Review: Red Lantern, Burnley (From Lancashire Telegraph)

Review: Red Lantern, Burnley

6:31pm Monday 21st November 2011 in Restaurant reviews

Address: 9 Bank Parade, Burnley, BB11 1UH.

Phone number: 01282 426848.

Lancashire Telegraph review by John Anson from November 19, 2011.

FIRST a word of advice — don’t be put off by the outside appearance.

The Red Lantern isn’t exactly the easiest place to find if you don’t know Burnley (it’s opposite the Bridge Bier Hius if you’re struggling) and when you do get there it is not the most impressive of frontages.

But it just goes to show you can’t judge a restaurant on appearance alone.

Inside you get a typically warm and welcoming Chinese, complete with low ceilings, white table cloths and small bar area.

Having gone with a large party, the simplest solution to the ‘what to order?’ dilemma was to choose the banquet menu.

Attractively priced at £16 per head (other more expensive options are available), it proved a really good move.

A shared banquet is the best way to create a convivial atmosphere as you all can just dive in and sample a bit of everything.

For your £16 you get a choice of soups for starter (I can heartily recommend the hot and sour,) plus a selection of starters including prawn toast, salt and pepper chicken wings, spring rolls, won tons and seaweed.

With loads of prawn crackers available, the danger is you over-indulge on the starters and don’t leave enough room for the mains which would be a real waste.

Again, we had four to choose from including sweet and sour chicken, sizzling beef and pork and prawn dishes.

Some buffets leave you feeling short-changed but there was no way we could polish off all the food available.

A word too about the friendly staff who help create a real party atmosphere and who couldn’t do enough to help.

You might struggle to find it, but the Red Lantern’s worth the effort.