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Over-rated by local review contributors
2016-05-09 604 views
I was looking for a new restaurant to try out for dinner. I was researching in a popular review column "Open Rice" and came across this restaurant which is located in the new chic area in Wanchai, Hong Kong. At the time when I was reading about this place, there were 35 reviews out of which 32 has rated the place as good and the remaining gave the place an "OK" rating. Most of the reviews were very recent and some of them were submitted on the same day. Given my experience at the place, it makes
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I was looking for a new restaurant to try out for dinner. I was researching in a popular review column "Open Rice" and came across this restaurant which is located in the new chic area in Wanchai, Hong Kong. At the time when I was reading about this place, there were 35 reviews out of which 32 has rated the place as good and the remaining gave the place an "OK" rating. Most of the reviews were very recent and some of them were submitted on the same day. Given my experience at the place, it makes me wonder if some of the reviews were not genuine. As the place was highly rated in Open Rice, I ventured to making a reservation for 4 people at 8:15 pm. When the reservation was made, the restaurant made it absilutely clear that table would only be reserved for 10 minutes beyond the appointed time. My party duly arrived at 8:15 pm and found that the place has a open bar on the ground floor with the restaurant located on the first floor. The bar was attended by a indifferent fellow, short of discourteous by a narrow margin. Without enquiring if we have reserved a table, he made his own assumption and insisted that we should wait for 2 minutes before climbing the narrow stairs to the first floor dining area. When he finally signalled to us that we can proceed, we climbed to the first floor and was "greeted" by a lady who pointed a table to us in the middle of the dining area. Please note that up to this very moment, no one has bothered to check if we have reserved a table. Seeing that the place was only half full and there were some vacant sofa seats, I enquired with the lady at the reception if we can take one of those tables with sofa seats. She arrogantly replied that those tables were reserved three days ago and the customers would arrive within 15 minutes. Without further ado, we seated ourselves at the table first pointed out to us. The impression I have up to this moment is that the team serving customers there are unfriendly and discourteous and have no intention in making their customers feel welcome. Next come the question of drinks and we looked at their drinks menu and decided to settle with the choice of beer on offer. When we ordered the drinks, we were told that they were revamping the menu and a lot of the items listed on the menu were no longer available. We were of course disappointed but still ventured to order frist round of food from the menu. We wanted to order a Chow Kwey Tiu (fry flat noodles) but was told that they have run out of supplies for the day. This is absolutely surprising as the time of our arrival is the prime dinner time. Their "merchandiser" or "buyer" simply does not have a clue on the daily supplies requried. So we ordered a rice dish and when it arrived, the rice was luke warm and as hard as stone, evidencing that the rice has been cooked a long time ago and the chef has no intention to turn the dish into anything tasty. The other dishes also arrived in a hopeless state. We decided to give some on spot comments to a fellow who appeared to be a supervisor (by the name of "John") and he turned out to be the only sensible member of the staff there. He offered free wine to us on our next visit and free dessert for our dinner. We politely turned down his kindness as our confidence in the restaurant by that time has dropped down to nearly freezing point. We therefore decided to leave and on our departure, I cannot help but notice that the tabels with sofa seating were still vacant, 50 minutes down the road after our initial arrival. So much for the credit on what the receptionist claimed about the tables being reserved. In summary, this is an ordinary eatery and contrary to all the good reviews in Open Rice, my personal experience was no where near those reviews. Be prepared to bee confronted by arrogant and discourteous staff save for John. The kitchen has no intention to prepare tasty food for you. In its present state, I can only use the word chaotic to describe the place. If I were you, better search for another eatery in the area, which is in abundance.

(The above review is the personal opinion of a user which does not represent OpenRice's point of view.)
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    DETAILED RATING
    Date of Visit
    2016-05-04
    Waiting Time
    2 Minutes (Dine In)
    Spending Per Head
    $150 (Dinner)
    Recommended Dishes
    • None that qualifies recommendation