Yelp Vancouver

12/29/2016

I used to work here, as a manager. Here is all of the inside information...

The food; the negatives:

The owner created the absolutely terrible menu. The BBQ section features items which are tastelessly spicy, or oven baked items covered in garlic oil and nothing else. This would be okay if there were some variety, or options in seasoning, but there are not. BBQ items come on dangerous metal skewers, and are an impending lawsuit if someone loses an eye or stabs themselves in the neck; possibly a worker's comp case as these are carried up and down stairs and served on flat boards where…Read more I used to work here, as a manager. Here is all of the inside information...

The food; the negatives:

The owner created the absolutely terrible menu. The BBQ section features items which are tastelessly spicy, or oven baked items covered in garlic oil and nothing else. This would be okay if there were some variety, or options in seasoning, but there are not. BBQ items come on dangerous metal skewers, and are an impending lawsuit if someone loses an eye or stabs themselves in the neck; possibly a worker's comp case as these are carried up and down stairs and served on flat boards where they can easily roll off. I proposed an alternative serving with wooden skewers in mason jars, or which come as platters, and are served on a bed of shredded lettuce, and come with dipping sauce. My idea was shot down in favour of the confusing system of ordering single skewers on wooden pizza boards, rather than set amounts. The pizza boards crack and fill up with mould after a short time; sometimes tables have mouldy boards on them, as the mould forms over night. The owners did not want to stop using boards because it strayed too much from their vision. The boards also fill up the table so that everyone is eating in a pile of garbage, after just a few dishes come out.

The seafood has frequently gone bad at the time of serving, and rather than disposing of it the "chefs" serve rotting food. Most of the sauces on the seafood come out of the package.

The seafood pastry chowder really pisses me off. This thing takes an hour or two for the kitchen to make. It is an overpriced creamy seafood soup, that you can get at Aberdeen Mall for 7 bucks, plus a pie crust, ala the Granville Island oven pot pies. It is not real chowder, and it is less value than hell the much cheaper and better pie soups at Granville Island.

The 30+ dollar fried rice with seafood is about a 5 dollar value, having the taste of egg and fried rice. Very little seafood is used in this dish.

The Crawfish come in one style: floating in oil and dried chilies. Often unavailable, and often rotten. For a signature item that people travel a long distance for that dish, this is incredibly bad.

The seafood boil would be worth it if the seafood were guaranteed fresh, not overcooked, and were executable in a timely fashion.

Potstickers are almost ten dollars, for 7 pieces, and come out of the package. I'll let you decide if that's worth it.

Desserts come out of the box/can and are prepared by serving staff. They also have to come up with the playing/presentation; don't blame them for bad food presentation. There is a reason why front and back of house are supposed to be separate. The tortoise jelly has a value of about 2 dollars, and frequently goes bad. The menu price is 8 bucks.

One dessert, the coconut jelly, was only available for a single day but was never taken off the menu. Future menus continued to have the coconut jelly and it was still never available.

The seafood salad is just a small bit of lettuce with a few pieces of cole shrimp and muscles, costing almost 20 dollars. The dressing is chunks of mango floating in oil. This is another one that pisses me off because I tried to present an alternative, which a former line cook and myself prepared in pictures below. It was denied because it was "too complicated", despite being a standard style and presentation that you could get anywhere.

The positives;

The Abalone Soup is supposed to be a consommé - some people have complained about it on Yelp, but I think they just don't know what a consommé is, and it was never explained properly by people who work there. This is something I would fault the owner with because he has no experience working in a restaurant, and made very little effort to understand Western culture - there are numerous problems with the menu translation. The value is sort good for the quality, but I still wouldn't get it, because what's the point of a mid-quality consommé?

The Chinese Burger is basically Xian's version of a bao, which you can get at Bao Down for cheaper, and with more choice of toppings. To this day I don't know the proper name, but I'm sure it would make more sense than "Chinese Burger."

The Chinese Garlic Bread is probably the best thing on the menu. It's actually the only thing that I would say is worth it, but it would fit their branding as "Chinese Fusion" better if it were panfried.

The sauces used for the seafood boil aren't too bad.

They treat their staff badly:

Some people have complained on review sites about untrained staff. That is totally not deserved. The staff work for terrible bosses and have to go out and sell substandard food every day, knowing it's the worst food in Vancouver. Seriously. Do you know how hard it is to sell such a terrible company?!

Hopefully it never opens up again. It's just a waste of a good liquor license and business space. They should reopen on Kingsway as a mom and pop Chinese restaurant, and give up on trying to be trendy.

12/29/2016

She was spot on with a lot of things happening in my life. Very caring lady, and i will be contacting her again in the future. I Highly recommend psychicoz to anyone who is seeking real answers and guidance. thank you