A fellow QYPEr brought me here so that I could try the food for myself and comment on it. I was brought up with good Chinese food and also speak a southern Chinese dialect fluently, as well as being able to read traditional script Mandarin Chinese.
Having eaten at too many establishments ran by people who chose to run a Chinese restaurant business but not necessarily knowing anything about cooking the food professionally, my expectations were accordingly managed when I arrived at Haozhan.
Gladly, I am happy to report that my meal here turned out very well indeed. We ordered a tofu casserole dish which was piping hot when arrived (and stayed hot for some time, the way it should be), a light stir-fry of sliced lotus root with fresh asparagus and a Malaysian ho fun.
I was genuinely surprised and pleased to learn that Haozhan makes it own tofu! It is of a very soft and silken texture and tasted almost eggy, which was actually rather nice. The tofu is crusted with chopped spinach on top, a unique feature which cannot be found in any manufactured products sold in retail. I also spoke to the Malaysian Chinese waitress in Cantonese about this and she confirmed that the tofu is indeed made by Haozhan themselves.
The lotus root stir-fry was very good indeed. Although the portion was disappointingly small, I was just so glad to be tasting a fresh stir-fry that was not drowned in gloppy sauce but was hot and crunchy and, wait for it, tasted of "wok chi" - this could only have been achieved if the stir-fry was done very skillfully and quickly in a hot, hot wok poised atop a hotter than hell gas burner. Wow! I miss wok chi (sometimes called wok fragrance).
The Malaysian ho fun was pretty okay and not too greasy, just about right.
We both had white/green type teas which came in separate large pots and with the tea brewed to the correct strength and the leaves removed, thus ensuring the tea did not over-brew itself and become bitter. This was a very nice touch.
I had the black sesame ice cream for dessert which was a nice interpretation of a Chinese sweet which is normally a hot, sweet porridge. My friend had the pumpkin dessert which was pleasant and light in texture and not too sweet. Her dessert was also an interpretation of another hot traditional Chinese sweet.
The staff were pretty okay. I think some of the perceived rudeness commented on by other reviewers might have been an unfortunate result of the staff not speaking very good English as it is spoken in the style and of a standard expected of in this country. As I could understand what the staff were saying in Chinese (I heard both Cantonese and Mandarin, albeit Malaysian Mandarin), I was able to gain an insight into how they communicate. I also heard them speaking English on the phone when taking reservations. All in all, I would say that coaching is needed to get this communication and presentation aspect right. Chinese, like spoken Italian, can be a bit loud and direct. If a Chinese person speaks English in the same style, the nuances are just not going to be right in contrast to the vernacular. Haozhan is a truly good Chinese restaurant of a standard comparable to establishments in the Far East and all it needs now is to get their communication presentation right, trained up etc for their non-Chinese clientele.
Adding value to "service" is always key to a successful business. It costs relatively little to train the staff to use key phrases, vocab and intonation techniques. I do hope they will take this on board. read more