Buttumak The Lid — Restaurant in District of Canberra Central

Extremely substandard experience. Went with a decent sized group, unfortunately not a single one of us had a good time. The place is just very unprofessionally run. The menus are just A4 pieces of paper printed from a home printer, and were crumpled and stained when they were presented to us. This is not a huge deal, and could easily be overlooked, except that it was an omen for what was to come. The restaurant had run out of so many of the items on the menu (both teas and food items), indicating a real problem with stocking and managing inventory. Matcha was one of the sold out items - surely a place specialising in Asian tea should never run out of matcha? Some of the sold out items they knew and advised us straight away, but others the waiter did not know they couldn't provide until later. This resulted in a very confused ordering experience as people ordered dishes and ~10-15 minutes later got advised that the restaurant had run out. Five of the dishes we ordered were forgotten and we had to remind them twice. Dishes came out in dribs and drabs, resulting in some of our group having finished their entire meal while others had received no food at all and were still waiting. Food was very average. Scallop dumplings had no appreciable scallop meat in them. We had to keep asking for sauces as apparently they are not brought out as standard with the dumpling dishes? The teas were expensive for what they were. At the end we were overcharged because the menu had different prices to what was programmed into the till, and the guy behind the counter didn't know how to do a refund. He also didn't know how to open the till. He had to phone his boss twice. I don't blame him - he was very polite and doing his best, but obviously had not been adequately trained to be left as front of house on his own. Management of this place needs to lift their game pronto. Would...

This is a nice place for a casual bite to eat. The pink-black fried chicken was tasty and came with a good amount of food.

I would give the following constructive feedback that I think can turn this place from a 4 star into a 5 star experience:

The restaurant is too hot inside, it really needs to invest in air conditioning or at least some fans. A large table of 8 people walked out without ordering anything because of the heat, and given how quite the place was this can't have helped the place very much.

Some of the side dishes with the chicken were a bit eclectic... a solitary brioche bun and aussie Cafe style chips. I think more inventive options could be paired here that might pair better with the Korean style chicken.

Finally, the place had an odd atmosphere. The music was on loud for some parts of our visit, and other parts it was very quiet and other parts it was off completely. Add in the bright lights and the tea shop decorations it just felt very strange for a place that advertises itself as a tapas bar.

On that, it's drinks selection is very limited for a 'bar'. I think some investment in more options beyond just soju would be great, perhaps invest in some equipment for a cocktail menu etc. Canberra is booming right now and with a bit of extra attention this place has a lot of potential.

I share this feedback not to say I didn't enjoy my time, but just in the hopes things can become even better.

The food was quite nice and the service was friendly, but with some further improvements this place can become a regular destination.

I wish the owners...

Thought this place was the usual bubble tea place until I realised there were diners. This place offers a few main dishes characteristic of the Yunnan province in China. Their signature dish is the rice noodle in chicken soup.

The owner stressed they don't use MSG in the restaurant, which is always a plus. The soup and the noodles were good, though I was expecting a bit more accompaniment for the price. There was however enough noodles to feed two people (or one and a half) - so perhaps it could be chicken noodle soup as a light meal for two?

The owner was present and she was very attentive and gave some samples of oolong teas she was brewing. The other wait staff were a bit laissez-faire, there were a couple of times when the owner was busy dealing with something, and these staff saw I was trying to get their attention, looked to their busy boss, and then just walked off into...