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| - The Nitty-Gritty:
Cash only joint, so bring those bills or you'll be left using that sketchy ATM located by the entrance.
Ten percent gratuity is automatically included in the bill. Hate the service? Too bad.
The Experience:
Our small group arrived in the late afternoon and the lower level was about half-filled. The clientele varied between families, couples and young 20 somethings. We spent fifteen minutes perusing the huge menu before flagging down a server. Destiny's not only has all the typical and non-typical bubble tea/yogurt/ice cream/coffee drinks, but also asian snack foods and full on meals of rice and noodle dishes. For the adventurous, I even spied an offering of stinky tofu, but I personally was too wary of a *tea house* offering this to take the dive.
Our server spoke at an absolutely lightning speed. I have the tendency to vomit out words when I'm excited, but even I was straining to hear his "any tapioca or jelly with that?". All in the name of efficiency I suppose.
Not. During the 20 minute wait that followed, we spent part of it trying to guess where his accent was from. I was convinced it was Korean. I mean come on...that face, those glasses. Korean. However, a friend more well-versed in the realm of Kpop, TVB dramas, and asian things in general assured me it was a Hong Kong accent. Fascinating.
The decor of this place is nice, with dark paneling and sleek staircases leading to the upper level. I wasn't surprised to hear that once upon a time, this Destiny's location used to be a club. With the slow mix of pan-asian pop music playing in the background and low buzz of conversation around us, my companions said they felt a little sleepy as we were finishing up later on.
The Food and Drink:
The drink servings were rather large, but generous? I wouldn't say so. Destiny's varying states of liquids (fluid - slush), are all around the range of $4-$8, so on the cross comparison of size to price, the shock factor's a tinge misleading.
I had the Red Bean Ice Cream Drink, which was nice. Icy, creamy, red bean-y. With all the variety on the drink menu, I doubt I'd try the same thing twice here. This might seem picky, but the little square napkins they used as coasters kind of bothered me. They were rather useless and would just stick to the bottom of your glass awkwardly as you lifted it up.
The Wasabi Mayo Squid Balls were actually surprisingly good. Chewy texture with a slight wasabi kick both from within and from the outer sauce, even non-spicy eaters would enjoy this. The little whole squid piece at the centre of each of these was a nice touch.
Spicy Popcorn Chicken. A nicely sized portion for sharing, you can't really go wrong with these. It's not the disappointing variety of popcorn "chicken" where it seems like it's more batter and mysterious bits and pieces of something that resembles meat. With every bite of the kind here, there's no doubt it's chicken - or least some closely related species. The "spicy" element comes into play courtesy of a dry seasoning over top. Since Destiny's also offers a non-spicy version of this, that magical reddish dust is most likely the only difference between the two. Again, on the flavor scale, I'd say only the most sensitive of tongues wouldn't be able to handle this.
The Star Killer:
Destiny's should really come up with a lingo system for their staff, or maybe at least choose a language other than the one our party of four happened to all be fluent in. Otherwise, it just makes for an unpleasant experience to have a server run down to the front as we were leaving to ask the hostess who took our bill if the table had paid yet. The included tip in the bill had kind of already left a bad taste in our mouths considering the slow service, and this was really just the insult on the injury. We don't have supersonic hearing, but he wasn't whispering.
The Verdict:
To sum it all up, the thought that really stayed in my mind was that Destiny's has the potential to make a reeeeeally bad first date. I can see it already. Trendy tea house, seems all well and safe...until the dark side of Destiny's comes rearing its ugly head. Awkward conversation becomes no conversation when the drinks haven't arrived for half an hour. Boy has no cash and the monster living in the ATM will swallow his credit card whole. As they leave, the server accuses them of being dine-and-dashers...if they're lucky, they won't understand what he's saying.
Anyways, that would be the worse case scenario.
I'm willing to give Destiny's the benefit of the doubt that this was a one time miscommunication that could have been handled more gracefully and make a return visit when the mood for squid balls strikes again.
Besides, what other place in the city has stinky tofu *and* mango crêpes on the same menu?
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