Imperial City

I agree wholeheartedly with the previous reviewer. I was very disappointed with the food and when I got the bill I nearly fell off my chair. If you like constant interruptions by miserable waitresses, ok food (duck good but sizzling 'sirloin' steak was very tough and sinewy) at inflationary prices then this is the place for you. Never again.
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AMT - View all reviews by this user
4 Overall rating
Food 5 | Service 6 | Atmosphere 5 | Value for money 0
Thursday, July 29, 2010

Being Chinese myself and never being a fan of Chinese food outside of Chinatown or my mother's house, I cringed when my boss suggested taking a client out to this local plush restaurant for a spot of lunch.

If I'm going to be honest, i was taken aback by the deco when I first walked in. It was genuinely well designed and hid the fact that it was probably an underground wine cellar or some sort of bunker years back, with the ambient lighting, spaciousness and the table layout.

The food was disappointing. We ordered the mixed starter to nibble on first (for around £10 per head) and out came 3 ribs, 3 fish cakes, 3 veggie rolls,3 butterfly prawn, 3 chicken satays drenched in peanut satay sauce. My parents used to run Chinese takeaways (one of the better ones I'd like to add! :p) so I guess I had a benchmark. To think that this set starter was 300% more expensive and giving you 300% less food than in a takeaway, it was greasy as hell. Let's put it this way, none of us finished our food despite the "wannabe-minimalist"/tight cooking.

So onto the main course (that was interluded by 4 different waiters/waitresses coming to ask us if we wanted another drink...) Blackbean Chicken, Oyster SauceSirloin beef, Garlic Brocolli, Garlic Sugarsnaps, Chilli Prawns and boiled rice.

The rice was OK but considering the price they stamped on it, I felt somewhat cheated as it ended up as a very small tired looking pathetic pile on my extremely large plate.

Main courses? Well, not bad, but not fantastic. All I could think about was the price hike they had on these dishes when there was clearly nothing spectacular about it. I could probably cook these dishes with very little difficulty and I'm not the greatest of cooks. The ingredients were fresh, but I'm 90% sure the sauces came from a jar they probably bought wholesale from WingYip/SeeWoo supermarket (look them up if you want to start cooking Chinese Cuisine at home ;) ) as the flavours were a little too familiar to the ones I had at home.

Anyway, after the fifth visit of "do you want any more drinks" we paid the over-inflated bill and left.

I suppose if you're an overpaid banker in the city and fancy a spot of lunch in a pretentious overpriced Chinese, this place is perfect. But if you enjoy your Chinese food are looking for something more exotic steer clear - this is a pretty restaurant with takeaway standard food.
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delmontebanana - View all reviews by this user
3 Overall rating
Food 3 | Service 3 | Atmosphere 7 | Value for money 0
Thursday, May 27, 2010

I visited this restaurant last night with a large group of people. I can't say I agree with the comments about the service below. Throughout the meal, the waiters and waitresses were very attentive and provided a very high standard of service. If anything, the service was a bit too quick as our starters came 5 minutes after ordering and our main course was brought out literally as soon as our starter plates were cleared.

I am usually not a fan of Chinese food at all. But this place, the food was very palatable. It tasted freshly made and had none of the Chinese gloop you normally find.

I can't comment on the value for money as I didn't see the bill.
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- View all reviews by this user
9 Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 10 | Atmosphere 10 | Value for money 5
Wednesday, December 16, 2009

First time back here for a year or so and the last time. Food was awful and the service matched the food.
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Stephen Harrington
1 Overall rating
Food 1 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 3 | Value for money 0
Monday, December 14, 2009