Hailey P.
5/5
This was my first time at this restaurant. First I will state the positive and then the negative.
1) Food was fresh, hot, smelled good and tasted GREAT.
2) The place was clean where we sat and general area.
3) Atmosphere was nice during the time we went as it was not busy. It did get progressively busier as time went on but it was clean, bright, spacious and had a Christmas tree for the season. There was a fish pond and a salt water marine tank and the fish looked taken care of.
4) Back to the food: the texture of the chicken balls were perfect. I could swear they were freshly made. If they are premade store bought: then they are the freshest I ever had. The tempura batter was soft and light, the fried taste was clean oil taste. The chicken inside was soft and pull apart and the batter itself was light and soft with a slight crunch. It was the best chicken balls I ever had. Not like other places a hard ball of dough with a small hard, dry Gagging piece of assumed chicken. This place was amazing for the chicken balls!
Now the negative:
1) I speak English with no accent and announciate everything as I am used to people assuming my brown skin means I cannot speak English as per my own personal experiences since moving here. I made sure to make eye contact, stated the name of what I wanted to order plus pointing at it, spoke at a reasonable pace, tone, loudness and smiled. Everything seemed fine.
My caucasian companions all got their orders with no issue. The waitress of local European settler decent for some odd reason got my Don's fried rice and my Don's Chow Noodle wrong.
So the entire table brought it to her attention after I tried to explain the issue as it was my food that had the issue. She some how didn't care or understand. I was handed chicken friend rice (chicken and fried egg with white rice in soya sauce) and noodles that looked the same brown dried with no sauce. I know I did not order that and my experience as a quality control agent in food manufacturing and food service industry and being of Chinese heritage - the main dishes on the table were prepared with care, authenticity and effort. The rice and chow Noodle were to match that grandeur if there is consistency in the output of the kitchen staff. I know what I was looking for, what I ordered and what my expectations were (menu said meats and vegs) and these two dishes did not have that, I am not blind or dumb, I can recognize my food and I grew up in Ontario cooking or dinning on this food. I specifically avoid chicken fried rice's because they are usually dry, gagging, horrid texture and not enjoyable for me having Au ADHD. I NEVER order it from anywhere. There was no miscommunication or customer entitlement or misconceptions. I know that I know that I know: what fried rice I want and what I ordered.
My caucasian partner then said the noodles were to have meat and veg, this is not what was ordered. So she took back the noodles and brought back one with various meats and veg and it looked AWESOME.
So I ask this waitress why does The Don's noodle look proper but my Don's rice look like chicken fried rice. It took all 3 of us telling this woman it's not the Don's fried rice. She had the nerve to try and convince us that it was, "it's all in there, it's burried underneath". Meanwhile it appeared some issues were happening as it got busier with take out, she had doubled back at one point to hand us our crispy fried wontons which the other server had already given us and this lady already took our dishes away from the crispy wontons: we just assumed this waitress had no clue about what the food looked like to their names and unable to match orders to tables or takeouts.
After thoroughly digging around the chicken fried rice to divide it among our 3 plates: we all KNOW she gave us the wrong rice just like she gave us the wrong noodles. It started to look like a personal bias of the waitress against me and it started to look racially motivated.
There was a young man and lady who assisted us after that. They deserved their tip, fixing HER drama
