Good Fortune Roast Duck House - Northbridge — Restaurant in Perth

I rarely rated a single star for anything as I am a strong believer a poor experience could be a one off and most of the time, it’s due to special circumstance. This rating, however, is one that I need to voice across with added conviction.

I arrived at lunch time with my wife, my father-in-law, and my 14 months old baby. We ordered our usual menu. That usual menu was what’s shown on the bill photo - which included rice for 3. The order was repeated and confirmed by the pink waitress “RICE FOR THREE”. The food came, true to our order, and we had an enjoyable family meal. We couldn’t finish devouring the food so asked for take-away containers and I went to pay at the counter while my father-in-law was packing the food away.

I walked to the counter with the original chinese-worded bill (placed on the table upon finished ordering). The counter lady (pink shirt) did her thing and showed me the final bill, which had an additional steam rice ($2). We queried what’s that for as we ordered rice for 3. The counter lady proceeded to tell us that’s because there were 4 of us. We argued our order was “RICE FOR 3” and perplexed how a 14 months old toddler was counted as an additional ‘head’. She kept on insisting the rice is charged based on the head count, including my baby.

The funny thing is:

1. Baby was counted while the airline doesn’t even charge for infant under 2.
2. We ordered and got the confirmation “RICE FOR THREE” not four - which means we only received rice for three people.
3. Additional ‘Steam Rice/Head’ was added at the end after the take-away container charge after we had finished our meal. How could we order extra rice?
4. To clarify, we did not ask any rice refill (which we just knew then there was apparently free refill?!). We order “RICE FOR THREE”, and got a one-time “RICE FOR THREE”.

Further argumentations from my wife and I resulted in the pink counter lady finally deducting the extra rice - with a ‘special’ condition attached. We absurbly “MUST NOT TAKE AWAY ANY RICE”. We paid for “RICE FOR THREE”, did not ask for any additional rice and yet we could not bring home what we paid for.

However, my wife and I, tired from dealing with this non-sense, agreed with the amended bill by removing the little rice for take-away, and made the payment.

Then things had gotten really out of hand. The pink shirt lady who took my order (also confirmed “RICE FOR THREE”) went to my father-in-law whom was alone with my 14 months baby, just finished packing the food, and bagged them. She then had the audacity to grab them by force, untied the bag, and opened the containers. She request my dad to remove the rice from ‘take away’. My father-in-law was puzzled as he knew little English and what had unfolded. We were still finalising the payment, but she had already went to them.

My wife and I were furious and rushed back to the table. We immediately removed what were only a max of 5 table spoons of rice, and demanded they witnessed the rice removed. Felt absolutely offended, we asked for more staff to watch there was not a single speck of rice in the container. At this stage, our emotions ran high, and we were furious, feeling insulted.

Thankfully, the blue shirt man came us. He tried to calm us down, explaining that they made a mistake by charging us the extra rice for the baby, and apologised on behalf of the restaurant. We accepted his apology and immediately walked out - with our riceless take-away food.

This was not the first overcharging incident we experienced with this good fortune restaurant. Previously, we were charged extra for a lemon tea drink, a bottle water or hot water in other 3 separate lunches, which we successfully challenged. We suspected this was not a simple ‘mistake’ and was not an isolated incident.

Good fortune northbridge was our go-to list for our family lunch. We liked the taste of the food, consistency, and family friendliness.

With sadness, we decided to never return due to these incidents and experienced what was an abhorrent attitude and behaviour of...

We went to Good Fortune Duck restaurant for a casual Sunday BBQ lunch; we have often enjoyed Fortune Five Chinese Restaurant's Yum-Cha and had assumed they maybe part of the same group. Unfortunately we left not wanting to go back. Always a bad sign when they ask us if we want cutlery or chopsticks, something Fortune Five has never done.

First of all the good parts. The restaurant has been done simply with the typical Chinese tables and chairs (that you find in the traditional parts of Beijing). You could call it an eating house, simple food, BBQ, rice and noodles. Our table service was simple and efficient. Good crunch on the roast pork (belly).

Parts to improve upon Beware ordering, we ordered gailan with garlic (suggested by the server). The portion was larger than you would receive for a banquet of 10, we were 2. I asked why such a big portion and her reply was, 'you take away'. The Sang choi bow, was oily and very, very chunky. This is a great dish to use up left overs from roast duck. The Special fried rice was really very flat, poor taste and not special by any means. This can be a great dish in so many restaurants and we have enjoyed it in many Asian countries. Very, very bland. Stick to steamed rice. The mixed BBQ platter. Roast pork, good crunch, then was very fatty, and very mild flavour. The roast pork coming past us also looked burnt (which happens), maybe their BBQ chef was on holiday? Burnt outside and not fully rendered fat suggests a few corners have been cut... The roast duck, also fatty (fat had not fully rendered) and was quite tough. I am spoilt, having lived in Beijing (the ducks are cooked over apple wood and are simply wonderful, especially in the small back streets) and Hong Kong - my expectation was not high, however I would not order duck again if it was like this. Most disappointing was the Char sui, simply tasted like they had bought a bottle of paste and coloured some pork. No texture, no depth of any flavour to it. Char sui at Fortune Five is a totally different and far, far, far better. The overall impression of their BBQ is that they don't take the time to do it properly (the fats hadn't rendered), their marinades and seasonings are lacking in the traditional flavours - maybe they were short staffed or something else.

Never nice when the waiters order HUGE portions (great for their earning perhaps?) and that would have not mattered if the rest of the meal was good. They do seem to do a steady line of BBQ takeaway, so am not sure we received the left overs or what, however it was really not a good example of Chinese BBQ; and a restaurant I will never take my Chinese friends, from either Beijing, Shenzhen or Hong Kong to.

You don't need happy staff to run a profitable restaurant, however it does help. The staff looked really unhappy, there was not a smile from anyone; sadly including ourselves when we left.

We thought we had ordered a simple meal to see if we would come back again (or to bring friends); unfortunately it fell 'flat' in...

AVOID THIS RESTAURANT if you’re a family with young children!

I chose this restaurant because it had good ratings and fell into the family friendly segment, but it isn’t family friendly at all based on what I experienced.

I dined with my young children and as the meals came one of them asked for water. Naturally you’d expect water to be served as part of the service. But, when I asked, the waitress I was advised that water wasn’t served and more so any food brought in from outside wasn’t allowed. So not only was there no water but I could not supplement with my own.

At this point my youngest child was crying and asking for water. I requested again, the waitress said I had two options: serve my child hot water, or purchase bottled water from their fridge

When I told her I only wanted tap water she told me they don’t have cups or a tap. When I pointed to the trays of cups and asked for them to fill the cup with tap water she continued to insist it couldn’t be done. By this time my child was crying hysterically. I couldn’t help but think how heartless the people were at this restaurant.

When I saw the tap near the reception area and insisted she fill the cup with the tap water the manager came over to instruct the waitress to do so. It was more that my child’s was crying so loud everyone in the restaurant had turned their attention my way that the manager allowed water to be served.

I can’t help but be highly cynical of this restaurant whose policy of not serving table water is nothing more than to squeeze a little more money from patrons - especially ones with families who have young children who have very little options in this instance. And to be so cruel to suggest my daughter be served hot water really left me no option but be critical of this restaurant and ASK FUTURE DINERS TO AVOID until the restaurant changes its cruel policy of not serving water even...