Happy hour good value at The Lotus Chinese Restaurant

I'm not sure if it's a peculiarly northern concept, but early doors is certainly popular around these parts.

A friend and I called into town last Friday to partake of a couple of glasses of wine, prior to an early evening meal out in the town centre.

We were both in the mood for something oriental and spicy so, after a very pleasant hour with pals in Avanti Capitola, we pottered across King Street to the Lotus Chinese restaurant.

Housed in the former Queen's hotel, it's a large building which has been used for a number of business ventures over the years since its hotel days ended.

The Lotus has been operating out of this somewhat unremarkable building for many years now, although last Friday was my first foray into it.

We arrived well before 7pm, to find a steady stream of customers for the takeaway side of the business, while the restaurant in the right hand side of the premises was thus far empty.

We settled at a table by the window - frosted glass, so you can't easily people watch, unfortunately - and ordered the "Happy Hours" set banquet, which at £15.80 a head seemed a reasonable price.

Prawn crackers were brought immediately by the friendly young man who attended us during our stay, and we munched away, over a fantastically good value bottle of £11 chardonnay.

With the best will in the world, it would be difficult to describe the Lotus as sophisticated or trendy.

The restaurant shows its age somewhat and would benefit from a general sprucing up - perhaps starting with the carpets and chairs.

The overhead lighting doesn't really help but, to be fair, once the restaurant had begun to fill up with other diners - and by 8.30pm it was pretty busy - the dated decor didn't matter.

My friend had crab and sweetcorn soup to start, while I slurped down a lovely bowlful of hot and sour soup. Both were thick and packed with the requisite ingredients - and I could have happily downed a whole tureen of the spicy hot and sour.

I didn't, because next up was a large platter of hors d'oeuvres: spring rolls, lovely prawn toasts, spare ribs and salt and pepper chicken. All good - especially the prawn toasts - although the spare ribs could have been rather spicier.

For mains we shared a fish called KuPo King prawn - which I assumed was a spelling variation on kung po - and a Thai special, which intrigued me, as one doesn't normally expect to see Thai dishes in a Chinese restaurant - but maybe this is an Ulverston take on fusion cooking.

Both came promptly, and we had fried rice and some chips with them - call me a pleb, but I am partial to chips with a Chinese. The prawn KuPo was very good - packed with crispy vegetables and generously stuffed with large, good quality prawns.

The sauce could have had more spice for my preference, although there were slices of chilli throughout to provide some hits of heat.

The Thai special didn't quite live up to its name, as there was little if any hint of the coconut base one expects of a Thai dish.

It tasted far more Chinese than Thai - but was pleasant nevertheless and with a generous selection of meat and prawns. More than enough for two people - and after the preceding two courses, we were unable to finish it.

Our waiter packed it up into a doggy bag, which my hungry husband enjoyed later on that evening, as a reward for driving into Ulverston to collect us both.

Throughout our visit, the takeaway side of the Lotus was doing a roaring trade - it is generally busier than the restaurant side; a bit of a facelift for the restaurant would certainly enhance the dining-in experience; and bring in more customers.

The food at the Lotus is good, if slightly unadventurous for Chinese cuisine; but my friend and I had no complaints at all. These particular lotus eaters were perfectly content.

Food 3.5 Service 4 Atmosphere 2.5 Value 4

Pros Eat in or takeaway Good value wines Staff friendly

Cons Tired decor