Red Lantern Chinese Restaurant

The delivery can sometimes be a bit slow but the food is always fresh so it must be when they’re busy.
In my honest opinion this is the best Chinese in Charlottesville for the price. They have a ton of variety and all of their appetizers are to die for. They have the nest egg rolls I’ve ever had.
Highly recommend!

Red Lantern has been our go-​to Chinese restaurant for years. Over the last year and four or five orders, the quality has decreased steadily. Last time, we said that we’d find a new Chinese restaurant, but Unilocal made it easy to order online tonight in a pinch. 90 minutes later, our food arrived. We ordered Steamed Dumplings, Chicken & Broccoli, and General Tso’s Chicken. Both were dinner meals, so we also had our choice of rice, soup, and drink. We both ordered brown rice, hot & sour soup, and Diet Coke. What showed up in the brown bag was cold dumplings, chicken in congealed sauces, crunchy half-​cooked rice, and soup that was neither hot nor sour. And, although I like Diet Pepsi, I ordered Diet Coke.
Before we tossed out the food that we couldn’t eat, we both wondered if the delivery driver had stopped off at the corral buffet and filled up the to-​go boxes for or order.

If your goal is americanized Chinese comfort food, then Red Lantern is for you. It’s about as good as it gets in that category, plus it’s quick and delivery is an option (though it can be a little while). Portions are more than generous. Price is right. Everything tastes better with a glass of red. Best eaten when your day has gotten the best of you.
The Orange Chicken, though seemingly identical in appearance to the General, is remarkably better? Choose your own adventure. Anything Moo Shu is pretty fantastic and a ‘slightly’ more wholesome option. Comes with a full quart of veggies and meat (mostly cabbage, onions, and carrots), lightly sauced but not sugary, served with the thin pancakes (tortilla adjacent) and rice. Enough for 3 meals minimum. Don’t forget the spicy mustard.
Leftovers? Put an egg on it. Breakfast.

DISCLAIMER: BASED OFF LO MEIN ONLY
So Charlottesville Chinese restaurants seem to be confused about what lo mein actually is. However, this is the first restaurant I’ve had that uses the right type of (rectangular) noodles in their lo mein. I ordered the special lo mein which had beef chicken and shrimp. It surprisingly came with a ton of meat (and real medium sized shrimp) and included fried rice. It was so much food I carried half of it home and ate it the next day for lunch.
I love my lo mein.

Good Chinese food is pretty hard to come by in Charlottesville. We’ve had take out from Red Lantern a few times, and I’ve always enjoyed it. Their prices are super reasonable, and they have a very large menu with a lot of different options. Their egg rolls are a bit lack luster and not very flavorful. I have had the sweet and sour pork and the orange chicken, and I’d recommend the orange chicken. Their portions are very generous. Red Lantern has become our go to place for Chinese.

I was going to give this place two stars, because I had to wait almost two hours for my food. When I ordered for delivery, I was told it would take about an hour. Two hours is way too long. However, the food was absolutely excellent; much better than the other Chinese food places I’ve been to in Charlottesville. My advice would be to do pick-​up or dine-​in only.

Red Lantern was recommended by a few friends so we decided to take the leap. We ordered the wonton soup, bubble tea in tea flavor, the crispy beef, and General Tso’s shrimp.
The wonton soup was hot in temperature, mild in taste, and with ample wontons. The wontons were heavily wrapped in dough and thick. If you enjoy thicker wontons with small portions of meat, this is the place to order it. The meat itself wasn’t bad.
The bubble tea is a new item on the menu and in an experimental phase which is why there was only once flavor we could order. Having had bubble tea from Cali to DC, it was hard to not have high expectations, but Red Lantern came close. The tea was delivered in a plastic container similar to that of the wontons, and had no thickness to it. I note this as unusual because bubble tea tends to come in blended varieties whether it be ice, or yogurt, etc. Good, but wish it came in a thicker consistency and with more flavors!
The crispy beef was flavorful with a hint of sweetness but not as crisp as I prefer. Still good, but again, I like it when it crunches. The General Tso’s shrimp was sweet, but heavily, and I mean, heavily breaded with such a thick layer of dough that I found myself rolling it off of the shrimp so I could eat it.
Delivery time was quoted at 90 minutes. We placed our order at 7:37pm received our order around 8:40pm. Decent but not great.

We ordered lunch at 1035 and as of 1215 we still have not received our delivery. Every time we order the delivery speed gets worse. I guess we won’t use them again… Would not recommend this establishment if you want it delivered.

Interior sucks and lacks atmosphere but their take out is awesomeeeeee.

Note: I’ve only ordered takeout from them. Fast delivery, decently good food (nothing out of the ordinary for takeout, but good), and I like that they’re on GrubHub and have the option of brown rice (a major plus and something that I haven’t seen at all takeout places).

I ordered takeout here at 11:05PM on a Saturday night since pretty much every other place in Charlottesville was closed (this place closes at 11:30PM). It is a bit difficult to find, and we ended up calling them for directions to prevent us from getting lost in the boondocks. It is located in a mini shopping plaza next to a laundromat right near an intersection.
I ordered the general tso’s chicken dinner special ($ 8.36 total including tax), which included a choice of soup or an egg roll, rice and a fortune cookie. You can order brown rice for $ 0.50 extra. We didn’t have to wait very long at all; I was able to sit down and peruse through 1.5 People Magazine issues before they called me to receive my order.
What they lack in flavor they make up for in portions. I had at least 3, I think maybe 4 wontons in my wonton soup. And the box containing my general tso’s chicken was overflowing; they had to bend the metal handle in a way to close the lid fully or risk it exploding like a jack in the box. The food is ok, standard to slightly sub par for a Chinese takeout. It wasn’t as spicy as they claimed it to be with their pepper icon, so I think people who can’t tolerate spicy would be able to tolerate this dish offered here.
If you’re a poor college student wanting to look for cheap eats or a cheap hangover food, this place should hit the spot for you. If you’re looking for quality Chinese food though, keep looking.

My favorite hangover food in CVille! (In fact, I’m writing this review in gleeful anticipation because it’s 15 minutes before they open on Sunday, and I’m hungover.)
The good: Huge quantities of food for the price — a single lunch or dinner special is often enough for two meals.
Excellent sesame chicken, beef lo mein, wonton soup. And anything with the garlic sauce is like crack — slightly spicy and savory. nomnomnom
They offer brown rice! Not that I like brown rice. but it’s good to have the healthy