Modern Hotel — Hotel in Harbin

Same address as Hotel Modern. We checked through TA and couldn't find any reviews. We couldn't start a new listing because the page was "on holiday" as per TA, thus we decided to type our comments here since hotel and restaurant are linked.||We walked past Modern Coffee & Restaurant (马迭尔冷饮厅）a few times before deciding to dine there tonight (12 May 2017). ||From 2002 till now, we have never tried western food whenever we travelled to China. There weren't many western food restaurants to begin with. ||We were attracted to the nightly live performance at Modern's premises and also the lavishly decorated interior. Note that the performer faced us (the passersby) and that was WHY we were captivated by the performance. ||Stay away from this restaurant at all cost!!! For the past 8 years (I think) I've been reviewing, never once have I given any merchant one circle rating (if memory did not fail me).||Note we are NOT comparing Modern's food and service with those at Morton's (Mandarin Oriental Hotel Singapore) Singapore.||Positive points ||1. The interior decor was nice by China standard.|2. Conveniently-located.|3. The medium-rare Sirloin Steak was not bad. |4. Russian Borsch passed.|5. Russian Salad passed.||Negative points ||1. My partner's Rib-eye was very tough ||2. Pumpkin soup had too much "milk" or "cream" in it||3. When we arrived at the restaurant at 8.10pm, we asked the waitress when the last order would be and she said 9.30pm. At about 10 mins to 9pm, when my partner finished the beer, waiter came twice (not once) to chase us to pay up. Literally driving us away when we finished our food and drink.||4. When taking order, waiter did not ask if we had wanted our beef steak medium rare or well done.||5. This is a high end restaurant, waiter also did not ask who was taking which soup or dish.||6. Soup did not come with bread and we had to order.||7. Before we could finish our salad, soup came; even before we could finish soup, our beef steaks came. We felt we were going through a food relay.|8. What kind of live music when the performer's back faced us perpetually? Was the employed musician of the restaurant more interested in entertaining its customers or advertising for the restaurant to passersby. |9. Besides being rushed to finish our meal, we were rushed to pay our bill. Best part came, a meal that was closed to RMB 400 (note that our delicious lunch today was only RMB 76 and it was not only more delicious but also cheaper than Modern, one meal at Modern equals to 5 meals at Mao Mao毛毛熏肉大饼. Even our meal at the well-known chain, Oriental Dumpling 东方饺子王was only RMB 130) and we had to walk to the cashier to pay our bill. Huh? Bill was not even brought to our table for payment.|10. At the cashier, no sweets. Even a low-end restaurant popular amongst the locals (Mao Mao) had a bowl of sweets.|11. On our way out, no one thanked us. ||We had originally wanted to remember Harbin fondly with a good meal here and in the end felt ripped off and pissed off after eating...

Same address as Hotel Modern. We checked through TA and couldn't find any reviews. We couldn't start a new listing because the page was "on holiday" as per TA, thus we decided to type our comments here since hotel and restaurant are linked.||We walked past Modern Coffee & Restaurant (马迭尔冷饮厅）a few times before deciding to dine there tonight (12 May 2017). ||From 2002 till now, we have never tried western food whenever we travelled to China. There weren't many western food restaurants to begin with. ||We were attracted to the nightly live performance at Modern's premises and also the lavishly decorated interior. Note that the performer faced us (the passersby) and that was WHY we were captivated by the performance. ||Stay away from this restaurant at all cost!!! For the past 8 years (I think) I've been reviewing, never once have I given any merchant one circle rating (if memory did not fail me).||Note we are NOT comparing Modern's food and service with those at Morton's (Mandarin Oriental Hotel Singapore) Singapore.||Positive points ||1. The interior decor was nice by China standard.|2. Conveniently-located.|3. The medium-rare Sirloin Steak was not bad. |4. Russian Borsch passed.|5. Russian Salad passed.||Negative points ||1. My partner's Rib-eye was very tough ||2. Pumpkin soup had too much "milk" or "cream" in it||3. When we arrived at the restaurant at 8.10pm, we asked the waitress when the last order would be and she said 9.30pm. At about 10 mins to 9pm, when my partner finished the beer, waiter came twice (not once) to chase us to pay up. Literally driving us away when we finished our food and drink.||4. When taking order, waiter did not ask if we had wanted our beef steak medium rare or well done.||5. This is a high end restaurant, waiter also did not ask who was taking which soup or dish.||6. Soup did not come with bread and we had to order.||7. Before we could finish our salad, soup came; even before we could finish soup, our beef steaks came. We felt we were going through a food relay.|8. What kind of live music when the performer's back faced us perpetually? Was the employed musician of the restaurant more interested in entertaining its customers or advertising for the restaurant to passersby. |9. Besides being rushed to finish our meal, we were rushed to pay our bill. Best part came, a meal that was closed to RMB 400 (note that our delicious lunch today was only RMB 76 and it was not only more delicious but also cheaper than Modern, one meal at Modern equals to 5 meals at Mao Mao毛毛熏肉大饼. Even our meal at the well-known chain, Oriental Dumpling 东方饺子王was only RMB 130) and we had to walk to the cashier to pay our bill. Huh? Bill was not even brought to our table for payment.|10. At the cashier, no sweets. Even a low-end restaurant popular amongst the locals (Mao Mao) had a bowl of sweets.|11. On our way out, no one thanked us. ||We had originally wanted to remember Harbin fondly with a good meal here and in the end felt ripped off and pissed off after eating...

I was in a conference in Dalian, China and wanted to visit Harbin for the weekend. I stayed in this Harbin hotel for one night. Before rating the hotel proper I want to warn tourists about the restaurant in this hotel. I ate seafood in its restaurant the night of my stay. Midnite I woke up with diarrhea and vomiting. This went on till morning when I checked myself for emergency in the Harbin Medical School Hospital where I was given intravenous treatment. I was so weakened I could not stay in the conference after I took the bullet train back to Dalian. About the Modern Hotel it is like I was in China in the 90s. Chinese tourist industry between the 90s and 2015 was like night and day. Out of the original hotel building the current hotel occupies a section at the end. That means it was either a storage place or servants quarters, with facility to match. I am a sucker for history. I should have checked with Tripadvisor first instead of listening to a cab driver. There are many similarly priced hotels within walking distance to the pedestrian Zhongyang Main Street....