• 2
• They need to get organised and serve better food

My friend and I went to this restaurant yesterday evening to enjoy their special christmas set menu (normally they have a buffet service but this was supposed to be something unique). We had a terrible time for several different reasons. The food was not very well thought out and mainly wasn't particularly tasty despite them charging £35 each for 4 courses and a cocktail. This would have been acceptable if the food had been good. Instead, it seemed like they only used about about 4 different main ingredients for the four courses and we had so many variations on crushed nuts we were starting to go nuts. The soups were so-so, I make better at home and the raw soup was steaming hot so obviously not raw! The starters a bit better (dim sum was actually quite good), but the mains were awful. The Emperor's live noodles dish was a smallish patty thing made of long shavings of what we think was butternut squash, on top of which was some chopped lettuce and chopped tomato. It was nicely spiced but hardly a main meal. My unroasted nut roast was a small mound of seasoned mushed nuts with a thin layer of cashew (or something) cream served in an uncooked scooped out butternut squash with some spots of cranberry sauce on the plate. If only they had cooked the butternut squash and let me eat that! It took half an hour for them to give us our cocktail even though there were 5 staff at the front. Then we had only been served one course after 1 and a half hours despite the restaurant only being half full! The buffet was still out and looked tasty but when we said we couldn't wait any longer for the other courses and suggested we just eat that they said the main would be out any minute (came 15 minutes later). After two and a half hours we left taking our desserts with us. I really hope this restaurant does okay as I always wish the best for any veggie venture, but they need to be a lot more organised in the kitchen They also need to stick with the buffet and be honest with the customers if they are having problems with the kitchen or can't cope. I've never waited so long for food in a restaurant and have never been quite so fed up when it eventually arrived.