What a disappointment…read more
How have they managed to stay around for so long, post-pandemic even?!
(As you might have already predicted, my experience here was not a good one. They didn't even come close.)
Decades, I've known about this place, but never had the desire to try it. I'm not sure why, but some unexplained phenomenon genuinely kept pulling me away.
But playing with my belief of "don't knock it' til you try it," I finally forced it.
Party of three, we walked in after running a few errands. We stood there for a good minute and not one staff member acknowledged us. So, we took it upon ourselves to just seat ourselves at the only open table available.
(Yes, it was semi-packed, so that suggested a lot.)
This one open table, however, was dirty. I wondered why it was taking too long to catch someone's attention to at least clean it, but I simply assumed they were understaffed.
It took another five minutes before we finally got someone to clean our table and ask for menus. No proper greeting, no nothing. Table was cleaned, menus were handed, server walked away, blah...
A few more minutes, we had to once again flag someone to take our orders. (Now, there were only a couple of other tables left to tend to, yet we still weren't properly tended to.) Our server didn't look too happy as he took our orders in.
It wasn't long before our food started coming through.
YANG CHOW FRIED RICE: So, I'm not a fan of fillers on fried rice (by that, I mean carrots and peas) but overall flavor of this was good. Not bad at all.
SEAFOOD CRISPY NOODLES: Presentation was great, but that's as far as it went. The toppings looked fantastic, but flavor was underwhelming. Boy, they missed the mark here, I really wish they took advantage of what the ingredients offered! At least the noodles were crispy.
SHRIMP WITH BROCCOLI: This too, looked good, but it, too, was bland. The only flavor I got out of anything was the shrimp. I tried using the side of hot oil to up the flavor a little. It worked, but not enough.
CURRY CHICKEN: I never skip this at anytime I try a new Chinese restaurant. Chicken was tender, not too many fillers, sauce was good except it was watery! This would have been perfect if they lightened up on the liquid part of the dish. I think if they worked on this a little more, it could be perfect.
DIMSUM: We got 3 different kinds just to mix it up a little. But I was already so unimpressed with everything overall that dim sum - what they're supposedly known for - was a huge let down. Not only did every single one of them lacked flavor, all of them were DRY.
FOOD: 2. At best.
SERVICE: 1. Every staff member we interacted with appeared like they had no interest in being where they were. They truly were unhappy workers.
VALUE: 1. Not worth it.
PARKING: Located in a mall. It's always packed up in here. If you don't mind a walk, there are always plenty of spots open the further way you are from the door.
OVERALL: 1.25.
Whatever it was pulling me away from this place was on point. I should really follow my instincts more.
But yeah. One AND done. At least I'm curious no more.