 so a fiver mark up is ridiculous. The John Smith's was £3.90, a fair price. Service is also weak, only 3 people serving in total and we had to keep reminding them they'd forgotten both drinks and one dish. Bearing in mind it cost just over £83 this was a completely forgettable experience, honestly no better than a decent quality takeaway meal. If this was a Chinese 'cafe' or lower end eatery and set us back £45-50, then I'd say it was okay, nothing more, but for a Stowell Street 'top end ' place to eat, an absolute letdown. It just looks run down with zilch atmosphere - and what is it playing Abba songs in a Chinese?? - disinterested staff and the fact that when we left at 9.10 only 7 people were eating at 3 tables sums it up. We won't be going back, sad to say as we had such great memories of the Neptune, and unless your idea of a Chinese restaurant is no atmosphere, no chopsticks, average food at top end prices and disinterested staff, you're probably better off eating elsewhere.

Fantástica comida china para llevar nunca tuvo una mala siempre cuidan de ti y saben quién soy tan pronto como empiezo mi 3 porciones de albóndigas de pollo jajaja pero fantástica tienda recomendaría encarecidamente a cualquiera

It doesn't look much from the outside but it's the best Chinese takeaway around. The three meals deal is good value, and free spring rolls as well.

Really nice best chips and massive portions really reasonable prices and few freebies thrown in👍👍👍

I had a beef curry from here and wouldn't order it again. The beef was so chewy I left most of it. The rice and chips were hot and ok but I will avoid beef in the future

The food is lovely however book well in advance as the delivery is not good very very long wait we had

Rotten straight in the bin worst ever wouldn't even give it to the mut ya want to be ashamed of yourself

A lot better since its been taken over, prices slightly higher, but food really good for a takeaway, we like the currys, lots of meat, and generous with the king prawns

Rang for delivery. Usual Chinese was closed so thought I'd try this. Was told it would be an hour, it took 2 hours to arrive. Won't bother again, food wasn't nice. If the restaurant is short staffed or lacks delivery drivers, tell the customer before they place an order not once they leave a poor review.

Sadly, we didn't have a great experience today. We came in right when the restaurant opened. We were greeted at the door by a young man who was polite and he is about the only reason why this review is getting 2 stars. The other lady who served us came across as rude, her manners, lack of listening and the overall approach was not what you'd expect from a restaurant. She also forgot our drinks, probably because she is more focused on talking a lot and making it look like she engages with customers but she doesn't listen to anything you're saying and her pretend face is so obvious it makes customers uncomfortable. We were also given an empty bottle of chilli oil, but then it was corrected by the other staff, the polite man mentioend before. The food arrived quite fast, the portion of salt and pepper chips was quite small compared to other times we dined here, some of the chips were not cooked inside, still cold and frozen. The veggie mini hot pot was OK, not too many flavours, quite bland, but the dumplings were decent. The atmosphere in the restaurant wasn't great due to a large crowd of students that showed up and was noisy, acting like they were at a house party rather than a restaurant. At any other restaurant, they'd be asked to behave appropriately. Such a shame that we've had this experience because it used to be a good restaurant. Perhaps the owner changed as the menu also changed a lot and is very basic with almost no options for vegetarians. Probably won't be back for a long time.

2 weeks in a row orders for delivery were wrong .. over sat in for collection.. how frosty the woman was.... not be getting my money no more.. over priced by far.. "is it because monkseaton " anyone reading this ... lee garden's based in Shiremoor... same quality 3rd the price.. game over for me oriental

The phone rang and rang so I gave up and went elsewhere 🤷‍♂️

Food was great and got delivered early

The food was tasty, and the portions were large, but the staff was not very friendly.

Absolutely fuming!! That this takeaway hasn't got 5 star reviews. Never have i tasted a better chinese in the whole of England. With 30+ orders of the years, I've never been disappointed. The consistency of quality food, customer service, prices can't be matched. Don't think twice about ordering from here. My recommendation, salt and pepper chicken and chicken vermicelli noodles (no veg) cannot be beaten. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️