Jackson L.
Yelp
My item names will do them no justice, but that's all I got. Apologies ahead of time. First off, the food there was good, a very astute taster can actually taste the short period of time various items were in the freezer for (it imparts this unmistakable alkaline freezer taste), but if you were less astute, you wouldn't really notice it. I mainly tasted it on the sea cucumber, and possibly the scallop, I forgot which.
First off, the service here? Horrible. Did the waitress wait on you? No, she was more of a "wait, res-ting". Walked the 50 meters that was the length of the bar table between my table, and where she rested at least like 7 times. I had to go there for water, I had to go there for forks, I had to go there for napkins. In fact, I asked for forks in 3 different languages and 5 if you count sign and body language, she didn't get it until the 10th time. Each time, I grew more and more exasperated, like.. why is "fork" such an alien concept to you, restaurant staff? Then she hands me a plastic one.
The plastic one was dropped to the floor, so... I had to go back for a metal one.
Then, I discovered one of the bowls we were handed, had someone else's left over food in it, so... I brought it back to the waitress, and handed her the dirty bowl, let her know about it, and asked for a new one. She gladly accepted it, and then, looked and waited. We were staring at each other for about a minute, before I broke the silence with, "Um... the bowl?" at which point, she went to get me a new one. Like... The HELL?
I think I probably went back there again for a to-go box, and maybe back there again for the bill.
I've never met restaurant staff that cared less about service. I have however met the owner of Qin West, and yes... she has cared even less, but to her credit, she's a single person running both the counter, and the entire kitchen at the time, she was all frowns prior, then she expanded to three restaurants, and I saw her smile for the first time ever at her third one.
In sum, would I come back? Possibly, but... Definitely going to tailor my expectations accordingly.
6 Item Platter (4/5)
Crawfish - I frankly prefer this crawfish over Boiling Crab, Kicking Crab, buffets. It has a szechuan twist to it, giving it a pepper based aroma, and a bit of a kick to the sauce.
Crabs - It largely tastes like your typical Chinese restaurant crab of little meat.
Shrimp - Fried skin shrimp. I think I eat this in a very slow, but tasty way. I first eat all the shell, legs, and tail parts, and then, I eat the meat. This way, in one way, I have pure shell umami, and in another way, I have the sauced up shrimp meat. Reminds me of the times where sushi chefs would fry the heads of a giant prawn and serve it in a soup, whereas the body would be part of a sweet shrimp nigiri piece.
Scallop - Scallops don't leave impressions on me, so I can't say anything about this one, my guess is, it tastes like your average scallop, nothing to cry home about.
Abalone - Same with the abalone, it tastes like typical Chinese oyster sauce abalone.
Sea Cucumber - Slimy, a hint of alkaline from possibly being frozen, followed by more slimy-ness. Maybe some oyster sauce. To be honest, I recalled people telling me how expensive these things are, and what delicacy it is, and that's really the driving force behind me eating these things. Like it has the texture jello and mushrooms blended together, and kind of tastes like diluted a dilute jellyfish platter. I'd crave bacon maybe a hundred or a thousand times before I'd crave this once.
Oyster Omelete (4/5)
The oysters tasted fresh, and the omelete was moist enough where the two ingredients worked well together. I wouldn't think to put these two togethers, but, the taste wasn't as objectionable as I first imagined. Frankly, it tastes like chinese oyster, and eggs. To be more specific, oysters that used pepper, green onions, and soy sauce as flavoring, and then, eggs.
Pork with Peppers (4/5)
Personally, I like the one from Spicy City better, but, while my mouth says yes, my stomach and everything else is like... "No!" You can't really go wrong with cured pork and peppers. If you've walked passed a Los Angeles Dirty Dog, you know what I'm talking about.
Fish soup (4/5)
The soup was tangy and a bit sour, it also seems to have spiced with what appears to be serrano peppers, but it wasn't spicy (at least not to me), the broth did an excellent job taking away the fishy stench, leaving it's sweetness intact. The broth also served to keep the fish very oily and moist. This was actually a very enjoyable dish.
All in all, I recommend this place, kind of. The food is good. The service? Trash. Like maybe take out? I don't know. I do imagine that if you sat directly in front where the waitress rests, you might get decent service, but man, even for asian places the service was BAD, I don't think you guys understand just how bad that is, it's almost like they're trolling you to find your limits.
