Kwan Ho Restaurant — Restaurant in Hobart

We booked this restaurant expecting a similar experience to Me Wah, the other major Chinese restaurant in Sandy Bay. To be met on arrival to be told that the restaurant was full, despite having booked 8 days in advance, was not a good start. We were then consigned to a bleak, viewless alcove off to the side of the restaurant near the entrance, containing three or four old veneered square pedestal tables, from where it was very difficult to contact waiting staff as required, if they could have heard over the rattle of food trolleys going back and forth past the alcove. We weren't initially given quite enough time to make our choices, but then it took about 30 minutes for wait staff to re-appear to take our order. The drink waiter took our pre-dinner drinks order, which was promptly served and of good quality. It took 30 minutes or so before our entrees appeared - incomplete - as I'd ordered a serve of Szechuan Hot & Sour soup to appear with them. The cold "jellyfish salad" was very tasty. The mushroom/truffle dumplings fell apart so badly they could not be picked up with chopsticks, but they did have a nice taste. We finished our entrees and waited... and waited... Finally, over 2 hours after we had arrived, the main courses arrived, along with my soup. The front-of-house lady apologized profusely about the soup, saying they would not charge for it. Just as well. It was very underwhelming, with zero taste, zero umame, zero silkiness - the very things one enjoys in this dish. Yes, it was hot, but that was about all. My wife's Aberdeen King Prawns were delicious and my salted Calamari was good, but the chunks it was served in were too large, and having some pieces which were luke-warm mixed with others straight out of the deep fryer was a trap for the unwary, a burnt mouth the result. The vegetarian fried (or was it microwaved?) rice was poor, gluggy and with what seemed to be frozen corn, peas and carrots. Throughout, wait staff removed dishes and even the place mats at inappropriate times. They need to be told - clear the table when both guests have finished! The service throughout the meal had been patchy, to say the least, and regrettably poor English skills caused problems of service, even though I feel that we were very clear in our requests. We commend the wine waiter for his excellent timing in our wine service, though! As I paid the bill, the front-of-house lady apologized for our overall experience, complaining about lack of staff, and other issues we didn't need to hear about. Sorry, but it was Valentine's Day - you should have anticipated the need to employ more staff. The restaurant matches Me Wah in pricing, but nothing else. We definitely will...

I had moderate expectations of Kwan Ho going by some of the other reviews. However, I think the restaurant may be a little underrated. Our party of five agreed that this is a pretty impressive Chinese restaurant. It ticks a lot of boxes. The set out and decor is pleasant. Service from a number of servers tonight was quick, attentive and polite as well.

We had a good range of dishes for entree and main. Every one of them had their virtues and there wasn’t one we felt was lacking. It was a good sample. Oysters, scallops, spring rolls, beef, pork belly, crispy skin chicken, fish, seasonal vegetables and fried rice were among the dishes we tried. They were all mighty tasty. The ingredients were fresh and good quality. The cooking and presentation were very good. The wine list was good. Overall cost was modest we thought for the quality of the meal.

All in all a good experience. Kwan Ho is...

The food here is very good and the view outside is lovely. It is a very nicely situated restaurant. The vegetarian spring rolls were excellent and different to normal as stuffed with mushrooms and the sauce also was different and very yummy. We had for the main pink ling fish steamed with tomato and something else. I think this was the best dish the fish was beautifully cooked with a lovely flavour. We also had eye fillet wok tossed with black bean and tomato paste and vegetable fried rice. All the food was excellent and for a special night out eating Chinese this is a good restaurant. The only thing that was negative was that the staff did not smile or seem happy. Their service was good but not happy. So I have given four stars not...