Sunday, July 27, 2008

Nightmare Hotel Dim Sum Lunch

Lunch Date: July 27, 2008
Restuarant: Summer Palace, 5/F Island Shangri-La, Queensway, Hong Kong
Number of people: Two
Cost: HK$726 (US$93)
Anna's comment: I usually don't recommend people doing dim sum at hotels. Today I am pulling my legs and had a nightmare. All because I've renewed my health club membership and was offered a HK$500 coupon to eat at any outlet within Island Shangri-La, so I took my sister there for a Sunday dim sum lunch.

At the beginning things went on quite normally. However after an hour we've placed our desssert order, only the sponge cake turned up. After a few following up, we were told that they placed a wrong order. So they quickly rush to do my green bean syrup which upset me totally. It was completely lousy, untidy and ugly with the green bean splashed all over the bowl and the plate. Even fast food shops won't produce something that ugly and unpresentable. It was so ugly that it killed my appetite, and I didn't even care to take a photo of it. My sister's sago pudding took ridiculously long to do. I thought even they went to the market and bought flour after receiving our order, it shouldn't take an hour to deliver.

We sat in the restaurant waiting for an hour for wrong order and ugly food with superior high price - wasn't the end of our nightmare. We spent another half an hour to deal with the bill. Because they placed a wrong order and asked us to pay for the coconut milk which was 50% more expensive than my green bean syrup. After all, we were extremely upset and decided not to go there any more. Even so, I want to alert my blog readers not to visit this restaurant - it's a waste of money and time, as well as killing your fun for eating. You would never expect to have such terrible experience in a five-star hotel!

Chicken in Wine 醉鷄 - HK$150 (US$19.2)
Shrimp Dumpling 蝦餃 - HK$60 (US$7.7)
Shark Soup Dumpling 魚翅灌湯餃 - HK$75@ (US$9.6@)
Vegetarian Fried Rice 荷葉素炒飯 - HK$60 (US$7.7)
Spong Cake 蛋黃千層糕 - HK$48 (US$6.2)
Sago Pudding - took an hour and 10 minutes to arrive
HK$50 (US$6.4)
Green Bean Syrup - too ugly to take a photo - took an hour to arrive
HK$50 (US$6.4)
Hong Kong Chinese Food

7 comments:

Unknown said...

oh my god! that's totally appalling! i wont even consider them for dimsum then. thanks for sharing ur experience

Anonymous said...

Anna,
It's a pity you got such bad service at the Shang. For such a great hotel you would expect better. I did go to the Buffet at the Caffe Too at the Shang. The buffet is unbelievable. Hope your next meal can erase this memory.

Anonymous said...

Hello! Im from singapore and is visiting Hong Kong soon! Very excited! Is there any dim sum place that you would highly recommand???

Anna said...

Hello

Welcome to Hong Kong. All the restaurants I mentioned in my blog are recommended. Of course, you should omit the Summer Palace where I have had my nightmare.

Anonymous said...

looks yummy.i loved chicken momo.Can u plz give me the chicken momos recipe?

Anna said...

Hello
Sorry I don't know what is chicken momo. The chicken in this post is 'drunk chicken', ie. chicken in wine. Unfortunately I don't have a recipe for it.

Anna

Hälsporren said...

Too bad you didn't take a picture of the ugly green beans - it's valued information too to know how bad stuff can look. Love your blog, btw.