Thursday 3 January 2008

northbridge chinese restaurant - I thought I knew you...

Though I have previously waxed lyrical about this place in a previous post, I want to now do a community service to everyone and advise after a bad experience tonight that Northbridge Chinese Restaurant (in Roe St, Northbridge) is dodgy. There I said it.

Why do I go to the effort of posting about this? Well like I said, it's a community service for people who do not want to get ripped off by the pushy waitress who is forever nagging you to make your order into a 'medium size' so she can charge you 1.5 times the advertised price in the menu. Furthermore, even if you didn't agree to 'upsize' your dishes, she takes the liberty to upsize it on your behalf and then make you pay for it at the till. Dirty tactics. And on top of that, we have frequented that place so many times and have even recommended it to people too - and to have the lady there try to rip us off and also be so rude to us, well let's just say 'Northbridge Chinese Restaurant, I thought I knew you...'

When the boss lady was in the process of trying to explain her dodginess, someone put it really well when they said something in cantonese along the lines of 'OK, OK - you know how to do business'. Hehehe. Though the bill thing has happened to us before (she ALWAYS does it with the Vinegar Chicken - like always), we were willing to overlook it because they would give us free soup and dessert (yes, we were easily bought). But tonight was the final straw - after fluffing us around with the bill, they didn't give us any on-the-house-dessert!

There were three tables of us - one table asked and was told you only get dessert if you have the banquet, our table (after waiting for ages) asked and was told we would get it - but the lady never returned)... Finally, when we were paying, someone asked about the dessert and the boss lady told us something like 'oh, I didn't think you wanted it because you looked too full' - dodgy. Of course we wanted it! We're young-Gen-Y-Asians - there's always room for a free dessert! And anyway, it's liquid dessert - it will find a way to seep through the rest of our stomach contents and fill in all the gaps!

So yeah, I have spilled my guts about Northbridge Chinese Restaurant. It has gone from one of my top places to eat, to my list of black-listed restaurants (which includes places like Il Padrino's and Oriel's). In case you're wondering, the food isn't that spectacular to me no more - it has lost it's appeal. The jiu-yun-pai-quat that I previously raved about just doesn't do it for me. It's time to move on!

5 comments:

a l a n said...

agreed

my dislike of the place is because i found a hair in my Chau Siu Bau during dim sum

not pleased

Joy Garden is the place to be now

small steps to glory said...

ooooo nasty! I think Dragon Seafood has the best service tho

Anonymous said...

Northbridge Chinese Restaurant is definitely one of the best in town and I think Joy Garden should actually be the worst in town when that tanned lady with long hair ignores you and serves the other richer older looking customer who came in later.

Anonymous said...

first of all, you claim yourself as a gen-y asian, you should be expecting hairs in your chao siu bao, stop acting like a princess who cannot take some ordinary food, that is a risk you will have to take anywhere-else you eat. Also, Nbridge Chinese might not be the best service but look at the size of the restaurant compared to your Joy Garden, it operates at at least 2 times more capacity, yet service is comparable to Joy's. Regarding price, how can you complain about Nbridge Chinese trying to rip you off, when Joy charges a higher price, yet still you announce Joy the winner. I think you should eat more dimsum and fill that non-asian-mind of yours before you comment on it, otherwise, gangs will come after ya?

small steps to glory said...

Hey anonymous. No need to get your knickers in a knot about 'announcing Joy Garden the winner' - nobody's a winner here (except for Northbridge Chinese Restaurant who continue to rip their patrons off). If you read the post carefully, you will see that I made no comment about Joy Garden in my post (it was a comment made by someone else). No need to get angry and make threats about gangs coming after people just because they dissed your dimsum joint! And just so you know, I got nothin but love for dimsum man!

Thursday 3 January 2008

northbridge chinese restaurant - I thought I knew you...

Though I have previously waxed lyrical about this place in a previous post, I want to now do a community service to everyone and advise after a bad experience tonight that Northbridge Chinese Restaurant (in Roe St, Northbridge) is dodgy. There I said it.

Why do I go to the effort of posting about this? Well like I said, it's a community service for people who do not want to get ripped off by the pushy waitress who is forever nagging you to make your order into a 'medium size' so she can charge you 1.5 times the advertised price in the menu. Furthermore, even if you didn't agree to 'upsize' your dishes, she takes the liberty to upsize it on your behalf and then make you pay for it at the till. Dirty tactics. And on top of that, we have frequented that place so many times and have even recommended it to people too - and to have the lady there try to rip us off and also be so rude to us, well let's just say 'Northbridge Chinese Restaurant, I thought I knew you...'

When the boss lady was in the process of trying to explain her dodginess, someone put it really well when they said something in cantonese along the lines of 'OK, OK - you know how to do business'. Hehehe. Though the bill thing has happened to us before (she ALWAYS does it with the Vinegar Chicken - like always), we were willing to overlook it because they would give us free soup and dessert (yes, we were easily bought). But tonight was the final straw - after fluffing us around with the bill, they didn't give us any on-the-house-dessert!

There were three tables of us - one table asked and was told you only get dessert if you have the banquet, our table (after waiting for ages) asked and was told we would get it - but the lady never returned)... Finally, when we were paying, someone asked about the dessert and the boss lady told us something like 'oh, I didn't think you wanted it because you looked too full' - dodgy. Of course we wanted it! We're young-Gen-Y-Asians - there's always room for a free dessert! And anyway, it's liquid dessert - it will find a way to seep through the rest of our stomach contents and fill in all the gaps!

So yeah, I have spilled my guts about Northbridge Chinese Restaurant. It has gone from one of my top places to eat, to my list of black-listed restaurants (which includes places like Il Padrino's and Oriel's). In case you're wondering, the food isn't that spectacular to me no more - it has lost it's appeal. The jiu-yun-pai-quat that I previously raved about just doesn't do it for me. It's time to move on!

5 comments:

a l a n said...

agreed

my dislike of the place is because i found a hair in my Chau Siu Bau during dim sum

not pleased

Joy Garden is the place to be now

small steps to glory said...

ooooo nasty! I think Dragon Seafood has the best service tho

Anonymous said...

Northbridge Chinese Restaurant is definitely one of the best in town and I think Joy Garden should actually be the worst in town when that tanned lady with long hair ignores you and serves the other richer older looking customer who came in later.

Anonymous said...

first of all, you claim yourself as a gen-y asian, you should be expecting hairs in your chao siu bao, stop acting like a princess who cannot take some ordinary food, that is a risk you will have to take anywhere-else you eat. Also, Nbridge Chinese might not be the best service but look at the size of the restaurant compared to your Joy Garden, it operates at at least 2 times more capacity, yet service is comparable to Joy's. Regarding price, how can you complain about Nbridge Chinese trying to rip you off, when Joy charges a higher price, yet still you announce Joy the winner. I think you should eat more dimsum and fill that non-asian-mind of yours before you comment on it, otherwise, gangs will come after ya?

small steps to glory said...

Hey anonymous. No need to get your knickers in a knot about 'announcing Joy Garden the winner' - nobody's a winner here (except for Northbridge Chinese Restaurant who continue to rip their patrons off). If you read the post carefully, you will see that I made no comment about Joy Garden in my post (it was a comment made by someone else). No need to get angry and make threats about gangs coming after people just because they dissed your dimsum joint! And just so you know, I got nothin but love for dimsum man!