rev:text
| - Oh man, this place has gone downhill fast! We were there more than a year ago and found the food to be quite palatable, but this time...
It was early during the lunch service and the first point to make is that the food at the "self serve" area was clearly not fresh. The wings, ribs, chicken and duck were stone cold and almost certainly left over from the night before. Because the dishes had only been heated by the warming pans they were all greasy as well as cold, and the overall effect was worse than if you were re-heating last night's delivered Chinese food in the microwave. The "sirloin steak" at the "freshly prepared" station was inedible gristle. It may have been "sirloin tip", but it certainly was not sirloin. The sushi was soggy and the raw fish did not look or taste fresh. The one decent part of the meal was the shrimp stir fry at the wok station...it was hot and seemed pretty fresh, although the black bean sauce was essentially watered down soy sauce, with little flavour. If it had been busier and the line-up at the wok station had been ridiculously long, as it often is, the entire meal would have been a rip-off.
They have also added a $10 charge for "wasted food", which is a bit rich when 75% of the food on your plate is inedible. All in all, it was $20 for one OK plate of food; to call it poor value for the price is an understatement.
To conclude, The Mandarin has officially reclaimed the title of "Best AYCE Chinese buffet", simply by maintaining its thoroughly mediocre standards.
|