Scott L.
Yelp
Sorry to say that the place has declined tremendously. The view is still good but the food and service varies by dish and server. We went for Dim Sum on Christmas Eve and got a window seat for lunch. They give you two paper menus to mark what you want, one is a dim sum menu and the second is a larger dish / entree menu.
We ordered 12 Dim Sum dishes and here's my analysis:
- Jumbo Shrimp Dumpling (5) - the skins were too sticky and stuck to each other or to the wax paper lining the bamboo steamer, taste was ok (Poor execution and pass on this)
- Pai Guet or Pork Riblets in Black Beans, taste was ok but Riblets not properly band sawed and were likely chopped leaving numerous bone shards (Poor execution)
- Beef Cheong Fun, we ordered and it never showed up so we cancelled
- Chicken Feet, the only dish that came out steaming hot, decent taste
- Salt & Pepper Calamari, came out warm, taste ok
- Deep Fried Meat Dumpling or Hom Sei Gok , thick skin, not much meat and came out warm and not hot (Poor rendition)
- Salted Egg Yolk Bun, the egg yolk was not runny enough, cold and coagulated
- Gailan or Chinese Broccoli, what can go wrong with a boiled green veggie? Well, it came out in long pieces that should have been cut
- Taro Puff, ok but had better and this was the second order after we sent the first one back because of a hair on one of the puffs...they need to wear hair nets in the kitchen...
- Daikon Cake, good
- Chicken Sticky Rice in Lotus Leaf, ok but needed to be steaming hot
- HK Style Rice Roll with Peanut and Sesame Oil, this is supposed to be a special item as they make the rice rolls fresh, we weren't impressed
As you read above, many of the items should have been hotter and I think their problem is in the indirect delivery from kitchen to the table. The food is delivered by an assistant from the kitchen to a staging table in the section, then the waiter grabs the food and delivers in to the specific table. Problem is that the food sits on the staging table until the waiter comes around to get the food to deliver it to the specific customer. Too long of a process, just deliver the damn food directly to the table. Food gets cold sitting on the staging table uncovered.
Service, we had crap service vs. table next to us had great service. Different servers. We had to ask for everything with communication being one way. Asked for more hot water for the pot many times (lid up for a long time), sent our Taro Puff due to a hair and no apologies, had to ask multiple times for take out boxes as the waiter never looked to see how many we actually needed. Not given a plastic bag for our take home boxes although other tables were given bags without asking. Very poor service from our waiter, fully suited, he was likely the Head Waiter as we saw him slice up a Peking Duck on the next table.
Sorry, but I won't recommend this restaurant to anyone.