Red Lantern

We ordered food last minute and after reading one of the reviews about the food taking for ever to be delivered, I called to check how long it would take since I have kids and I wasn’t able to wait too long. They told me the food was ready and on its way. Wow, minutes later. So I guess it all depends to how busy they are, in my case, I was very lucky. The food is ok, we got the meatless chicken asparagus, a bit too, I personally prefer slightly softer, the rest of the food, chow main, and meatless rolls, was tasty and the price ok.

Updating my review:
I came back here after seeing the intensive menu on Unilocal.I was craving for the baked mussels and sushi.
I arrived to find a shorter menu with no sushi or mussels to be found. This place has changed the menu and unable to get Unilocal to update it on the web.
Disappointed. But we still stayed and had dinner. The 3 dishes we had were mediocre:
— papaya salad was bland
— basil tofu stir fry was oily and barely had basil
— big mama fried rice was not flavorful. mostly rice and some sprinkles of Chinese sausage and meats. They were skimpy with their ingredients
Their hot lemon tea was good though. That was the only really positive thing.
Sadly, it was a disappointing dinner out :(will not return
— — -
Original review:
Found this place through a groupon.
The food was great! The Shanghai chow mein was delicious — lightly oiled with greens and pork.
The avocado salad was light. The dressing was tasty.
The baked mussels was one of the best I’ve had– the right amount of spicy. the cream was perfect. Highly recommend it for appetizers.
The shrimp tempura roll was pretty good– not the best (since that tempura was crunchy) but not bad.
I’d come back here to try the other dishes.

Such disappointment. BF and I came here for sushi and they DO NOT HAVE SUSHI. When we walked in, there was one person there, when we looked at the menu, it was weird. It was just a bunch of random dishes from different cuisines on a piece of printed out 8×11 in paper. Parking wasn’t bad so I’m glad it wasn’t that bad. We really wanted to try all the sushi stuff but they stopped serving it, and said their website isn’t up to date. What a bummer!

I have came here at least 3 times, I have tried the koren seafood soup, pineapple fried rice, the big mama fried rice, orange chicken and the magolian beef. All great choices and delicious in their own way. My mom and I came on New Years Eve and tried to order the fried spring rolls with our meal, but I think the kitchen forgot them or didd’t want to make them and just wanted to go home because of the holiday. The waitress asked us how was our meal, we said we enjoyed it but didn’t get the spring rolls. She said I’ll take it off the bill for you and apologized. Usually a person checks on us, but that night when we were there we didn’t get that until the end of the meal.

Came in because I had a groupon.
Live in the neighborhood, seen it, wanted to try.
Looked on Unilocal,pics looked great, got the Groupon.
Disappointed… mainly because I was looking forward to eating some sushi and a mix of other plates.
Am a bit confused by the type of asian food they serve here. Seems like they have popular asian dishes here.
Opted for lettuce wrap, eh ok.
Lamb — meh
Stone rice dish — better at korean restaurants
Would I go back, prob not. Especially if they keep changing their menu.

My friend and I couldn’t decide on what to eat so we found this place and thought we could both pick something between sushi, Asian fusion & Thai but were mislead…
We walked in and the «waitress» wasn’t very friendly, just dropped 2 menus on a table
Upon looking at their dirty wrinkly paper menus I noticed there wasn’t any sushi.
When she came by I asked her for a sushi menu and she said they don’t have sushi.
I only came here bc I wanted sushi whilst my friend wanted Thai/​asian
We ordered crab rangoons to start which came out quickly and were pretty good.
We waited for our waters until after the entrees came out…
Ordered the orange chicken which was very bland and tasted like ketchup
Also got the Garlicc noodles which were good and the pork was good aswell
She didn’t refill our waters nor asked us if we wanted dessert before giving us the bill.
Decent place, garlic noodles were good but I don’t think I’ll be back

They adjusted their menu to discontinue sushi and I think it makes them even less comparable to other restaurants on the block. So bummed about this change, even though I wasn’t really thrilled about their sushi menu to begin with, but at least it could entice some of my guests to dine here.
I had an order of the fresh spring rolls and they are so boring. Noodles, sprig of mint, lettuce, shrimp. Needed something else to jazz it up for sure. The best thing I had so far was the Snow White soup. It has fish, shrimp, egg white, and tofu. It’s simple and yet so bomb. I nearly ate the whole portion myself.
Good service. Eat that soup seriously, especially if you like egg noodle soup.

We went to Red Lantern tonight with a Groupon. We ordered several dishes, many of them were highly recommended by other Unilocalers.
We ordered the Chicken on Fire. A little chicken in a sweet and spicy sauce. The server poured wine over the chicken and lit it on fire. I love the flavor in the chicken and the crispiness of the skin.
The Fish in wine sauce was another dish in sweet and sour sauce. The boneless fish is rolled in batter and fried to crispiness. Then tossed in the sweet and sour sauce. I loved that the fish was tender and crispy on the outside. My favorite dish of the night.
Firecracker Prawns are prawns with the shell still on cooked in a sweet and spicy chili sauce. This is a balance between sweet and the spiciness of the peppers. This was interesting dish that took some getting used to. The flavor was strong.
The French White Asparagus with Crab Meat was pretty good. The soup has a smoky taste and there was a little bit of crab in it.
French style cheese garlic noodle with the grilled pork was another favorite. The noodles were garlicky and buttery, but not overwhelmingly oily. The pork was okay, but not amazing.
Vietnamese Grilled Pork was the same was the grilled pork on the garlic noodles. The pork was thin and had flavor, but it’s not the traditional Vietnamese pork.
Big Mama Fried Rice was filled with chicken, ham, Chinese sausage, string bean, red bell pepper, egg and ginger. This dish was good, but not amazing.
The dishes were in generous portions, and while some of the dishes were good, others felt over seasoned.
I did think really love the Fish in wine sauce and the garlic noodle so I think I would come back for those dishes. A little disappointed that the sushi dishes were removed from the menu. It makes the menu really small and not as professional since they appear to be printouts.
Definitely try the Fish in wine sauce and garlic noodles. And for something different, the Chicken on Fire.

Nope. Came here — yes, like many — because of a groupon. I live in the neighborhood, so it’s always exciting to try new food, and I’m sorry, the Richmond, although obscure, is home to a LOT of really great cuisine. I’ll keep it short: from ambience to service to food quality, Red Lantern reminded me of a fancy Panda Express. It’s funny, because after dinner I expressed this thought and my bf was thinking the exact same thing, verbatim.
Disappointed by removal of sushi dept a week ago. I didn’t know this, I was looking forward to oysters and maybe a roll. So then I opted to try the Lamb. They. Were. Out. Annoyed, we went and got orange chicken and The Fish that everyone raves about. Both were very, very sweet. Paired it with pineapple fried rice. No «wow factor» to be found anywhere but within the décor which was dimly lit and had potential for romance.
Hope they work out the kinks, otherwise I see a struggle to compete with more established restaurants in the area.

This place is just alright. I saw this place on Groupon, decided to buy one, and tried it today.
First off, I was a little disappointed that they didn’t offer sushi on the menu anymore. I love eating at Asian Fusion places because I like variety, but it seems like it’s just a Chinese restaurant now. The décor was like modern Asian but it wasn’t really that nice for a new restaurant.
My cousin and I started off with the Basil Chicken Lettuce Wraps. This dish would’ve been good if the chicken wasn’t so salty. If you eat this dish, there’s no need to top it off with the hoison sauce. It only makes it saltier.
For entrees, we ordered the French Cheese Garlic Noodles with Pork and The Fish. The garlic noodles tasted more like just chow mein instead of garlic noodles. The pork on top was decently marinated but it was more fat than meat. I enjoyed the fish on the other hand. The talapia was perfectly fried and the wine sauce really complimented it. It tasted like sweet and sour pork though, but with fish instead.
I was thinking about giving this place two stars but we got really good service. Our server kept checking up on us to see if everything was good.
I don’t think I would come back to this place because nothing really tasted that special. If I hear that it got better or if they add sushi again, I may be back.

Interesting mix of food, this restaurant is listed as Japanese and has tons of images of sushi on Unilocal.
QUITE DECEIVING…
There weren’t any Japanese items on the menu or even sushi for that matter that I recall last night. There were a lot of red lanterns though!
This food is definitely asian fusion as there were Chinese, Thai, and Korean dishes on the menu.
The dishes we ordered were decent enough, and pretty tasty as well. But then again of course food is tasty when it’s dripping in oil and salt.
We chose:
Garlic Noodles: Pretty delicious, the cheese is hardly noticeable but still gives it a good flavor. It comes with pork chops. Don’t know how that tasted didn’t try it.
Big Mama Fried Rice: Salty goodness, was hard to eat with chopsticks so I didn’t have a whole lot lol but ti was alright.
Basil Tofu: Really delicious but pretty oily. I liked the variety of vegetables that were in the dish and the flavor was pretty good.
Papaya Salad: Pretty good, the strips of papaya are really thin, the dish overall was ehhhh.
Bok Choy (Seasonal Vegetables): SUPER GOOD it was smothered in garlic, ugh really delicious.
Pad see ew: Pretty good, not the best I’ve had but it was alright.
Overall my socks weren’t knocked off, but it wasn’t bad either! We had a Groupon which is why we came (REALLY GOOD DEAL). Don’t think I’d intentionally come back without another Groupon.

More so a 3.5 rating.
This place is considered Asian Fusion, but it seems more of an extensive menu that attempts to include as much Asian cultural dishes as possible, categorized by ethnicity and followed by 5 – 6 dishes in that group. I would have liked if their menu had a description of each dish, instead of an often vague title.
— I would suggest to avoid the sushi section. if you want fresh sushi, get it from an actual sushi restaurant. I personally also didn’t like how the sushi rolls were made, as there were too much rice portioned to the rest of the roll.
— Grandma Special Fried Rice — A little bland in flavor, but the saltiness of the dish made up for it. It was pretty good overall. it had goji berries, chopped mini string beans, bbq pork and egg. If I were to come back, I’m not sure if I would order it again though.
— Fried Whole Fish with Special Wine Sauce — This was a crispy battered fish in a sweet and sour sauce, accompanied by a few grapes on the side (which actually paired well with the sauce and fish)! I believe this was liked by everyone at the table. It’s a huge portion too, so expect to share or look forward to some leftovers… although the crispiness will get soggy, as it inevitably started to already during our meal. Still good!
— House Special Dry Citrus Beef — This was another item that was liked by everyone at the table! It’s much like the taste of those red sweet and sour pork ribs (jing do pai gwut) that are served during Chinese meals. This was even better, I’d say! They were tender, crispy, bite-​sized and wonderfully flavored! It went well with rice.
— French Style Cheese Garlic Noodle w/​Grilled Pork — Half the table liked this and half the table didn’t. I was part of the table that did NOT like this. You can actually smell the cheese/​butter when you take a whiff of the noodles. The noodles were garlic-​y, yes, but they had a bitter taste to me! I’m not sure if it was from the cheese or what, but it had an off flavor to me. The grilled pork was very tender — also very thin, but it had good flavor. This is one of those dishes that I would order/​eat only if my accompanied meal-​companions were interested in trying. other than that, it’s a pass for me!
— Sauteed String Beans — One of my favorites! They’re usually cooked with a spicy gravy or some type of spicy sauce or seasoning, but because some of the patrons at our table could not eat spicy foods, the waitress said it could be cooked with garlic instead. Woohoo! They’re unbelievably crispy, bursting with garlic and maybe just a teeeeeensy tad tad tad over-​salted but that’s okay because it’s Chinese food and that’s the norm and it was delicious!!! Hahaha… loved this dish!
Service was okay. There were times where I know they meant well, but it was just a «what the hell» moment. One time a waitress asked if we liked the food — when telling her yes, she told us to bring more people next time. (Uhh.) Another waitress overheard us guessing what type of vegetable was in the fried rice because they were chopped so thin, and she told us we don’t have to guess and to just ask a waitress. WHY CAN’T WE GUESS AND MAKE A FUN GAME OUT OF IT?! LOL just kidding. I know they mean well, but like. c’mon. leave us alone hahahah.
Also, all the food came out literally within 4 – 5 minutes (even the deep fried dishes!) This was shocking but definitely made me a happy camper since I was starving =) This did however made us question the freshness of everything… hmm. Overall, a fun and different take on the Asian fusion genre. We came with a groupon, so the meal was way cheaper than it would have been without it. Not sure if I would come back if I didn’t have a groupon. Tasty food though!

Came with a party of three and we ordered appetizers, sushi, an entrée, and hot sake.
Appetizers: Crab rangoon and Crab cakes (3.5 stars)
We all thought the apps were overall good, with decent flavor with good sauces to complement.
Entrée: Vietnamese French-​style cheese garlic noodle with pork (3.5 stars)
It was an interesting entrée; a bit of a twist on a standard garlic noodle. The pork was tender, flavorful, slightly sweet. The noodles were well-​cooked and overall good flavor.
Sushi: Tiger Roll, Lava Roll, Dynamite roll (3 stars)
Underwhelmed with the sushi. It tasted fresh, but the flavors did not seem to come together.
Service: Our server may have been new so we won’t give her too hard of a time, but it was not a strong part of the night, as she had to ask other servers each time we had a question about an item and our drinks took a while to bring to us.
Part of the general theme that may be problematic is that there are too many different types of Asian cuisine offered here, including a number of Thai, Vietnamese, Chinese, and Japanese/​Sushi dishes. Some may like this because it offers a variety of items to choose from and can be fun to try different things, but I think what it misses out on is a focus on high quality and great, authentic taste on each particular dish.
I’ll come back to try some other dishes sometime but not motivated to become a regular just yet.

Honestly, SO incredibly disappointed.
I just ordered the pork udon for pickup and was really excited after reading through all the great reviews! I got home and opened up my container and it smelled delicious, kinda skimped me on the pork, but I guess that wasn’t a huge surprise for me.
But once I stirred through my soup… I found a freaking BUG. A straight up dead bug floated to the top of my soup.
This place tries to look super nice and fancy… but finding a dead bug in my soup makes me question the cleanliness of the kitchen. you know, the area we customers can see or judge… must be crazy dirty back there is all I’m saying.
If you’re looking for some Asian food, I’d recommend to keep walking. This place looks nice! But definitely not worth it, there’s plenty of other Asian places around relatively close by you should go to instead.

Came here for dinner because I got a groupon deal. Small place, nice décor, waitresses all very nice and couteous. We ordered the lettuce wrap, which was very good; the garlic noodles with pork, not bad but a bit salty for me; and baked cod or sea bass, i forgot which, but this was not good, $ 19, not much taste so don’t waste your money on it.
Will probably come back and try lunch next time

Came here with the groupon discount on a Friday night. The décor was nice, spacious, and clean. It was relatively crowded early evening. We made it during the happy hour and got the $ 2 beer.
Only ordered a few sushi rolls, which were okay. I was unimpressed. There was too much rice in the roll and it tasted hard. Not sure if I would come back if not for the groupon. However, I didn’t try the Chinese or Vietnamese dishes which seemed more popular and might be good.

3.5 stars but rounding down cause not sure why this place has 4.5 stars. Only tried 2 things and both were very solid but not exceptional. Had the salted egg yolk battered pumpkin ($ 6 for a generous serving) which was good but very undersalted. Oil they used was pretty fresh though so that’s always appreciated. Also had the boiled beef spicy noodle soup off the lunch menu (so they added $ 3 to make it $ 12). The boiled beef was very tender and the Sichuan «mala» broth was pretty good. Noodles weren’t al dente but weren’t soggy either. Would come back again to check out some of the other dishes.

I came here because living nearby I saw the grand opening sign and decided to venture in seeing as it was a Asian fusion like restaurant. Seeing as how this was a small place not meant for parties of 6 max, we waited maybe 15 minutes for seating and they had a large selection of food on their menu. There was choice from Vietnamese, Thai, Japanese, Chinese and Korean. I did notice that their lunch menu only had Korean though so heads up.
We decide to order the preserved snow cabbage stir fry rices cakes, a big mama fried race, garlic noodle with pork, and a fried whole fish. I can tell you the chef either has a really heavy hand for salt or that is the cheapest seasoning at the moment! I drank so much water because everything was overly salted and was too oily for my liking. The only plus was the whole fish which had no bones and was deep fried in batter for some crunchy goodness. It was sweet from its special grape sauce and every table has it.
Otherwise this place I think has too many fusions and is more like a Japanese restaurant with how vast their section is for the menu in comparison to everything else.

Rating: 3.5 stars
Decided to try out Red Lantern because the wait was going to be at least an hour for Dragon Beaux for a party of 3.
When we walked in, we were immediately greeted and seated (given that there was only 1 other table, too). We were given menus as soon as we were seated, and the server asked us what we’d like to drink. This place is very fusion-​y in that it serves Chinese, Japanese, Thai and Vietnamese dishes. It’s one of those restaurants that’s trying to do too much, but we’ll see how it goes since they’re new.
We ordered the lettuce wraps, the spicy boiled fish noodle soup, the Dragon Roll, the mango maki and a tekka maki.
Lettuce wraps: These were good, better than the typical Chinese lettuce wrap you get at any restaurant but nothing blow-​your-​mind good.
Spicy boiled fish noodle soup: SO SPICY, but sooooo good. The fish is cooked perfectly, and it comes with the noodles you get with Shanghai chow mein. Definitely worth it and a must-​try if you come here.
Dragon Roll: I didn’t try this, but my mom and sister liked it
Mango maki: This was interesting, nothing super-​duper good but interesting. Think mango sticky rice with seaweed instead of coconut milk. I’d only order this if you love mango and you’re very curious.
Tekka maki: Nothing much to say here since you can’t really mess up a tekka maki.
I’d say go for the Chinese items before you try anything else on the menu.
Service here is very good for a new restaurant and you can definitely tell they’re trying to make an effort to leave a good impression on all customers. When I ordered the spicy boiled fish noodle soup, I pointed to it exactly on the menu but somehow the server misunderstood and got us the entrée of spicy boiled fish. When I pointed this out, they were very good about it and took it back to add noodles. Another server was also very patient with my mom, who asked questions about 18 374 823 445 things on the menu and didn’t order anything she asked about and then changed her order. I could tell she was getting frustrated, but she was overall good about it.
They also gave us a complimentary sesame ice cream (or crème brûlée) for Mother’s Day.
We had a very good experience overall, and I’m definitely going to come back to try more.

A solid 3.5 stars!
I live a few blocks down so have been keeping an eye on this place since construction began a few months ago. I guess grand opening took a while but finally now it’s open for business. My hubby and I tried it out last night and were very satisfied with our meal, and look forward to returning to try other dishes!
Décor: very modern and sleek. There are elaborate ceiling lamps, red lanterns, a impressive stone dragon carving, and various other beautiful decorative elements throughout this decent-​sized space. They definitely did a great job at setting the scene and creating an enjoyable atmosphere.
Service: very attentive and consistent. Sure this place has barely been opened for a week, but the hosts and hostesses sure are doing a great job at welcoming in all of their guests, offering assistance, and ensuring a good experience is had here. The hostess was seen rotating through all the occupied tables during dinner hour (4 of them) and personally chatting with each patron. She asked us where we lived and if it was our first visit. She was very friendly and made us feel welcomed. The waiter/​host for our table was also very professional and did a wonderful job at filling our tea, bringing out the dishes timely, and making sure we had everything we needed.
Food: surprisingly very good! I was wondering how their concept of «Asian Fusion» was going to be executed. It’s hard enough making great-​tasting food for one cuisine, let alone… four, five? How Red Lantern does it is they offer a pretty small (around half a dozen dishes) selection of each cuisine offered — Shanghainese, China Southwest, Vietnamese, Thai. Then they have an expanded «Chef’s Special» dishes and also a much bigger Japanese sushi/​rolls menu.
We ordered 4 things to try:
1. Chef’s Special — Big Mama Fried Rice. How can you not want to order something called Big Mama Fried Rice?! This house fried rice uses a slightly sticky/​glutenous rice, and has tasty ham, pork belly (?), ginger, eggs, and some veggies. The taste is fragrant and very good! Not too salty, which I like. Goes perfectly with dishes in place of plain steamed rice. If you’re turned off by the ginger in this, the fried rice item right underneath this on the menu called Grandma’s Fried Rice we were told leaves the ginger out.
2. Chef’s Special — Fried Whole Fish with Wine Sauce. This was a cool take on a sweet and sour fish dish. The fish is served beautifully and I guess cut in spirals and then deep fried, so it looks like a humongous fried calamari? But the fish itself is tender and fresh. The dish also comes with a few grapes to accent the ‘wine’ sauce.
3. Appetizer — Basil Chicken Lettuce Wraps. This was very good to start off our meal. The chicken is tender and you can taste the basil right away. It’s topped with pine nuts too which adds a nice layer of nutty flavor. Delicious!
4. Unagi Roll (6 pcs) — We wanted to try their Japanese offerings but didn’t want to commit to a huge order. The unagi roll definitely passed the test! You’d think this is a simple roll to make well but a lot of places fail by dousing way too much unagi sauce over the roll and thus washing out the actual eel and avocado flavors. Not here. The sauce compliments the fish, rice, and avocado perfectly and all together is very tasty.
They serve this Japanese Fried Rice Green Tea, which initially we found to be a lot more robust and slightly bitter than we would like. But with our meal, it actually cleanses your palate a bit and was quite enjoyable after. One suggestion is maybe water it down JUST a tad so it’s not that potent?
We had a very nice meal, and look forward to trying other dishes next time.