The Dining Room     南小館  

I don't really fancy Chinese food, but Shanghai cuisine is an exception. With some nice dining experience from many of those chained Shanghai restaurants in Hong Kong, I might had sort of a high expectation when I went to try the Dining Room in Telford, yet I must say it was an utter disappointment.

First of all, we were an early bird as we went into the restaurant before 6pm. Although there were only a few occupied tables, we could not take advantage of that. We ordered mixed appetizers, in which we could select 4 courses, the waiters came twice with the wrong combination and could only make it right with the third try. I don't think that was professional enough.

The other disappointing thing was the dessert. I ordered 酒釀丸子, but what came to me was more like thick congee that tasted awful. Dessert normally completes the meal, but a bad one can only destroy everything.

Lastly, I think the price they charged was comparatively pricey, considering other restaurants offer much better quality with pretty much the same price. So, I believe this restaurant is a one-time thing, and I would not consider going back even when it's for free.

Service : waiters are ok, except the waitress at the reception desk, always kept yelling at loud noise and also poor spoken Mandarin. a welcome note should come from heart. If there is no heart and simply yelling without consideration to clients, that's rude and noise pollution.

Food : expensive. $100/pax for a lunch/ tea; nothing special and yummy. small portion. tam tam noodles is only spicy and oily, didn't taste any peanut sauce and scent of spice; only using chili sauce oil. that's actually not "tam tam noodles", it's a "spring noodles over boiled in its softness and put into chili oily based soup to call it "tam tam noodles" and sell to people who don't know good food and cooking at all. pork is oily and too "minced" in texture, not feeling eating pork chop at all. onion cake is too oily deep fried, over fried and soaked too much oil that making it soft as if dipping fried bread into oil to soften it. like eating a mouth of "oil" instead of feeling any "bread" in the mouth. xiao lun boa is so-so, meat is not good and fresh and juicy, only making it too "hot" to feel like fresh steam but the overall taste and "kung fu" is similar, if a bit higher than, as a frozen meat dumplings from supermarket.

Environment : air con is not sufficient under the bright spot light, hot and sweating a lot while eating some cheap supermarket-like chili oily sauce dipping on soft bad texture noodles, pork, onion fried cake, etc.

Overall : unless you believe in the "paid advertisement article" posted, don't waste any money. not value for money and health (too oily). nasty experience.