Koi Lantern

man. I’ve eaten here 5 times in 9 months, hoping that something I ordered, paid for and ate would be close to good Chinese food. I give up.

I was working in the area and looking for a delivery place in Dripping Springs. The chicken lettuce wraps and salad were amazing. The salad was very fresh and the lettuce wraps were delicious. The delivery fee was only $ 3.00 which is very cheap and with a minimum order of $ 20. If you use one of the delivery services in Austin fees range from $ 5-​$ 15 a lot of the time with minimum orders usually being $ 30. I see a lot of bad reviews on here, and I don’t know why, although maybe we ordered different dishes and I ordered the better ones. I’ve been all over the world/​country and lived in LA for most of my life with great restaurants and I personally like this place. iIt was fresh and delicious food.

I honestly didn’t even want to rate this Place with one star. It doesn’t deserve it. I must say the people who actually like this place must not know what good Chinese food should be. This Place is terrible. The orange beef is not Orange beef at All, not sure what they use for their meat but it should be illegal to serve to humans. It’s rough and you’re stomach will hate you later. I’ve given this place two chances and each time they have made it very clear they should NOT be in business. Such a disappointment since there is no good Chinese food or Asian restaurants in the dripping springs area. We have no problem driving into town tho for future cravings. Horrible place of business.

After seeing a very packed lunch crowd i was excited for good food. As i approached the counter and saw 2 dudes running around and the help wanted signs i began to be a little worried. I tried to order kung pao chicken but was told they were out of poultry and i switched to beef and broccoli. After about 5 minutes my DOOM arrived. This plate had beef broccoli, onions and carrots. The beef was tough and jerky like. The veggies were undercook.
I made it back to my office and felt a rumble. Now I sit violently purging this pestilence from my body and can only think of the poor souls who ordered full portions instead of the lunch special.

Website says there hours are 11 am to 9:30 pm but they apparently at 8:30 person on phone had a bad attitude. Last time I ordered my sesame chicken was burnt to a crisp and rice tasted like it had been sitting for an hour.

I was honestly grossed out with the take out we got from here. I’m from Austin and I’d honestly rather drive to town to get good food than order from here again… Not sure what the issue could of been, but we ordered for a larger amount of people, all sorts of dishes and no one ate more than one or two bites of their food. We went and got fast food after… The rice was the best part

Not from Dripping Springs but work here from time to time. Wanted to try something besides the usual fast food and chain types of restaurants. This was an excellent choice. The owner was very involved with everything in the front of the house. He answered questions about the menu and specials. The food was hot and came out quickly. It was tasty and a good portion. I will definitely be coming back when I’m in town and would recommend it to anyone looking for good food at a fair price.

Horrible place. The food was bad and the service terrible. The waitress was rude and just plain strange. Way overpriced for food that is just heated up frozen packages.

I have had a few dishes here. It’s been a little while since I have been back to the Koi Lantern, but of the dishes I’ve had, I’m a fan. It’s not expensive. It’s decent portion sizes. The place itself is clean. It’s definitely a bit more americanized chinese, but what do you expect? My go-​to dish is definitely the General Tso’s chicken, and more than that I’m a fan of the sauce and broccoli combo than the actual chicken.

I’m pretty forgiving when it comes to Chinese food. I’ve had good, I’ve had bad, and then I’ve had this… Which has redefined a new low on my scale of things that I find edible.
I am writing this review while my stomach is attempting to process a ¼ serving of General Tso’s chicken. I say ¼ serving, not because of it’s generous portion size, but because I couldn’t finish the meal it was so poorly cooked. My wife, who got broccoli and chicken, finished even less of hers. The chicken in both dishes had the texture of a boiled shoe, and was soaked with something that can only be described as beef broth mixed with napalm. I really cannot pinpoint the taste, but it is not asian. We both immediately spit it out and tried to eat around the very thing the dishes are named after. Not sure if the chicken was old or simply very overcooked, but regardless, you don’t serve that to people. That’s just mean.
This was our first visit to this restaurant, and given the mixed reviews on the place, we decided to give it a shot. But I can 100% guarantee that we will not be returning.

Love the delivery area! Food is reasonably priced, tastes great and arrives quickly! No complaints here.
When you don’t want to cook and enjoy something unique delivered (because pizza gets a bit BORING) this is a great choice!

I was on the fence whether to give it a 2 or 3 rating. Honestly, the only dish we really like is the sesame chicken but even then after eating it for some time as the food gets cold, you just feel that it’s really not good. Part of the reason is because I think they use Ajinamoto to their food which makes you get tasty later. However, when there’s nothing else to eat and no where else to go, I would still come here due to convenience of where we stay.
Again, my comparison is not to the local Chinese food as I come from a place where I have really good chinese food and if I were to compare this with fire bowl, it’s almost comparable.

Food was luke warm.
Poor quality.
Crazy Slow service.
MY meal never came so they threw me a $ 10. Seriously?
Load take out meals first before completing a whole table? Ya. That’s not the way to go
It was bad last time and I gave it another try. Do yourself a favor Don’t don’t don’t come here.
Heading across the street to Heb to get dinner. Wow.

Worst chinese I have ever had. Just moved to Dripping Springs and this seems to be the only chinese spot here. Was hoping for something good and my BF and I agreed it was just all bad. Tasted like bad frozen lean cuisine chinese except I’m sure this isn’t low calorie. Nothing was good. We got egg rolls, soup, crab rangoon, sesame chicken and orange chicken and it was all barely edible. Please get new recipes and revamp and you would have a ton of customers. Your location is great and you are the only guys around. Have your menu and ingredients revamped and you would be sooo busy.

This was the worst Chinese food I have ever had. The hot and sour soup had way too much toasted sesame oil. The egg rolls had zero flavor. The mongolian beef was tough as leather and tasted frozen. The general tso’s chicken tasted like frozen food. Our food was ready within 5 minutes of sitting at our table so it was definitely already prepared. You pay before you get your food and of course I tipped because I didn’t want to be a dick, but a tip wasn’t earned. I hope they get better, I would love to have a good Asian food restaurant in Dripping Springs.

I don’t understand why this place has bad reviews. The food is descent tasting and the place is clean. Keep in mind you are in Dripping Springs. Your not gonna get fancy and expensive Chinese food here. As far as Chinese fast food goes, this place is good. When I lived in Austin, I went to some pretty nasty Chinese food places, where it was dirty, the meat was fatty (wasn’t sure it even was meat…), the food tasted bland, it was under or over cooked and sometimes it didn’t look edible. Koi lantern has pretty descent food. I’ve had the sesame chicken, sweet and sour chicken, spicy pepper steak, egg rolls, wontons, wonton soup and the chicken salad. All have tasted very good. The chicken is not fatty or tough and neither is the beef. To me, that is what matters. I don’t want to be eating mystery meat. The flavors are good, and normal for a fast food place. Prices are the same as most fast food Chinese restaurants in Austin. The chicken salad was really good. The veggies tasted fresh, the chicken was not seasoned and was a lil bland, but that was okay. Once you mix it all up with dressing, it isn’t noticeable. Not bad for Chinese fast food. I’m glad we have this place in Dripping Springs.

Not great. I come from the nw where Asian good is great. I would not go again. Other better choices in Drip.

I ordered the combo Cilantro Stir Fry with some egg rolls on the side. I thought it tasted great with the perfect amount of heat. The egg rolls were delicious. I would highly suggest this place to friends and family.

I’m a bit taken aback at all the «worst ever» reviews. I’m a Drippin’ resident, and checked out K.L. soon after they opened. Yes, I did find the food very bland, and we didn’t go back for at least a year afterward.
However, in the past year, I’ve found myself hitting the Koi on a regular basis. I can see that perhaps the dinner menu prices may be near the top, but the lunch specials are absolute bargains in my book. You get soup, egg roll, choice of entrée, and fried rice for under $ 7.
There is one item on the menu that is just unbeatable, and that’s the Won Ton soup. I order it every time I go, and I’ve never been disappointed. flavorful, savory broth, not too salty, not too bland, with an ample allotment of meaty wontons. Honestly I’ve not had better anywhere.
And I do find the entrees pretty tasty, and the portions more than sufficient. All the vegetables are ALWAYS fresh and crisp.
It just feels that this place could be right on the cusp of greatness if they would just heed some of the other reviewers suggestions.
I have my own, none of which would involve any significant expense nor effort:
1) Yes. have that person behind the counter pay a little more attention to cleaning off the tables when they are vacated. C’mon, this is simply a matter of a bit more forceful management direction to the staff.
2) Provide a no-​hassle public WI-​FI. Jeez, your customers will spend more time here than in a Starbucks, and EVERYONE has a tablet or smart phone these days. Just spend $ 59 for another wireless box and you’ll put smiles on customers’ faces.
3) When delivering a customer’s meal to the table, dammit, bring eating utensils, either a fork or chopsticks. What’s the point of table delivery if the diner still has to get up to get his utensils. This, frankly, just exhibits customer service ignorance in my book.
4) To the owner: You’d be amazed what a smile, combined with learning and greeting regular customers by name, will do for repeat business. Just check with the personable couple at Mazama Coffee on Mercer St and see just how quickly a friendly face builds repeat customers.
I really do like the Koi Lantern. I find the food quality at least equal to most other asian joints around Austin. And, as others have mentioned, the cool, clean décor makes for a pleasant meal. I just hope they finally figure out exactly what cuisine they are offering (is it Thai, Chinese, Japanese?), and listen to other suggestions so I will be able to enjoy them in the future

Well, it doesn’t seem Koi Lantern can do any better than a one star review. I’ll give them some love for an acceptable wonton soup that I garnish heavily with sriracha; but that’s where the half hearted most mediocre praise ends.
I’ve tried to like this place for three years. How it survives and pays the rent I’m not sure; today was my last visit to the koi pond. Sick of every fast food outlet and Tex-​Mex offerings I came in for lunch.
I asked for the lunch option with cilantro stir fry with chicken, wonton soup, and well… I was interrupted by the order taker advising me that the cilantro chicken dish was a specialty item and could NOT be combined with the lunch combo. News flash, none of your dishes are special.
Cilantro mixed with the same bell pepper and food service grade (sliced in Mexico) sliced carrots. Point being it SO special it doesn’t even appear on their online menu circa 2009. Thank General Tso himself that cilantro prohibits me from ordering this dish as a lunch special.
I ate at a Top Chef’s restaurant this week. Had happy hour in downtown Austin with exotic ingredients like huitlacoche, tobacco infused spirits, and crab topped guacamole. Amazingly, I’d eat at McDonalds rather than spend $ 7 at your establishment.
Worst Americanized Chinese EVER, Panda Express is now a viable dining alternative.