China City (Russell Square)

The chefs should be shouting at the waiters. I loe this place but hate going there.

The food is superb. I often go for dim sum at lunch time - it is very reasonable and the quality is excellent.

HOWEVER, the servcie is appalling. They are rude and arrogant. Not in a funny China Town way, but in a dismissive unpleasant way.

When I go for lunch, I usually see the waiters sitting at thier own table having their own lunch ignoring us, I've never known a restaurant to act like this.

One cheeky point to note, the bill came with a nice total and "gratuity at your discretion" on it. Behind it was the breakdown and it had already added a 10% servcie charge. Apparrently (although not legally) tips are not service charge here.

I wouldn't go back, but damn the food is good!!!!
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Mark H
6 Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 4 | Value for money 8
Thursday, December 06, 2012

I agree completely with all the NEGATIVE reviews! I'm Chinese and went here before so (NO) I did not have a language problem with the Chinese speaking waiters/ waitresses.

I must say, since I live nearby I've used this restaurant 3 times out of convenience due to work commitments and didn't want to travel far. Put it this way, all 3 times were horrendous, but I enjoyed the food and just put up with the bad service thinking the wiaiters must be really bored so their bad manners are to be expected

Anyway, I have not used this restaurant for a while and do not recommend it if you are looking for good service and pleasant atmosphere. It's always dead quiet and no one around except one or two tables (i'm surprised they're still in business) most businesses would have gone bust.

If u do not care about bad service then go there, I must say the food was ok.
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Tony_Lee - View all reviews by this user
2 Overall rating
Food 4 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 1 | Value for money 1
Sunday, March 18, 2012

This is the probably the worst Chinese restaurant I have been to.

The waiter that showed us to our table was miserable and didn't even say hello. Strangely enough they removed the lovely place settings and napkins when they seated us so we were sat at a bare table.

We ordered a selectiong of dim sum as a starter which were two dim sum that were heavy, far too sweet, and unlike any dim sum I have had before. After serving the dim sum the waiter went to get knives and forks and left us. We had to ask for napkins (and were given tissues) and soy sauce. It was strange as a couple at another table had the proper napkins while everyone else had serviettes. We had to call the waiter again to ask for drinks as we still hadn't been offered any.

I had the beef in black bean sauce with rice as a main course. The waiter brought the main course out when we were still eating our starters and plonked them on the table. The beef was sickeningly thick with msg but the taste wasn't too bad.

The waiters were so miserable, one was walking around shuffling his feet the entire time. I started to wonder if they were being held there against their will.

They had the cheek to charge a 10% service charge and didn't even bother to bring back our 30 pence change. Nice!

No atmosphere, horrible dim-sum - don't go there!
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Minnie
1 Overall rating
Food 3 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 0 | Value for money 2
Thursday, September 22, 2011

A fantastic weekend in China City!

Last weekend I had the dinner with my girlfriend in the China City restaurant. We chose the 'Beijing Banquet' on the menu. The banquet is so abundant and ecomony, including the four-course meal, and the price is only £23.80 per person. In addition, the enviroment was so beautiful and the service was excellent. Therefore, I am dare to recommend to those who wants to date with his or her lover during their wonderful periods.
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Jamie Ning - View all reviews by this user
10 Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 10 | Atmosphere 9 | Value for money 10
Saturday, August 20, 2011

Passed this restaurant while around the area with a few of my friends from Australia. We were all delighted. The service was good and the food was great. My friends even commented that this was better then the food in Australia! Ha...
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Claire Hopkins
9 Overall rating
Food 9 | Service 8 | Atmosphere 9 | Value for money 8
Monday, April 18, 2011

This must be the worst Chinese Restaurant I've ever been to.

Service was disgraceful and they had a nerve to charge a 10% Service Charge. Our waitress never smiled once and starting clearing our table while others in our group were still eating!

Very small portions and very overpriced for what little you did get.

Looks great from the outside but atmosphere inside just doesn't exist!
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Keeksy
0 Overall rating
Food 0 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 0 | Value for money 0
Sunday, April 17, 2011

This is one of the worst dim sum restaurants I have ever been to in the UK.

The waitresses didn't smile once, it was a big effort. But more importantly, the steamed dim sum was heavy, not delicate... Clearly some of the produce was not fresh. It was seriously appaling. And they had the nerve to add service charge that wasn't optional. If you love dim sum, don't go there!
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1 Overall rating
Food 1 | Service 1 | Atmosphere 2 | Value for money 1
Saturday, April 09, 2011

Having experienced the cuisine at China City, Russell Square, I must say, I disagree, to an extent, with the other reviews written about this restaurant.

In keeping with tradition Chinese culinary service, the service was both courteous and polite. Albeit some of the waitresses struggled with English, as I'm sure you'll agree, you don't need to have an English qualification to know how to be polite. I will concede that, at times, the waitresses appear indifferent, but on the whole, the service experience was a pleasant one.

The most important factor, as with any fine dining experience, is the quality of food. It goes without say, as credited by other reviewers, that the food was exquisite. Compared with the generic food served in nearby Chinatown, it was a welcome surprise to see such dedication and effort put into presentation.

We ordered from the dim sum menu, which I'm sure if you compared it to other menus, represented value for money. We ordered a whole table worth of dim sum! Not only was the food brought swiftly, but the food itself was delicious.

I must admit, however, that the beverages on offer may seem a little pricey, which does require some attention from the management. Nevertheless, for fear that I might sound like a broken record player, I cannot emphasise further the high-quality of food on offer here.

As for the environment and atmosphere, there is a quiet yet sophisticated ambience here. Expecting the restaurant to be rowdy and rambunctious during the lunch period, as is the case with many Chinese restaurants, I was a delightful change to be able to enjoy our meal in a quiet environment. The aesthetically pleasing lighting designs, combined with the traditional motifs certainly added to the pleasant atmosphere.

I'd just like to conclude on a positive note, I do hope that in future, the restaurant would take into consideration the comments made, as I'm sure that in some cases, the service may seem indifferent. Nonetheless, as the food here is, for lack of a better word, 'special', commendations to the chef, and I would certainly recommend this restaurant to all prospective diners.
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Tony
9 Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 8 | Atmosphere 9 | Value for money 8
Wednesday, January 05, 2011

My friends and I visited this restaurant this week hoping for an enjoyable meal in a warm and relaxing environment. What we experienced was the total opposite as evidenced by the majority of reviewers of this restaurant.

We entered a virtually empty restaurant and were seated by the head waitress who was not welcoming (to be honest she was totally miserable). Not a great start ….we thought that this might just be a blip and the service provided by the rest of the staff would be much better. Our optimism was short lived - the head waitress definitely set the benchmark for all the other waitresses on how to treat customers….with total indifference!

We ordered our mixed platter starter for 3 and whilst we waited we had an army of expressionless waitresses starring at us whilst we chatted. The starter arrived but only for 2 people. We waited 20 minutes before the rest arrived – during this time we asked twice very politely about its whereabouts and the response each time was “its coming” (which was said without any embarrassment for their error!). To make things worse, the waitress tried to take away our plates just as the last starter arrived; we had only stopped eating to talk (we still had our cutlery in our hands) and she took this as a sign to remove our plates instead of asking us first if we had finished.

When it came to setting plates for our main course, the waitress set the plates from one side of the table for all three of us. There was plenty of room for her to move around the table. The same thing happened when food was served to us.

We continued to have disembodied hands appearing across our table during the main course and therefore decided to arm ourselves with our forks to scare away the hands as we wanted to hang onto the food - despite the terrible service the food was good (but expensive – also please don’t order the bottled water, it’s outrageously expensive).

On finishing our main course, a waitress asked if we wanted anything else and we said that we would like to wait a few minutes. Instead of bringing us a menu, the bill was presented! Different waitresses kept walking past to see if we had paid the bill and then eventually one of them came to the table and opened the bill to see if we had paid. On realising that we hadn’t paid the bill, she walked away. At this point, we opened the bill and saw that the10% discount had not been applied – this was rectified straight away without us asking directly as they had overheard us….quite easy when you are constantly surrounded by waitresses!

We paid and left to have coffees where the atmosphere was welcoming and relaxing. We just couldn’t believe our experience at China City - some aspects were just comical and demonstrate unsophistication at its best!
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Arti - View all reviews by this user
2 Overall rating
Food 7 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 0 | Value for money 0
Monday, August 16, 2010

Please don't go here! This is a tourist trap. You have to be a foreigner to not know that this place is rubbish!

The waitresses are miserable. The place is brought down by the 2 in particular, who do not want to be there! The food is below average and portions are very small.

They just don't seem to want anyone eating there. The owner needs to step up and get rid of the main waitresses who hate their guests for no reason. I've been here twice now for lunch and dinner as I work in the square. There are way too many clauses, such as; minimum spend, tap water charge. The toilets were the only good thing about this place.

With 5 of us, we ordered a lot of dimsum, and they were serving them 1 at a time, and waiting for us to finish each plate before serving the next! I had to say something!

By the 2 main unhappy waitresses were just ridiculously rude and did not want to be working there!

We were always polite and smiling..... they were horrible.
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Jason Luu
1 Overall rating
Food 2 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 1 | Value for money 1
Thursday, July 22, 2010