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HK restaurants drives me mad!!!!

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  1. #31

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    Yes Geoff, and they love you too.

    Sometimes standards of service do differ across cultures. My favorite Chinese restaurant story:

    In San Francisco many years ago, my girlfriend and I went to a play and after to a typical upscale Chinatown restaurant near Grant Street. I remember it was getting late, around 11pm or so (not late for Chinatown though). The restuarant was open and bright, we went in, ordered dinner, and waited. Dinner took awhile to arrive, and while we were waiting the lights in the restraurant started going off, and one of the workers brought out the vacuum cleaner and went to it, while we sat in the near darkness.

    Eventually dinner came. Within five minutes, a guy came up, told us "We are closed" and made us leave. There was no point in causing a scene, so we left.

    At the time we concluded that we must have offended them somehow (possibly due to the fact that I was a gweilo with an Asian GF). That may have had something to do with it, but now I just think that their mentality was simply "Hey, we close at 11pm. You want to come in and order it's your problem if we can't serve you in time for you to finish by then." It hasn't happened to me again since but wouldn't surprise me if it did.

    Last edited by Freetrader; 19-07-2010 at 03:48 PM.
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  2. #32

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    Quote Originally Posted by Geoff:
    Lol, shouting at me won't make you any less stupid, or any less wrong. I love Americans
    Particularly the ones who make sweeping statements about 'how things are in HK' without actually living here......

  3. #33

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    Quote Originally Posted by MovingIn07:
    Particularly the ones who make sweeping statements about 'how things are in HK' without actually living here......
    I must admit I do enjoy letting the Americans be hoisted with their own petards when arguing on here

  4. #34

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    Quote Originally Posted by Geoff:
    I must admit I do enjoy letting the Americans be hoisted with their own petards when arguing on here
    Nothing like a little national hatred and prejudice to lighten things up, eh?
    dear giant likes this.

  5. #35

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    Quote Originally Posted by Freetrader:
    Eventually dinner came. Within five minutes, a guy came up, told us "We are closed" and made us leave. There was no point in causing a scene, so we left.
    did you leave a tip?
    leedseagle likes this.

  6. #36

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    The real problem lies with the management and their attitude towards customers, seeing them as an inconvenience rather than putting money in their pockets.
    If I am in a decent restauarnt paying good money and service charge, I expect a different standard of service from say a dai pai dong. The cases occured in decent restaurants including Japanese restaurants / French restaurants where the meal though not expensive is not cheap either. For example, it is unacceptable that the main course for my friend should have arrived ven before my starter!
    I keep telling them to take it back and WAIT... but the management does not seem to understand the logic behind my requests!
    I wish Andy Lau would also have something to say about this!

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  7. #37

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    The other problem is that some restaurants try to turn over the tables twice in a night so totally rush you or they're so slow to give out the starters then rush you through the rest of the courses.

    40 minutes since ordering a starter that did not even need cooking, Does it really take that long to prepare a charcuterie plate?

    The Press Room group tend to do this a lot.

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  8. #38

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    There are good and bad restaurants all over the world. Personally, I often get irritated in Europe because it often takes forever and a bit to get through meals. Good luck trying to get in and out within an hour in a Spanish or French restaurant at night... A 3 hour meal certainly isn't the norm here, on the contrary, you're usually processed pretty quickly which is one of the things I love the most about HK restaurant and I miss when I'm in Europe.

    Instead of whining and labeling HK restaurant as bad which I certainly don't agree as a blanket statement. Do something about it and name your specific bad experiences. Don't get mad, get even...


  9. #39

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    Amazing the amount of activity this one topic gets.

    I hate when i get bad service at a restaurant/bar and they put a gun to my head and force me to go back again and dine there... wait they don't.

    You have choices people, but its funner to hide behind the monitor and moan. Do the world a favor and give that restaurant 0 stars on openrice.com


  10. #40

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    I tend not to whine or complain in local restos for god who knows what they might do with your food in the kitchen. although some find it a myth, it's still very much a reality.

    if ever i'm not satisfied with something, i ask who ever is in charge nicely and take it as another experience.


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