lickingood's Profile

the first warning sign: last minute booking available on friday night;second warning sign: lots of empty tables at 8pm;most food we ordered were either salty, thought it was okinawa style to have salty food, or very salty, so much that we had to return an order of wasabi squidbeer was about $60 a bottle, well, we were in lkf afterall so i thought there's no complain.the problem came when we found in the bill an item listed as "open food", which was supposed to be an order of a $55 fried leaf (沖繩冰葉), instead it was a $160 dish.checked with the english speaking waitress, who took our orders including this dish, and she explained to us that the leaf had sea urchin added and so it's pricier. when we disputed about the order, she just smiled and took off.to be honest, if we had in mind that we ordered this more pricier dish, it's only fair for us to pay or beat ourself for not having asked for the price when ordering. but when we placed our order we had simply pointed at the picture of the $55 dish on the separate menu card and never thought she was "mistaking" us for ordering the one with sea urchin, which was not shown on the menu anyway. and we hadn't even noticed or tasted any sea urchin in it thinking back.and since the dish was not listed on the menu, they could have charged us $1,600 or so!my advice is, in case you are there and ordering anything off menu, check the price so that you can avoid running into this "misunderstanding" that we had. we can't help but felt like being cheated. the extra cost is one thing, our friday evening ruined is even more upsetting.…Read More

arrived in non peak hours, so no need to wait for table.ordered the chicken soup white noodle and fish soup with rice noodle, plus six dim sum dishes.The dim sum dishes ranged from good to acceptable, although none has the wow factor. the smoky egg was quite disappointing as I didn't smell any smoke or taste any flavor of an egg.the noodle soup were the biggest disappointment. they might have no msg or chicken flavored seasoning, but they were loaded with TONNES of salt, I tasted the fish soup first, it was salty, but still ok, but then I tasted the chicken soup, it was way too salty that I couldn't taste any chicken in it. I don't know what the chef was thinking, either he has lost his taste buds or he thought Hong Kong eaters like salty. my white noodles had good testure, but it soaked up too much soup and all I tasted was salty salty and salty. It got worse when the soup cooled down. what a waste - if the soup were truly made with genuine ingredients.Also, the way the suited-up manager slid the toothpick container towards me across our table was quite interesting. not that her gesture would affect the food quality, but I surely remembered it.…Read More

four of us wandering in cwb on friday night without reservation, and saw this restaurant have no line up. so we went in (big mistake -- never try any restaurant that has no line up on a friday night in cwb, they are empty for a reason!!) we had to sit on another empty table to wait for those who had yet to leave on the table supposedly for us. that's the least dissatisfying part of the night.i didn't want chilly crab so opted for hotpot. to be honest, the soup base was ok and the food we ordered were fresh, and i need wait for one or two days before my tummy can tell me if they are clean. but the biggest disappointment was the size. all dishes looked like they are for two children or seniors who don't eat much.the squid paste was pathetically petit like the palm of a child, the local beef was fewer than any pack you can find in supermarkets, the scallops are each dissected into two so they can cover the plate when split, there are 3 mid-size shrimp on one order, which i forgot was around $40 to $50, but we have four people. the most ridiculous dish was the beef flank cubes, six small cubes on an even smaller plate, look like they were leftover from the other table. and like the shrimp, an order of oysters only have three pieces.the point is, we don't mind paying decent price for food of decent quality, which i think they are good, but selling such a small portion at this price is really scary. i know how expensive rents are in cwb, but that's no justification for greed in such an extent. pretty soon, there will be fewer customers and the owner can actually worry little about rents because they wouldnt need to pay at all when they are out of business.we had no tea but we were charged for tea and $18(!) each for sauce. definitely i will never be their羊牯 again in my lifetime unless i hd alzheimers and was dragged against my will to this restaurant and someone i hate was buying me dinner.on the other hand, everywhere else are full of people waiting outside that night. except this restaurant and two others at the end of the road. funny, that may tell you something about these few restaurants.the four of us ended up eating our second dinner nearby, stuffing ourselves with some 糯米飯 and 腸粉!! what a night.…Read More

most customers ordered their food to take away, but i and my girlfriend decided to eat in the shop.we waited over 20 minutes for our orders. the burger meat was reasonably hot, but unreasonaly small compared with the relatively oversized bread. The thick yet small beef burger looked so pathetically petit that one might feel sorry eating them together.the beef in my burger is chewy, but not too beefy tasted, the one in my gf's has more tendon, which was not very good. the mushroom in mine was kinda soaked and there are too much cheese sauce. everything taste ok, but putting them together and the combination was just somewhat not right.at about $30 a set meal, comparing it with the more expensive burger shop is not fair. but if cost is such a concern for the owner, then it faces the danger of being compared with mcD's burgers only.btw, australian ground beef may not be the best choice for burger meat.overall, 一試無妨, but no second visit for us loh! and strongly suggest not to eat in, the toxic exhaust from the cars stopping for red lights two meters away from the shop is deadly.…Read More

the place:we had dinner on a saturday night, thank god we reserved a table cos many many other people waited on the staircase and street for table at night. but the table we had was right under the airconditioner, it felt like eating under the northwesterly wind all night. the waiter said cant turn it down. it seems like we are the only table being blown with freezing air...the food:we canceled the stuffed duck, which we shouldnt have, we didn't reserve for the 焗蓮蓉西米布甸, which we should have. wrong thinking.we had also deepfried softshell crab, crispy, little powder, good.蓮藕餅: not much taste, cant distinguish the 蓮藕 inside. lucky it wasnt salty, but we actually asked for more lea and perrins cos it actually tastes better than the 蓮藕餅.soup of the day: 菜乾豬肺湯, 正!鬼馬牛肉, salty, and extremely salty when eaten cold (the almighty air conditioning...)steamed scallop on tofu with blackbean sauce, hard to mess up.but the 竹笙芥菜, one of the so-called traditional dishes, SUCKS. the ingredients are fresh alright, but the 獻汁 looks exactly like 鼻涕. i can't believe 蓮香 would come up with a dish so poorly prepared. i wouldn't make any dish with 獻汁 like that. it's a total failure.since we havnt reserved for the 焗蓮蓉西米布甸, we wanted to try the steam 蓮蓉 bun, but the waiter said they dont make it for dinner, which i remembered they did last time i came.having said that, we decided to go again next time for the duck and the 布甸, only we would try to avoid the freezing cold table.…Read More

i tried the beef noodle once at lunch, this time i tried the 擔仔麵 while my gf tried for her first time the beef noodle, plus a dish of tofu and egg in black sauce.i like the soup in beef noodle, and the beef were tender too. but my gf said the beef noodle here was not as good as another beef noodle shop on star street, which of course was much more expensive.my 擔仔麵 was quite plain, the noodle has some oily smell and really not very tasty. the egg and tofu was soaked in oil and sauce, taste ok but too too oily.probably wont go again..…Read More

we went there in a large group, ordered no shark fin but ordinary dishes, including the peking duck.the ambience is good, the service is supposedly superb but the younger waiters seemed to be rushing this and that all over the place a little too much, which is a nono at any restaurant that position itself high-end. train the customers to be patient for real good food.the food was ok but gave no surprise, only the fried ramen was a big big disappointment. the texture of the noodle is not acceptable, it was bland and tasted like flour. It would be considered a failure even if served by local shops.the pork dumpling (siu lung bao) is also quite disappointing, the pork filling is rather chewy and not fresh enough.…Read More

i tried 牛腩 and 墨丸 noodle, 牛腩 is tender and tasty, nearly as good as 華南, but consider the price difference, i'd say 合興 is better. i will try 牛雜 next time.although the shop highlights it's famous for 魚蛋, i tasted plastic bucket or detergent smell last time i had 魚蛋, will never try that again. the 墨丸, however, is exceptionally good for me. unlike the bigger rounder ones made in many other shops that give no cuttlefish taste, this is smaller, softer but lot tastier. i aint no expert but i like their 墨丸 very much--must try!but tea, no good.…Read More

to my surprise, the attitude problem i encountered before has disappeared.same lady boss, same middle-age woman, but lot more polite now. i have revisited the shop especially after the other congee restaurant in the area has closed.still many customers, still have to wait even for take away orders, but the attitude towards customers are much much nicer, and they even offer vacant seat for customers to place their coats or bags. how nice.food quality remain good. although prices raised, still worth it.…Read More

have to agree with 亞婆on the captain.i had dinner with dad last month celebrating his belated birthday. two of us ordered two-person set dinner, with sharkfin and everything.food ok, although we overheard a waiter telling another table that there was no more dessert, somehow they managed to gave us two red bean soup, becos our set dinner included dessert.anyway, the funniest thing is when we pay the bill, there were charges on tea/chilly sauce and on appetizer (peanuts), but we have no peanuts given to us. i know usually almost all restaurants charge little sour appetizer or peanuts. but i seldom dine at the restaurant and they dont charge for that during yum cha.so i thought they dont charge for peanuts and didnt asked when we first sat down.when i asked, i believe it's the same mid-age captain wearing glasses, he just looked elsewhere, and when i repeat my questions, he just point at the chilly sauce and said it's the appetizer.i was stunned, but didnt want to ruin the night celebrating with my dad. so i paid up.normally i'd be glad to pay that extra for the appetizer or peanuts, at least they gave us something. but this time, we dont even see the peanuts, and they just charge me double for the chilly sauce/peanuts? when we left, i asked an older manager who was standing beside the cash counter, he explained that they charge for peanuts but sorry that they we weren't given peanuts.i felt so dumb and should have confronted that mid-age punk on the double charge. damn.services by all others are fine, just that captain punk...…Read More

had dinner with friends on new years day. wanted ordinary soup but the waitress only kept promoting 燉湯, even so, they had only two kinds of 燉湯. after a while of promotion, she finally gave us the answer that we need: "no, we dont have ordinary soup."how can a restaurant sell no ordinary soup? 燉湯is fine, but we just want some ordinary soup, are we asking for too much from a restaurant?the food were fine, very good indeed. but the problem came when we wanted to order dessert.First we asked a captain-looking man, he gave us a piece of ordering paper with 7 to 8 kinds of dessert to choose from.after we chose, a younger waiter said, politely, one of the sweet soup was only served in the morning, so we changed our order, then a waitress said, politely, they also dont have another kind of sweet soup, forcing us to change again.it is not a problem that they dont have all sorts of dessert to serve, but the captain-looking man could have told us. he should know most, and we can save time changing our order again and again.i definitely think the restaurant is still open becos the food is good, but if the service quality continue to worsen, it soon will be closed after losing customers like us.…Read More

i had a $45 for a chicken/lamb (it's chicken or lamb, not chicken and lamb that i thought) naan bread combo. naan bread big and warm, better if less chewy.but only two pieces of chicken in a tomato-based sauce and another more curry-like sauce with bits of veggie...? $45??? pathetic!…Read More

i used to like this restaurant when the jade noodle restaurant in taikoo shing has long long long lineups.now that the noodle shop changed its name but still has a long long lineup, wong ka sa is my best choice for shanghai in the area.but the last visit with my family there was a true disappointment.three of us had ordered beef cake, 小籠包, 蘿蔔絲酥餅, 擔擔麵(少辣) and chicken wui meen and green bean paste tong yuan.beef cake came within 3 minutes of our order, we were amazed. the cake was barely warm, the beef inside were uncooked. and the waitress was SURPRISED when we told her to cancel the order.小籠包of wong ga sa used to be similarly good as those in Jade, only jade's were cheaper. but this time the wong ga sa has really lost it. the shape and texture and taste were all unacceptable, totally not an enjoyable experience.蘿蔔絲酥餅used to be so hot that burns my lips. this time it's only warm and i wonder why some "suet choi" was stuffed inside. is 蘿蔔so expensive now???擔擔麵was the only food that looked and tasted as expected. i thought i ordered veggie wui meen instead of chicken wui meen, there were less than 10 tiny pieces of chicken. so wanna cry looking at the noodle.the greenbean paste tong yuan used to be green, both inside and out. this time the outer layer is white like normal tong yuan, and when asked why, the long hair waitress explained that "oh, tong yuan is like this, white on outer layer, only green inside" as if we dont know what tong yuan is like.she was trying to be polite, i have to say, but her logic is just ....i truly believe the chef has left. no way everything we ordered changed in appearance and taste so obviously without some personnel changes.is it that hard for a restaurant to maintain good service quality? wong ga sa is not the only restaurant whose quality went down after a good start.…Read More

first time eating in this new location, dont like the new seating, too crowded and less classy than in the old restaurant.only eat hainan chicken, cos the set dinner too pricey and not attractive.the best is the rice and soup, not much msg, the chicken is thigh, taste ok, but shouldnt hainan chicken have no bone? lucky the bone not too chippy or i might chip my old man teeth again.the most disappointing thing though, is the lack of the dark sauce, it only has the sour chilly and ginger green onion oil, the dark sauce is the main component in hainan chicken.i tried another hainan chicken in mainland, in a five star hotel in nanning, guangxi. i ddidnt have much expectation for it, but it was suprisingly good, it has all three sauces and de-boned chicken, only the rice and soup less good than this restaurant.i have no problem with the service tonight, at least havnt seen things like other have reported.i guess my lucky night, or else i would blast their axx off. i like doing that to bad service providers.…Read More

maybe i have remembered wrong, i thought this vietnamese rest provides those fragrant leaves and bean sprouts to accompany with the beef noodles. it is disappinting to see none of that when i ordered a noodle two weeks ago.the soup base was clear but simple, good that they dont use msg, or only a little, but i expected the leaves and sprouts, and also they dont have the hoiseen sauce and chilly sauce to come with it, where can i find that in hk? i cant believe vietnamese beef noodles in canada are more complete than in hk.the bamboo stick with shrimp and softshell crabs were ok, but chicken wings no good.they just reopen after so-called renovation of the kitchen, but i didn't see any sign of new renovation inside the kitchen...weird…Read More