Sunday, February 22, 2009

San Choi (Kew) 09







Oblivious of the fact that I had a forgettable meal at San Choi less than a year ago we returned a few days ago. Unable to read the Chinese menu on the walls,









and in the company of conservative diners, we ordered off the printed menu. The spring rolls were obviously home made, large and crisp. The seafood san chao bau ($8)
was under spiced and had a scant amount of seafood and the spicy deep fried calamari (without chili by request) lacked any seasoning at all. For mains we started with an unusual dish of scallops and egg white surrounded by fried batter balls filled with a very bland milk product, which provided unusual textural variety to the dish, served with a small plate of mayonnaise.




Very plain, the delicate sweetness of the scallops was very pleasing. From then on things deteiorated. We requested dishes be brought one by one but the waitress said they would come two at a time which we accepted. We requested rice which was served from a pot at another table and the waitress semed to resent leaving it at our table. Later she became quite obviously irritated when I replaced my well used paper serviette with the cloth napkin that had sat under the rice pot, took it back with a curt remark, and put it under the pot and gave me another paper napkin. The next course was a seafood hot pot






sadly lacking taste. An even more tasteless dish of soupy mixed vegtables on a bed of glass noodles followed. At this time both the crispy skin duck and the sweet and sour prawns arrived. At the time of ordering we made it very clear that we wanted the prawns in batter. they were presented unbattered. This caused a bit of discussion around the table but it was apparent that we wanted what we had ordered. The waitress said that she did not hear us ask for batter and went on to say more people were ordering this dish without batter and it was healthier this way! Still we didn't want it and she picked it up and announced "This will go in the rubbish bin" In due course it was replaced
and then she made the astonishing statement "I don't have any trouble getting on with Jewish people" OMG is my circumcision showing. Flabbergasted, but not speechless, I replied that "I have no trouble getting on with Chinese people" As we were leaving, about 45 minutes later she repeated her remark. Obviously ours had been a difficult table and in reprisal I threatened to come back again. As for the food it looked nice and the serves were very large and it's not expensive but every dish but one was grieviously lacking in taste.
Score 13.25/20

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Oh man :S I cringed at your experience! That was so bad :(