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Disappointment at the Peninsula
2015-07-02 7263 views
The problems with this restaurant started even before I arrived. A friend and I were going to an 8 pm concert at the Cultural Centre across the street. We thought we would go to Chesa as soon as it opened for dinner service at 6.30 pm. A booking might be difficult on a Saturday evening, but we thought it would be possible to get a table if we said we would vacate it by 7.30 pm. So I called to make a booking. The call took about three times as long as it needed to. The person on the line asked me
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The problems with this restaurant started even before I arrived. A friend and I were going to an 8 pm concert at the Cultural Centre across the street. We thought we would go to Chesa as soon as it opened for dinner service at 6.30 pm. A booking might be difficult on a Saturday evening, but we thought it would be possible to get a table if we said we would vacate it by 7.30 pm. So I called to make a booking. The call took about three times as long as it needed to. The person on the line asked me four times to confirm that we would return the table at 7.30 pm. It could so exasperating that I finally had to ask if it was too much trouble to accommodate us and, if so, then we didn't have to come. The person taking the booking then could apologetic but then proceeded to ask more questions about valet parking and some other matter and then launched into a warning about dress code. Finally, it got so tedious that I said again that if it was too much trouble, we could go elsewhere and that perhaps might still do. Then he repeated again the whole 7.30 departure issue. At that point, I was ready to change plans, but I decided that we would stick to it and go. On arrival, our booking was not to be found! They sat us down anyway, with nary a warning about having to vacate at 7.30 pm. They took our orders - crab pancakes to start, the beef cheek for my friend, and the salmon for me. While waiting for our food, I noticed that there were a few customers who possibly did not meet the supposed "smart casual" dress code. The crab pancakes came - they were unremarkable and without much flavour. Later, when our main dishes arrived, they were place on a trolley or table before being served. But then the waiter came to our table and very unceremoniously asked what we ordered. I was somewhat taken aback at the question. He meant to ask what each of us ordered so he could serve each of us the right dish. This being the Peninsula, the grande dame of Hong Kong hotels, one would have thought that a waiter should know precisely what each person at any table ordered. Besides, my setting had a fish knife, which should have been the dead giveaway. We had to inform the waiter what we each ordered and were then served. The salmon was correctly cooked - very tender and juicy. But I found a hair that wasn't mine in the dish. It was very good but spare - and not very Swiss in its rendering. My friend liked her beef cheek but again it seemed spare and not very Swiss...no roesti? We had to keep asking for water refills - not something that should have to be done in a restaurant in a hotel of the supposed calibre of the Peninsula. We vacated our table, as promised, just after 7.30 pm. Don't get me wrong - the restaurant is good, but good deserves only an average rating at such a restaurant, especially when the booking call and the service were really rather emblematic of the poor service that fell well below expectations. The cost: HKD1300-plus. We had no wine and no bottled water. Value for money?
(The above review is the personal opinion of a user which does not represent OpenRice's point of view.)
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Date of Visit
2015-06-20
Dining Method
Dine In