37Likes
At the Michelin-starred Tim Ho Wan's North Point branch, I experienced a level of rudeness that I'm sure you will all agree is beyond the accepted Hong Kong norm, no matter how you see this norm.
A waitress grabbed my wrist as my chopsticks were mid-air reaching for a rice-roll, and shook my hand until a dropped the roll!!
Why?! Because they had accidentally served us this dish that we had not ordered, we had been too busy chatting to realize it, and had already eaten more than half the dish. A few of the waitresses came over to check our order, then loudly accused us of eating something that was not ours. The defensive response from one of our party was that it was their mistake for putting it on our table in the first place. Anyway, too late to save the dish.
Several minutes have passed without any other exchanges, and we are back to chatting and eating when I reach for that dish again. That's when the waitress came up from behind me and grabbed hold of my wrist. After she shook my hand to force me to drop the offending role, she whisked the dish away while making some nasty comments. At first, I was so shocked, I was probably just sitting open-mouthed. I finally looked around and spoke to her for the first time, "Is that how you treat your customers?" only to see all the other staff looking at me accusingly. Expecting an apology? Forgetaboutit!!
When I went to pay, I asked to speak to the manager. No manager in sight, apparently, just the woman running the cash register, who only gave me snarky remarks and when I told her what happened, she replied with only a sarcastic look and "I don't know."
I thought, after all these years of living in Hong Kong, I was beyond calling the service "rude". After all, you can't blame an entire city for one rude waitress. But with the entire restaurant staff giving me the same stone-cold face, suddenly I recalled all the other rude behavior that we all tolerate on a daily basis in this city come to the surface. It really left me with a terrible taste in my mouth.
We were a party of 3, speaking mostly Mandarin to each other, which was our common shared language. The person who first spoke to the waitress is a native Cantonese. Was it the Mandarin that made them treat us like that? Even so, WTF?!
Michelin needs to remove that star. The dimsum is also entirely over-rated. Even the famed pork bun is so sweet, like candy, and with hardly a nibble of pork inside. There is so much better dimsum elsewhere in this city.
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08-03-2016, 01:18 PM #1
Tim Ho Wan: Serving some Physical Assault with their Dimsum
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08-03-2016, 01:22 PM #2
This is typical Hong Kong. I was blatantly discriminated at The Pawn and recently received shocking service at The Optimist. Dont eat out if you dont want to be abused.
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08-03-2016, 01:23 PM #3
Welcome to HK la.
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08-03-2016, 01:25 PM #4
Its part of the charm of this fine city
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08-03-2016, 01:33 PM #5
REALLY? You all think this is NORMAL in Hong Kong?
Actually, I've been living here quite a number of years, and have mostly accepted the protocols of politeness here, admittedly sometimes failing to attain perfect zen-like equanimity, but this was really beyond what even local Hong Kong'ers would accept. No?!
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08-03-2016, 01:36 PM #6
Some possible explanations for this (not excuses):
Wait staff are rarely trained anymore in this city. Twenty years ago I was involved in F&B establishments in Hong Kong, and staff were not even allowed on the dining floor with customers unless they had done a week of 'classroom' training. They then followed experienced waiters, before being allowed to clear tables, and then serve food, and finally, if they made the grade, they became a junior waiter (with the worst shifts and sections).Throughout the training they got a basic salary. This is expensive, but at the end of the day, the restaurant was extremely well run with few problems on the floor (and not very expensive either).
These days wait staff are often low paid, and conditions of service are poor. It would not surprise me if the wait staff needed to pay for the wrongly delivered dish.
So, really down to the managers and ultimately the owners, who would probably blame it on the high rents which means their margins are very thin, and anything like staff training or improving conditions for staff are the first to go.
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08-03-2016, 01:36 PM #7
I would say its normal for a local joint.
Its a bit out of character for THW which does tend to get a few foreigners....
I've been here too long I guess. I would just be grateful I got 1/2 plate of free good food and laugh it off...but this was really beyond what even local Hong Kong'ers would accept. No?!
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08-03-2016, 01:46 PM #8
I think it is a bit much to call it physical assault, but it is definitely beyond the bounds of normal behaviour. Crap service and rude wait staff are pretty much par for the course though.
Just like if you use the MTR, expect to fight your way off past people getting on before passengers have alighted....
If you go to a dim sum restaurant, expect the dishes to be mostly thrown on your table and don't expect them to get the order right more than half the time.
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08-03-2016, 01:51 PM #9
Despite being angry, I had the same thought about the service. High rents are probably squeezing them into paying low salaries, and probably she was pissed off about having to pay for her mistake. But was that MY fault?
As you said, it's an explanation but not an excuse for being a total jerk. But jerks exist everywhere. What shocked me more was the entire restaurant staff giving me the same cold sarcastic look.
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08-03-2016, 01:52 PM #10
Put a poor review on Tripadvisor. People on holiday looking out for good restaurants often check there. At least you can warn foreigners what they might expect.
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Originally Posted by renHK:
