Gold Leaf — Restaurant in Melbourne

I would've given ZERO (0) stars if that was an option for this Yum Cha restaurant. While the food is somewhat decent, it’s far from exceptional compared to other spots in Melbourne's Southeast region. I paid over $150 for a group of four and was rushed to finish in less than 45 minutes, with little to no respect shown. The overall attitude and behaviour of the staff made it clear that they don’t care about customer experience because they reckon, they have enough patrons that they can just afford to lose a few. As one of those "some customers" they don't care about losing, I'm here to share my disappointment after returning for the first time in over half a year with friends who came overseas for visits.

I. Poor Management and Unfriendly Behaviour==== Even at opening, there was no queue management, allowing dishonest people to cut in line without intervention from staff or management. This shows a lack of basic customer service and respect, discouraging honest customers who follow the rules. Staff, including managers (in Black/Blue shirts) and those juniors not serving carts (in Red Uniform), display aggressive behaviour, pressuring customers in various ways: (a) Plates are cleared within moments of finishing without asking if you’re done, including sauces you might still need. (b) The relentless pestering of "are you done" starts almost as soon as your plates are cleared, often before you’ve even had a chance to enjoy your petite cup of tea, making it impossible to relax and enjoy your meal in this restaurant. Bearing in mind, you pay for the tea as they charge $3 per person for the tea, as compared to some of the others who charged $2 pp or basically $4 for the entire pot.

II. Unethical Pricing Practices==== As of time of writing this comment, no clear pricelists, menus or brochures are available at all at this restaurant and I bet this has been the practice ever since the establishment of this restaurant years ago without people questioning. When I asked for one, the manager (D Lin) fumbled to find such basic information, where he had to consult from his private WeChat and reluctantly threw the prices at me verbally. He also further refused my request to take a photo on just the pricelist, with a disdainful attitude towards me. The pricing structure is beyond unreasonable compared to other Yum Cha restaurants, with a heavy push towards higher-priced plates (e.g., "Super Plate" at $14 and "Special Plate" at $16) dominating the carts and cheaper options being few and far between, all while prices remain unreasonably high for what’s on offer. That was often accompanied by guidance on what's lucrative (for the restaurant itself), rather than tips on what’s best (for customers).

If you want to enjoy an easy meal with possibly light chat with friends, or even as little as your fundamental respect as a customer for the amount of money you have saved for a quality lunch, you ought to steer clear of...

edit: reducing all stars to 1 because actually I was too nice originally. Food - varies largely. Vegetarian fried rice is really good - a nice mix of textures and packed full of savoury flavour. The pork dish (some kind of rou pai) was nice - a sweet vinegary flavour which is not usually to my taste but they did well. The eggplant/pork mince dish was alright, but I wasn't a huge fan...... Personally I found the dishes all to be a little overly salty and too oily however this is very subjective. (+3 stars)

The satay beef stir fried rice noodles were terrible (see picture). It smelled burnt just from the steam. The burnt flavour could be tasted in the noodles, vegetables/meat and the cornflour sludge. I've had satay beef stir fried rice noodles in various place around Melbourne (and recently in Guangzhou and Hong Kong) and I have never seen it look so sludgey. On my opinion it clearly was not made properly. (We cancelled this dish and ordered the fried rice instead) (-1 star)

Service - the waiters were prompt for the most part and decent. There was a mistake with the receipt where they charged us for the cancelled dish as well as the replacement, however the staff were prompt in resolving this once pointed out. (+1 star)

However... When we asked the waiter about the burnt tasting noodles, he called the manager over. The manager, in an incredibly condescending tone of voice told us that we might not know, but stir fry is meant to be a little burnt tasting due to the way it is cooked in a wok (as the flame can flare up around the sides when using a wok) (rough translation as he and my parents were speaking in Mandarin Chinese, and my Chinese is not very good). He relented and allowed us to cancel the dish, but told us that he would not bring a replacement and that we should pick a different dish as we did not know what stir fry should taste like. (-1 star)

Value for money - the dishes are expensive, however they also provide a large quantity of food. As we do not have big appetites, we had a fair amount of leftovers from the three dishes we ordered. I personally felt the quality of the food was mediocre for the most part. (±0 stars)

Overall, I give Gold Leaf a 2/5.

Would I return? Personally...

TLDR; came during lunch service on Good Friday. Ordered something that never came, went to pay for our table and told the staff that the item didn't come, was told it sold out a while ago even though we asked 3 staff members whether it was still coming or not and they said it was on its way (even minutes before we got up to leave).

Customer Service is the key to a successful business. You can have good food but if customer service doesn't exist, the likely hood of a customer returning is extremely unlikely.

We finished eating lunch and were ready for dessert. After ordering a serving of egg tarts from a waiter, because we couldn't see the dessert cart, he said he would go into the kitchen to put through the order.

5 minutes passed and we asked if it was still coming and he said yes its on its way.

10 minutes passed and we asked another waiter if our order had been forgotten, she said that if we've already spoken to another waiter than it should be taken of.

20 minutes passed since we ordered and we asked the manager what was happening with our order. She said she would check on it and went in the complete opposite direction of the kitchen.

After 30 minutes, my partner and i gave up and went to pay for our table. When we spoke to the staff member behind the register about not getting the egg tarts, she told us very blatantly that the egg tarts sold out a while ago. I asked her if it was sold out and we spoke to so many staff members including the manager, why weren't we informed about it. Very upsetting that we had to sit there for over 30 minutes for nothing.

When i spoke to the same manager about it after i requested to speak to her, she just said sorry and then started to talking to the staff in Vietnamese and asking why we weren't told and just ignoring the fact that we were standing right there. Sorry does not make up for 30 minutes of my time.

It's so frustrating to see a sea of staff members walking around like deer in headlights or headless chickens when they should be working together and communicating with each other to create a positive and...