H A P I — Restaurant in New South Wales

I want to be generous, because on one hand, this place is clearly staffed by stressed out teenagers who have done a decent job at running a busy restaurant but: 1) Poor service - huge wait times for each dish to come out, some came cold (like shoestring chips) and some forgotten completely (tea was served first and the other guest’s drink served 2 hours later), no cutlery. All of this can somewhat have a blind eye turned to (I ain’t no Karen), because again the staff seem very young and they are polite and it was busy, but what is unforgivable is 2) everything kind of sucked. We are from Sydney. I am confused by these reviews. I need the people of Albury to take a long hard look at themselves and that they think “Asian” food should taste like. Someone has even reviewed here that for non Asians cooking Asian food they have done well…I am here to tell you every item here tastes like a Caucasian person read the back of Kantong jar of packaged curry and put all the ingredients together in a way that looks like the food but without any passion, knowledge of ingredients or technique. Even the miso soup did not taste like miso soup (?? How can you screw up miso soup) but as if a teenager googled the ingredients for miso soup and kind of put them together. Everyone eating here was white, which may explain the otherwise inexplicable praise for this food. This is just to warn anyone that is maybe not from Albury or that has ever actually had Asian cuisine in their life that the flavour is...

Been to Hapi three times and it’s great as always! Pork belly bao, tempura vegetables and soba noodles is what I order every time.

However my fourth visit isn’t as enjoyable as the last one. I brought a friend from Melbourne over so he can try the food but we waited 40 minutes for nothing. I looked around and it’s not busy, all other tables got their food except us. Told the waitress what happened and apparently, they lost the docket. We can’t wait any longer and we’re hungry and upset (ended up getting Maccas instead) so we just left. The manager is really sorry about it and gave us a refund.

The food here is delicious so I’m gonna let this one pass but please next time, be aware of your tables. If the staff knew what’s happening on each table (who’s waiting for food, which table’s order is complete etc.) then there’s gonna be no docket missing and we’ll be happy with hapi.

Still gonna come back but hopefully next time would be a much better experience than this...

Firstly, I have to say how outstanding the staff are at this place. They may be young but we visited during an extremely busy period on Jan 2nd and they never skipped a beat. Whoever the owner is should give them a bonus, as they are worth their weight in gold and are a real asset to your business!

The ambiance of HAPI is urban chic with just the right amount of grunge to make it the hippest eatery in Albury.

The food is honest, tasty and more akin to Tapas style in portion sizes, so make sure you order more than a few dishes to share, especially if you are hungry. They have an outstanding range of craft beers and frozen cocktails and I highly recommend this venue as a must visit if you want an eatery that is something unique in Albury.

I didn't give HAPI 5 stars as I feel the food menu is a bit limited, but hopefully they will bring on more dishes as they develop the business.

P.S Owner, pay those bonuses now, your staff...