| rev:text
| - I hate writing a review not based mainly on a restaurant's food or ambiance, but I had a very unpleasant experience here and it was mostly related to their confusing multiple menus, and especially the rude and disrespectful way the manager dealt with us.
But first the food:
The dishes my girlfriend and I ordered were acceptable, but nothing more. Curry singapore noodles were greasy and overly salty. Red thai curry with chicken was tasty, but also too salty and the coconut rice (advertised as jasmine) was overcooked and mushy.
The ginger honey iced tea was tasty if expensive at $4. Our appetizer of vietnamese veggie spring rolls was flavourful but greasy. It had taro in it, which has a mealy texture that for me wasn't working in the spring roll context.
The decor has been accurately describe by others here. It's white, and clean with some modern and classy touches. However the settings aren't complimented by either the middling greasy noodle stall food or the cheesy instrumental disco playing over the hifi.
These are but trifling issues. The real problem with this restaurant relates to their confusing and misleading menu system. We walked in based on the lunch menu pasted in the front window. It showed most of the dishes such as the curries and singapore noodles for around eight dollars.
When we sat down we were given a small menu with no prices. We found the dishes we wanted and asked the waiter. He explained that we had the "all you can taste" menu, which is a fixed $18 for as many small dishes as you want. Seeing it was lunch, and we were looking for a reasonable meal (not $18 each) I asked if we could have the same dishes of the lunch menu. He said that would be fine.
The food arrived fairly quickly and the portions were quite large. I didn't think about it again until the bill arrived and the prices were much higher than on the menu we'd seen in the doorway. We ended up with a $40 bill. At least $10 more then I would have thought.
When I inquired with the manager on the floor why there was this discrepancy, she said that we'd ordered from the "all day menu." I asked why the menu on the door was so much less and she said that was because it was the "combo" menu, which includes a drink but smaller portions. That was what I saw advertised as the lunch menu, and seeing as we got there about 1:30-1:45 that would be what I would expect to be ordering from.
The hitch came when we were given the "tasting menu" then asked the waiter for the same dishes a la carte, and he took the liberty of ordering us the most expensive, "all day menu" versions.
So to wit, the restaurant has three menus (at least, who knows if they have more) and no one explains this to the diner -- at least not in our case.
The manager was defensive and rude off the bat. She said "we've been doing this 20 years, and it works for everyone." Thereby denying that there could be any confusion or onus on the restaurant to be clear about the different menus and pricing options. When I said the waiter could have explained this the manager responded that they "can't read people's minds."
She was utterly unapologetic, and knee-jerk dismissive. It's the type of response I expect from someone engaging in what I see as purposefully misleading pricing. I would have forgiven the waiter for not explaining everything, if they had been a little bit accommodating and understanding, or maybe acknowledged that things could have been clearer. Instead I was made to feel like I was remiss in not understanding their byzantine menu system.
Well good job Riz. You have mislead me right out of your restaurant, and I won't be back.
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