Royal China (Queensway)

The service and attitude is extremely poor. Do not go to this restaurant (Canary Wharf branch) if you want to have a pleasant evening. We have decided that we are not prepared to put up with it anymore.
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warren
Overall rating
Food 6 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 0 | Value for money 5
Sunday, August 19, 2007

I have been going to the Queenway branch of Royal China for five years now & I have never been badly treated. That's why I found some of your reader's comments a bit unfair. OK. Their staffs might not be the most curteous in london but they have never been rude, not in my experience anyway. I enjoy eating out regularly and I found their seasonal dishes always interesting. (Don't always stick to the same old sweet & sour or crispy duck-there is a lot more to Chinese food than that) In term of price, this place is not cheap but not unreasonably expensive like some places where you are only paying for the decoration, not the food. Having lived in Hong Kong for 10 years I can honestly say this place is the closest you can get to an authentic Hong Kong style restaurant, i.e. wonderful Dim Sum at lunch and a comprehaensive menu at night to suit all pockets. Me& my friends spend on average £10.00 per person for Dim Sum & about £20.00 per person for dinner which I think is resonable for london. Since you can share all the dishes in Chinese restaurant I find it works out cheaper the more people you invite and, of course more fun too.
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lee - View all reviews by this user
Overall rating
Food 9 | Service 8 | Atmosphere 8 | Value for money 7
Wednesday, August 15, 2007

To keep it short and simple: rude staff and they are only after you money!!!Was not a nice experience!!!
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Nick
Overall rating
Food 0 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 0 | Value for money 0
Monday, August 06, 2007

My experience in the restaurant was very disappointing!The staff is so rude;I don't think I have ever experienced anything like this before!

Shortly after we arrived the waitress(who had the face of a thunder) put a small bowl of nuts and something that looked like mushrooms on the table.When I asked the manager(who also served our dinner) what the 'appetizer' was called he said it was duck kidney!I found this very shocking as I am sure they must be having a lot of vegetarian customers there who have no idea of what is on the table in front of them.They should at least inform them!

I mentioned this to the manager,who was quite arrogant and argumentative and told me that if someone does eat it(and is vegetarian!) it is their fault,because vegetarians should check what they eat before they eat anything at all!

So please beware because you just don't know what they put in front of you!

After this incident we decided not to go back there ever again!Customers are treated in a very bad and unfriendly manner which I think is not acceptable at all!If the manager has an attitude problem what can you expect from the rest of the staff!?!?!?!?!?!?

And of course we did make sure that our service charge was taken off the bill!!!
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Maria
Overall rating
Food 1 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 0 | Value for money 0
Monday, August 06, 2007

I just got back from Royal China for sat Dim Sum- we live in the area and are regulars. My wife is from Hong Kong and I have spent quite a bit of time there. The Dim Sum at Royal China is comparable - even my wife agrees. Today's sampling was especially good.

The service is pretty comparable with a lot of the other Chinese Restaurants in London - which means okay - but not consistently good. But the Dim Sum and its prices make up for it (it is not as good a deal in the evening for dinner).
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Overall rating
Food 9 | Service 6 | Atmosphere 6 | Value for money 8
Saturday, May 12, 2007

Just got back from this place and I'm hardly impressed. I'd heard a lot about it and so expected it to be good. It looks the part well enough, with nice decor and everyone turned out quite well. The smell reminded me of Hong Kong, which was a good start, but it started going a bit downhill from there.

I had vietnamese spring rolls, which were pretty good, but as you only got two and they were small, it felt a bit stingy. I also noticed that they were bringing things out in a very ad hoc way, so while some people got their food quite fast, others had to wait much longer.

The main courses were ok. I had some pretty good chicken which, though it got cold quickly, tasted good and it was a generous portion. The other main that I has was Mandarin fillet steak, which was a bit of a disappointment. It was quite chewey, dominated by the strong sauce and to be honest I wouldn't be surprised if it wasn't fillet at all. Others with me had wine which they said was good, while the beer I had was nice enough. The simple fruit dessert was good also.

The service throughout was not great, until the end. A group of 8 of us had a bill of £370, for which they put on a £45 service charge. When we paid up she said we were £1.20, which she hung around for, reminding us several times until we paid it, with exact money! I found this pretty rude and really not what you expect. The guy a few reviews down saying that they were really rude when they asked for the service charge to be removed really doesn't surprise me.

Overall this restaurant is ok for the food, but nothing special. The service is really quite bad, and I wouldn't recommend coming here.
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Stephen H - View all reviews by this user
Overall rating
Food 5 | Service 2 | Atmosphere 7 | Value for money 5
Monday, May 07, 2007

Food was dismal. The dim sum tasted bland and slightly foetid. The fried rice with broccoli and scallops (a lunchtime speciality apparently) was bland, scallops almost non-existent in the rice. The Beijing duck roll with the Hoisin sauce had some nice touches, but was excessively greasy on the whole.

Service was surly, verging on the condescending and rude.
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Al
Overall rating
Food 2 | Service 1 | Atmosphere 1 | Value for money 2
Saturday, April 28, 2007

I can't remember a worse meal than the one I had at Royal China. The dumplings tasted mouldy, the spring rolls were sour as vinegar and sweetened with a sickening honey flavour and the fish was old and unedible. The service is even worse than the food: waitresses dump the dishes on the table, start snorting and get annoyed if you haven't ordered after 10 seconds they have handed you the menu and clean up the table when you are in the middle of having dinner so they don't have to do it just before the restaurant closes and they can finish work earlier, I suppose. They are so rude that at some point I thought they were joking. This is definitely the worst restaurant I have ever experienced.
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Bo
Overall rating
Food 2 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 3 | Value for money 2
Saturday, April 07, 2007

Went to Royal China for the third time; the previous two times the food was very good, hence the repeat visit.

While the food - dim sum - was still very good, the service was absolutely awful. Bad enough to put us off from going there again. The head waitress just dumped stuff on our table, after we refused her 'advice' to order mountains more stuff. She was obviously miffed that we hadn't accepted her advice. Then when it came to the bill, we asked to have the 15% 'automatic' service charge taken off - and instead of taking it off, which by law they are required to do, the head waitress first had the gall to argue, and then stomped off, returned with a menu, slapped it down in front of us and started shouting that the restaurant had been in business 15 years and it was unheard ot for someone not to want to pay the service charge. This even after we told her that we preferred to pay tips in cash.

All in all, pleasant food but a far from pleasant experience. Money-hungry.
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Food Fan - View all reviews by this user
Overall rating
Food 8 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 3 | Value for money 6
Wednesday, March 21, 2007

I was raised in Hong Kong and know exactly what authentic dim sum looks like and tastes like. I had dim sum at other Chinese restaurants in Chinatown before. To be fair, some of them are not bad but they are just not 100% Hong Kong style. If you wanna know how dim sum in Hong Kong is like, Royal China is your choice. The service, honestly, is not particularly good. Perhaps, it is because the restaurant is always crowded and it is difficult for the waiters to be very attended. Yet, considering the high quality of the food, I still find everything quite acceptable. Comparing to the price of dim sum in Chinatown, it is slightly more expensive. Still, I recommend you to pay a little bit more to taste some authentic dim sum and Chinese dishes.
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Food Fever - View all reviews by this user
Overall rating
Food 9 | Service 6 | Atmosphere 7 | Value for money 8
Wednesday, March 21, 2007