April 26, 2015

One-star food, zero-star service

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I was looking for a lunch spot near the office, and suddenly realized that I haven't had dim sum on a weekend in a long time.  The Boss (波士廳) is one of the places nearby with pretty good food, so I poked my head in to see if we could get ourselves a table...

Curiously, after we were seated and asked what kind of tea we preferred, no one was in a hurry to see what we wanted.  No one bothered to bring us the menu, even though there was a set sitting on the empty table right next to us.  I pressed the button on my chronograph and proceeded to twiddle my thumbs while we waited... and waited...  After about 5 minutes, someone probably overheard our discussion and finally brought us the menu.

We ordered a couple of dim sum items, plus one of my favorite dishes at the restaurant.  Unfortunately, the poor service continued...

Baked egg tarts (牛油蛋撻仔) - WTF?!  In what universe is it kosher to bring out the dessert first?!  Especially when the menu specifically highlights that it takes 20 minutes, and yet these arrived at our table around 2 minutes after we placed our order?!

Baked crispy barbecued pork buns (雪山叉燒包) - these char siu baos were pretty decent.

Steamed spicy shrimp and pork dumplings (螞蟻上樹餃) - always a favorite item here.  I do love the mix of textures inside the wrapper, and that kick from Sichuan peppercorns (花椒) is real nice.  I don't normally enjoy going for anything mala (麻辣) which completely numbs one's tongue, but when there is just a little bit of it, I can see how that slightly tingling/numbing sensation can be addictive...

Deep-fried chicken pieces with home-made shrimps sauce (大澳蝦膏炸碎雞) - yeah, baby!  Gimme some of this any day!  The shrimp paste covering the pieces of fried chicken is so deliciously addictive, I really couldn't care less about the chicken they used...  Definitely a very greasy dish, so the raw cucumber sticks on the side provided the necessary relief and refreshed the palate.

Steamed rice flour rolls with spring roll (金包銀絲腸) - this is something that their neighbor Sun Tung Lok (新同樂) does really well, and the version here fell a little short.  But it was still really satisfying to bite into these and feel the crunch from the crispy bits of spring rolls.  The strips of radish provided some juicy softness in contrast to the crunch.  Yummy when drizzled with soy sauce.

We were satisfied with the delicious food, and it was time to get the check and go.  I looked for a waitstaff and raised my hand.  No one saw me.  There were 8 or 9 of the restaurant's staff within view, and this wasn't exactly a basketball court or a football pitch.  From the manager down to the bus boy, they congregated together but somehow no one looked in my direction.  Finally, it took the most junior staff coming out from the kitchen to see that I had my hand raised.  No tip today, then...  Not.one.dollar.

If it were up to me, this kind of crap service would get their little macaron struck off.  How lucky for them, then...

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