Sunday 21 February 2010

Report on Chopsticks at Kingston from a Commenter

I received an email from one of my Anon commenters the other day, asking if I would post his review of Chopsticks in Kingston. I have never entered this restaurant or eaten their food, so can't either comment or make a judgement, but am happy to host a discussion about whether people agree or not, so here is the body of what he had to say:

The reason I am writing to you is to decribe a situation I was in the other night... Chopsticks Chinese Restaurant in Kingston. I have eaten takeaway's from there once, and almost twice...

Wedenesday evening I ring up and phone order some takeaway on my way home from work...My description of the food will make you wonder why, but I was desperate for food and too tired to cook! All was good... I order my 2 takeaways along with a container of rice. 'Thats fine, pick up in 10 minutes' came the response... So I turn up and then staff member on counter then tells me that they don't have any rice, so they did not bother to cook any of my order for me....Huh?

We are talking about a 100% empty chinese restaurant here. The chinese restaurant with no rice is like the pub with no beer! So I just walked out. I was extremely angry. Later on that evening I had a thought that they may have been lying to me about the rice... So I rang up."Hi. Do you sell rice?" "Yes of course" "So you have rice at the moment?" "Yes" "So earlier when you told me you didn't have any rice, you were lying?" "No. The chef couldn't cook any." (I then hung up).

So a Chinese Chef who cant cook rice in an empty restaurant... interesting. The alleged ‘cuisine’ at this place is cleverly made to replicate eating liquid cement. Incredibly heavy on oils and fats and grease at every opportunity ... and added MSG, to make the glunky congealed mass sit in a solid blob in the stomach for several hours, creating heartburn, indigestion, high blood pressure and constipation.

The advantage of Chinese cooking (to the owner) is the liquid cement that was not eaten last night, or at lunch is cheerfully served for dinner or even tomorrow or the next day…or even next week as patrons generally can't see what is in it anyway, within the brown mess that it’s often is served as.

This restaurant used to have high quality food. These McDonalds has higher quality produce.

Sorry to send such a long email, however I think it is important to inform people who support this business as the standards have dropped to almost 0%. If you could publish what I have written onto your blog site, that would be great!
Posted on by Rita
13 comments

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

I am definetley in agreeance here.

My experience here generally consisted of wait staff with broken English, a Chef who can't cook and probably one of the worst meals I have ever eaten.

The Takeaways come in little plastic containers and the cheapest meal in a tiny container is something stupid like $15. So ends up being very expensive.

Doms Asian Teahouse in Blackmans Bay is the go!!!

kitty said...

Hi Rita, lovely Sunday morning recovering; reading the paper and catching up on your blog. Nellie says you have started you new job - hope it's all good. This morning GP commented about the Grand Chancellor - and about a new chef soon. When we had dinner at the Northern Club two weeks ago, (and a fab meal it was) the young chef came out to chat and said he was moving to the Grand Chancellor. Hope he brings the Northern menu with him- he really knows how to cook meat. PS I get my weekly Japanese fix at Chado now - hope they open in the evenings soon.
cheers
Kitty

Rita said...

Hi Kitty - lovely to see you commenting here again. Can't we persuade you to resume your blogging? I miss your commentaries SO much. I know Steve agrees with me too.
Are you hung over from last night? I heard the food was the usual excellent quality we have come to expect from Karen, with the flathead gougons coming in as most popular.
Northern is fabulous isn't it? Glad you and (I assume) Mr Bok ate well there, and also at Chado.
Yes, job is great. I'm really enjoying it. It's a temp contract for 12 months, so that can be either good or bad, depending on your perspective. I'm happy with that. How's the TM going? Are you using it as much as Nellie?
Speaking with your m-i-l the other day, I promised her if she had a demo, I'd buy myself one at her demo. That was a genuine offer.
Hope I see you some time to chat in person.

sir grumpy said...

What's going on with Chopsticks?
It used to be fine. Has the owner/chef retired?
The language barrier is tough too.
We need another Chinese place at Kingston.
Dom's is the go, indeed. Hmm, beef rendang tonight?

Anonymous said...

Sir Grumpy
Yes they used to have incredibly delicious foods, all nice.

Anonymous said...

Had a terrible experience with food here a few months ago.

So not only is everything overpriced, the food isn't even chinese cuisine, it's just deep fried stodgy low quality chicken and beef meals served in pathetic little containers.

Even if you order your meals in broken English the language barrier is still huge.

I laughed and cringed when I read the bit "glunky congealed mass sit in a solid blob in the stomach for several hours, creating heartburn, indigestion, high blood pressure and constipation." LOL that is so true and very funny at the same time.

Maybe if Chopsticks employed a Chef who can actually cook, then the food would be ok at least?

The other Chinese place that used to be in Kingston but shut down was better than this place!

Better off going into town to find somewhere nice I reckon.

hrv said...

Me Wah!

Anonymous said...

Constipation, LOL

sir grumpy said...

I just wonder if the original owner has retired because it was timely.
The redevelopment of central Kingston goes on apace. The servo next door to Chopsticks no longer sells fuel but is run as a skeletal operation as a mechanics' shop.
Maybe Choppies got an offer. I believe the building is freehold, so would be worth a penny or two on the fringe of Kingston's mass change!

Anonymous said...

I worked as a waitress at Chopsticks. The owner/chef has not changed. The food is as fresh as you can get and they don't "recycle" food. The kitchen is incredibly clean and I would not hesitate to take my family there. Of course take away food comes in plastic containers (did you want them to give you proper crockery!). I have never had probs with language. Staff speak fluent English. Odd reviews!

Anonymous said...

Yes I'm not sure what was wrong with the place back in February, but we moved to Kingston in Sep 2010 and got some takeaway from Chopsticks while we were unpacking. No complaints at all, the portions were a reasonable size, didn't have that over-MSG-ed taste (although I think there may have been some) and seemed quite fresh and good. In fact we're going to get takeaway from there tonight! I stumbled across this review while in (sadly vain) search of a menu so we could ring ahead.

Anonymous said...

I also used to work as a waitress here. The food was fantastic and had no MSG added contrary to some of the claims in the comments. The kitchen was the cleanest I have ever worked in. Wait staff all spoke fluent english. I can't help wondering if someone has this place confused with somewhere else?

sir grumpy said...

We find it quite expensive, with some mains prices up there with Me Wah.
And we find the grub sugary sweet, unlike in the days when Harry Chung was at the helm

A little trip down to China Cafe at Huonville for lunch or to one of Sandy Bay's Asian places is now the go for us when we crave Chinese.