The Forum

good simple food buffet style house wine good both red and white service rather frenetic

Went to this restaurant with a group of friends for a birthday celebration. The food was fantastic, plenty of choice and the portions etc were great. It is like many of the 'eat as much as you like' restaurants around where you pay a set price, and just order from the menu. It was very busy, in fact it was pre-ordered tables only ( Saturday night). The one downfall for me was the staff were not welcoming, not at all friendly and despite there being lots of them, they didn't really offer a great service. However, food was served all at the same time, and was hot, and drinks orders etc were all correct and topped up when prompted, I just felt a smile here and there and a less abrupt approach would have made the evening. Food 9/10, Service 5/10. Shame really.

Been to this place loads of times and never dissapointed, once you get to know them they are very friendly and the food is always very good. They don't have time to be chatty as they are always busy. As my wife is Chinese she is very fussy about where we eat so this place must be good.
Give it a try I am sure you will like, good idea to book at the weekend though.

awful service! as we were waiting to be seated a young waiter snarled at us & nodded towards a table. we said hello but only got a dirty look in reply. he litterally through the cutlery on the table & walked off without a word. didn't bother hanging about to see what food was like...the atmosphere was bad enough

The Forum is the best (read: only) Chinese restaurant in Shepperton, which is probably why it gets so damn busy at weekends. That, along with the fact that it offers excellent value for money. At £14.99 for all you can eat, it’s far better than a bog standard all-you-can-eat buffet. You sit down, order a (slightly overpriced) bottle of wine (optional) and then as many starters as you like. After that, they bring the duck course (my favourite) followed by as many main dishes as you feel you can eat. Desserts and coffee aren’t included in the deal (as far as I could tell), but it’s well worth grabbing a Cointreau coffee at the end – they’re blimmin’ gorgeous.

Sadly, our seating arrangement was a little disappointing. We were in a rather large group and stuffed right at the back in the corner, so that once we were sat down there was no chance of half of us getting out short of jumping over the table. Thank God a few of our party cancelled - otherwise we’d have got wedged in after stuffing ourselves with all that food...

As I said, we were in a big group, but I found the fact that they forgot or got wrong at least one dish on each course a bit rubbish. My cousin ordered spicy chicken wings as a starter, but didn’t get them until the main course (after asking three times). They also brought us some bizarre chicken dish as a main course that we didn’t order which remained untouched. Seeing as they charge you full price for any dish that’s entirely uneaten, we had to point this out to them. I think they’d had enough of us by then, so they took it away.

In summary, if you want to eat at a Chinese restaurant in Shepperton, The Forum is your only option. As far as options go though, it’s a pretty good one – the food is tasty, authentic and well-cooked. And if you ask enough times, you might even get what you ordered.