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| - Summary: Hakka restaurant holds its own in saucy classics such as Manchurian and Chili chicken, but REALLY stands out with it's dry chicken seasoning, although you'll have to forgive the service and average portion size
Top Must-Get: Bombay chicken
Top Regret: Spring rolls
My friend and I have come here for lunch a few times as it's right in the area. It's in a quiet plaza just south of Frederick's, which is a more well-known Hakka restaurant - making comparisons between the two natural. Frederick's offers literally more (both in menu options and quantity), but Hakka Legend, in my experience, has a slight edge in flavour and taste in some of its dishes.
FOOD
Manchurian chicken: this is my go-to Hakka dish. At Hakka Legend, it was good but not incredible. The colour of the sauce was less vivid than others (and that's a good thing - I find I am a bit more cautious eating bright red foods than dull coloured sauces). 3.5/5
Bombay chicken: amazing flavour in this dry rub dish, although it leans to the slightly salty end. This has plenty of kick, and the more you eat it, the more the heat will kick in. 4.5/5
Lunch specials come with your choice of soup or spring roll. Neither were particularly amazing, but the spring roll tasted oily and soggy the first time I had it. The second time around, it was slightly better, but I definitely wouldn't come here for those.
SERVICE
You get your seats and your order in pretty quickly, and your food comes not too long after that, but that's where it seems to end. It's not too busy, so the slow service is really puzzling.
We had our water refilled once (and only after a few minutes of trying to flag someone down), and this has happened almost every time I've been here. To be fair, the owner seems to care when he's not in the kitchen, but the serving staff are definitely not appearing interested in customer service.
My thought is that restaurants that want to get away with shoddy service or check-ins should really provide whole pitchers of water/drinks. How can you serve spicy foods and not expect people to get thirsty?
The service pulls it down to a 3/5. However, the Bombay chicken (and close proximity) keeps me coming back from time to time.
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