This was the backup plan when we found out the restaurant we originally planned to go to closed at 11pm. We had to wait about 10 minutes to get seated, but that's alright. The restaurant itself is dark, and the music they play is quite loud. The first issue while they do have a good number of servers for a restaurant of this size, the majority of the ones we talked to knew almost no English. Even when trying to get a table, we spoke in English, and the waitress responded in Mandarin. I mean, yes, I'm Chinese, but I speak Cantonese. It's difficult when the customer understands the waitress more than the waitress understands the customer.
We were seated at one of the higher bar-like tables in the center of the restaurant. Their bar stool-like chairs have seats that are quite uncomfortable. I'm not a very big person (just over 5 feet), but this seat ends somewhere around my upper-mid thigh, and as it's wood and has no padding, it wasn't a fun sitting experience. The tables are also really narrow.
They don't serve tap water here. They offered us water bottles. Not until the end of our meal did we realize they were free (chalk that one up to language barriers). Here's the thing. If I don't order a drink, I'm expecting water to be given to me. If it's not automatically given to me, I ask for it, and you offer me bottled water, I'm assuming I have to pay for it, especially if you don't understand me and I don't understand you. It's just easier for everyone if you offer me water without me having to ask for it.
Food:
I know Foodie M is calling me out for having bad taste in her review, as I am one of the ones who will not give Chat Bar a 5 star review, but I really don't think this deserves 5 stars. Some of the food was pretty good, but some of it was just not mind-blowing enough to deserve a 5.
Lamb skewers ($5.95 - 4 skewers) - While this is a fairly reasonable price for lamb skewers, giving the amount of lamb they put on each skewer, I've had better and more reasonably priced lamb skewers elsewhere. I wouldn't mind ordering these ones again, but they're maybe a 3.5 in my books.
Lamb noodle soup ($6.95) - I thought that this would be a legit sized bowl of noodles. It was served in a small stone bowl akin to the ones that you get steamed egg or a side of kimchi stew in at Korean BBQ restaurants. The portion definitely does not justify the price. The lamb in it was pretty tasty. Each piece of lamb had a little bit of fat that I like, but I know there are people who would not like that as well. The noodles also had a good texture. If this bowl of noodles was $5, I'd give it a 4/5, but because it wasn't $5, I'd give it a 2.5.
Beef tendon and bean curd ($5.95) - This is one of their recommended dishes. I was expecting it to be chunks of marinated beef tendon and chunks of marinated tofu served cold. What I got was a bowl of spicy bean curd noodles (think a thin, flat sheet of firm tofu with little raised bumps for texture, then shredded). It was tasty, but not worth the price. I spent quite a while trying to find the beef tendon in the dish. I finally found a small amount of it, also shredded, mixed into my bean curd threads. I'm thinking the ratio of bean curd to tendon was about 20:1. Something like that. The tendon was also really chewy. I'm not sure whether that was a good thing or not. This was tasty, but because of the description of the item and the price of the item, I don't think this was worth its price tag. I'd give this one a 2.5/5 as well.
Garlic clam ($5.95) - This one was me taking a risk, because I had no idea how many clams I was getting for this price (notice that it says clam, and not clams). My risk paid off! They served us a tinfoil packet on a plate. They told us, in Mandarin (which we hadn't spoken to them in all night) that we should use our chopsticks to tear the packet apart because it was very hot inside. That it certainly was. Garlic butter steam is a beautiful thing. The portion on this was quite fair for the price. The clams were juicy and tender and fresh. The garlic butter and the bits of chopped spicy peppers in there just made it that much better. I'd give this one a 4.5 out of 5. They lost the extra .5 because they would have had to wow me with the portion of this dish, and while I agree that it was a fair portion for the price, it wasn't an amazing deal. I'll give it a 5 for taste though. I could have gone for a number of orders of just these clams.
I might come back for the clams, and if I'm really craving them, the lamb skewers, but given the service issues, I don't know whether the clams are worth it. read more