Garden Cafe    綠茵閣  

Service is BAD..... so regret to waste $$$ in this restaurant!! And the food is not much choice and not fresh at all!!!

As they confirmed the number of ppl and the cost for per head in the same day... but once we went there, the receiption told us that they do not have any record for the reserve!!! And the receiption give me a bad face ....

And the seafood is not fresh at all... and not much choice on the food!!!

I've made a comment on 21 Oct, but OR still not yet approve it? Why?? ON 22 October 2010 OR launch that Crab Promotion ad in their headline. I really wonder my negative comment will show or not.

I've just received the feedback from City Garden Hotel F& B manager. He said he didn't know what he could say to my complaint. He tried to offer me a free meal for compensation, but I turned down his offer. I said our family and friends will blacklist their restaurant. I seldom write food comment, but this time I do so, because I found this restaurant was really ridiculous. I told him we felt being cheated. We won't be so stupid to be cheated second time again.

The "2" mark is for their washroom. If they can treat the seafood in such unreasonable way, I don't know how to grade their food hygiene.

His answer to all my complaint are listed as follows:
1. The brown crab was out of stock, new batch woulld only arrive on 21 October but their staff didn't check before they gave me the answer. I told him I have asked the receptionist to double confirm with me before I made the reservation. The manager was short of words.
2. They didn't have whelk for that day. (Not just whelks, even the shrimp sashimi was out of stock after one hour)
3. They didn't have enough spanner crabs ready for dinner, so the taste became tasteless (I helped him to finish off his sentence -- Your staff probably simply boiled it till defrost or dump it into water till it defrost.)
4. That day was their head chef's day-off, so mistake came out. Is this a reasonable excuse?? If you want to waste money and try that restaurant, better give them a call and check whether their head chef will be on duty or not.
5. I told him, the aim of his kitchen staff was to get rid of all the customer asap. If food tastes bad, then client will leave earlier, so they can all go back home at 9:30pm sharp.
6. I told him, their so-called chef offered us a dish of tastelss crab even after we just made complaint on the spot. In fact, his staff don't mind customer's complaint at all.
7. He said the serving staff was a part time, so she messed up everything. However, is it true? If she's just a part time, if the cold drink is not include in the price, can she offer us the drink without asking any supervisor for approval?

This restaurant serve buffet but hoping the client don't eat anything. They don't order enough food, so even the main theme of the buffet disappear on the buffet table. There're not enough seafood for refill after the first 45 minutes. In fact, that evening was not busy at all, a lot of tables are still empty. They should be ashame because they're still advertising in Open Rice about their "Special Crab Promotion". I told the manager that the attutude of their staff was they prefer the restaurant not to have businness, so they can have more time to chat and can back home at 9:30pm or earlier.

I don't want to accept their free meal offer and keep my mouth shut. That day is a family gathering, so we don't have habit to take any food photos. I really regret for not do so, otherwise, you all should see there're only empty shell of crabs scattering on ice to fill up the space occupied by some miniature crab legs. At first there're no crab shell, after I made the complaint in the restaurant, they threw a lot of empty shells on the ice to fill up the space! Those were really empty shells, without roe without flesh. Their quality was really that GOOOOOOOOD for decoration.

We all have blacklisted this restaurant. With that price or or just add a few ten dollar notes, you can dine in M* Hotel in Central. I'm so regret to make my relatives disappointed that evening. We have tried all the buffet restaurants in hotels, you pay for what you get is usually true. The reason why we select this hotel is not because of their food or service, is just because it's closer to the place we live. However, this is a restaurant which really made me feel angry with their service and quality. I've never been to a hotel which the staff will yell at you at a distance away that you are not entitle to have a glass of ice coffee or ice tea!!

I seldom write food comment, but this time I really cannot tolerate this hotel's food quality, quantity and service. This morning, I've made a complaint to their F & B manager, he said he would give me a feedback within next few days.

The article in "Open Rice" mentioned about their "Crab Promotion". They mentioned about the Brown Crab, Spanner Crab, Crab legs, Whelk etc. However, the truth is "DON"T ever believe their ad again".

On 20 Oct 2010, we made a reservation for 8 pax at about 4pm, just 2.5 hours before the dinner buffet starting time. For buffet, we understand the availability of seafood depends on the stock the restaurant received that morning. If some of the seafood is out of stock or quality is no good, some seafood maybe missing from the buffet table. However, just 2 hours before buffet starts, everything should be settled. As my cousins and uncle love to eat French brown crab, so this's the reason why I'll consider booking this restaruant. However, from our previous experience, I would use "Miser" to describe this restaurant, so I have to be cautious.

At the time of reservation, we asked whether the French Brown Crab --- "Sleeping Crab" was really available in that evening or not. If not available, we would not place the booking because that's the favourite choice of my relatives. The lady who received our call said shrimp, mussel was available that evening. I emphasized to her that her restaurant was doing crab promotion, I was asking about the French Brown Crab which was the main theme of the buffet was avaialble or not.

After checking with somebody at background, she told me French Brown Crab and crab legs was definitely available that evening. As I know this hotel's staff standard, I asked whether they're 100% sure that French crab would be on the table that evening. The lady said yes. However, the truth was brown crab didn't show up at all. I made a complaint to the male supervisor dressed in black. He said Brown Crab was not available that evening. They had replaced brown crab with Spanner crab. I told him they should not cheat the customer at the time of making reservation. If they didn't offer that type of seafood, they should not say that they have in on the table that evening.

I didn't notice there was any Spanner on the ice. He said might be other customers took that at beginning already. Later, that guy brought a plate of spanner and crab leg to our table. No wonder, I could not see it at beginning! I swear I never ever in my life see such mini-spanner broken pieces before! I wondered how their chef can chop that spanner baby into so many broken pieces. We have spanner many times in Marriott, my father prefer good Spanner more than lobsters. However, last night, I really understood how a team of bad chefs could ruin the food.

After just one bite, I gave up that broken piece of spanner. It was absolutely tasteless. They probably chopped the spanner into tiny pieces then dumped that into water for defrozen. It was absolutely tastelss, not even one single trace of seafood taste left. I think their purpose was, if the client not interested in eating that, then they didn't have to refill at all. Client eat less, staff do less, all can back home quickly. In fact, I have talked to the F& B manager this morning, I told him if the chef in-charge considered the quality of crab was good enough to serve to client, he should get rid of those chefs.

They probably served less than 2 dozen shrimp sashimi per evening. At about 8:15pm, they said shrimp sashimi out of stock. Buffet should end at 9:30pm. Whole evening, I noticed they only serve one "Crispy??" chicken and one "Soy" chicken, they just leave the plate empty afterwards.

The soft shell crab for hand roll sushi was really soft and cold because it was deep fried at beginning and leave it there for hours. All the tempura vegetables were cold and soggy because they deep fry a lot at beginning and leave it there. I never see such an awful steam fish lying there, so mushy. Buffet started at 6:30pm, should end at 9:30pm, but at about 8:30pm, all the staff seems get ready to back home. They stopped refill for most of the dishes.

They were not ashame to say that is a "Crab promotion". I should say, yes it's a "Mini-carb show". Mini crab stir fry with beer, steam eggwhite with mini crab. If it's not good season for crab, why they should offer this promotion. If this's crab season, why they should use such bad quality crab, no flesh, no roe, just with two empty shells in the food server. If they cannot afford to give good quality food to client, why they should offer promotion and offer such bad quality food. They are just wasting client's time and money and ruining their hotel's reputation.

Using Open rice coupon will have a free half lobster baked with cheese. However, the lobster is so mini, so they have to fill with mashed potato. We could not taste any cheese taste. The lobster was badly overcooked and rubbery.

They offer HD ice cream but only vanilla flavour. All the restaurants which we visited before offered different choices of ice cream and toppings, except this restaurant. At beginning of buffet, their freezer for ice cream just have a smalll amount of ice cream in it. In other restaurants, even after their buffet ended, their ice cream amount was still more than what we had at beginning last night.

They offer hot coffee and tea but not ice coffee or ice lemon tea. I told the staff whether they're going to charge me HK$2 for a glass of ice coffee!! She then reluctantly said she would prepare a glass of ice coffee for me, but that originally not including in the price! End up what happened --- She brought me a glass of less than 6 oz size ice coffee, the glass was so small, it's only enought to accomodate 2 ice cubes, one on the top of each other! The only thing I can say about this restaurant now is BAD food quality, MISER quantity and WORST staff training and NO-HOPE service. I hope I can choose "Zero" mark for their food standard and staff service.

The taste of food is very good!I like the soup very much!Every time when I go there, I am brought to a seat by a waiter or waitress. The environment is good also, for which I think that you can go there for some Christmas party or Christmas meetings! The price is a little bit high, but it is worth for me!