CHU Restaurant by China Doll, West HQ — Restaurant in Sydney

Extremely Disappointing Mother's Day Lunch – Poor Service, Disorganisation, and Overcharging.

We dined at Chu Restaurant on Sunday, 11th May at 1:00 PM for a special Mother’s Day lunch. At approximately 8:00 PM the evening prior, I contacted the restaurant and spoke with Sharika to reconfirm the number of guests attending. The week prior, I had been in contact with Sharika to confirm the vegetarian menu, as it wasn’t available online.

On the day of the event, while my family arrived on time and conveyed our order to the staff, I arrived shortly thereafter. Unfortunately, upon my arrival, I was immediately met with a condescending tone from Sharika, who sarcastically referenced our prior phone call regarding the name under which the booking was made. She offered to seat me at the head of the table and said she would bring a chair for my partner, which she did; however, she then left and failed to provide a place setting. For the next 90 minutes, my partner remained without a plate, cutlery, napkin, or glass. These items were only supplied after I made multiple requests, and even then, they were provided inconsistently and at different times.

The service throughout the afternoon was disorganised and inattentive. Our vegetarian meals did not arrive until two hours after our arrival, and despite multiple attempts to seek assistance, our concerns were largely disregarded. While Sharika offered occasional apologies, she attributed the delays to 'everyone arriving at once'—an explanation that appeared inadequate given the nature of the event, which was pre-booked and based on a set banquet menu for a significant occasion.

We were overwhelmed when seven plates of fish and chips were brought to the table, despite only five meals having been ordered. Although we declined the extra servings, the staff left them on the table regardless. Throughout the service, waitstaff were seldom present, and when they did appear, meals were placed hurriedly on the table with no eye contact or meaningful interaction.

The non-vegetarian banquet was served inconsistently; some shared dishes were portioned to only one piece per person, yet the same dishes were repeatedly brought to the table. Additionally, my brother-in-law had to explicitly request the remaining courses, and we were responsible for refilling our own water throughout the meal.

As the issues escalated, both my brother and brother-in-law addressed their concerns directly with the staff, with one of them speaking to Sharika in the kitchen. We observed that other diners were visibly frustrated, including one individual awaiting an opportunity to speak with the manager and another table expressing their dissatisfaction.

After noticing we were still missing three vegetarian dishes—peanuts, potato/eggplant Shandong, and stir-fried tofu—I showed the original email to a waiter. Later, Sharika returned with Chinese greens, the third time that dish had been served, and insisted tofu wasn’t part of the $89 banquet but only the $109 version. When I showed her the email again, she read the sender’s name out loud—her own name, which she initially acted as if it wasn’t her. This created an awkward and unprofessional moment. I was then asked if I wanted the tofu dish to be packed for takeaway, which I declined. Given the significant delay in service, I was both surprised and disappointed to feel pressured not to consume the dish on the premises.

Upon reviewing the final bill, we appreciated the $4 per adult discount; however, we were shocked to discover an overcharge for 10 additional adult meals and a glass of wine that we never ordered. Had we not carefully reviewed the bill, we would have been charged an extra $900.

Overall, what should have been a joyous occasion was marred by poor management, lack of professionalism, and dismal service. The lack of accountability, attention to detail, and basic customer care was astonishing—particularly from Sharika, who not only failed to manage the team but also denied or deflected her own...

Mother’s Day Lunch – A Complete Disaster We came here for a special Mother’s Day lunch, and unfortunately, it turned out to be the single worst dining experience we’ve ever had.

The issues began with the long delays. Despite having a booking and the restaurant running a set menu, our meals took an unreasonable amount of time to arrive. When I asked the manager, Sharika, why it was taking so long, her response was that “all the mothers came in at once.” That excuse makes no sense — there were only two seating times, 11:00am and 1:00pm, so of course everyone would arrive at their allocated time. As a restaurant, they should have expected this and been properly prepared.

After a lengthy wait, the kids’ meals finally arrived — but then more kids’ meals were randomly brought out again, despite the children already being served. We tried to return the extra meals, but the waiter simply said it was fine to keep them and left them on the table. When adult meals did start to appear, they came out in strange intervals, with no coordination. The vegetarians in our group were completely forgotten for most of the meal.

Throughout this entire ordeal, no one checked on us. We had to get up ourselves and refill our own water from the waiter station. Sharika was condescending and dismissive whenever we asked questions. At one point, I had to walk into the kitchen just to find out what was going on, as nearly two hours had passed with no proper explanation. As I was leaving the kitchen, I saw a representative from another table also waiting to speak with the manager — their meal had been a disaster too.

After the meal, I spoke to a few other tables — they too were frustrated and upset by the poor service. The staff clearly looked overwhelmed, rushing around in chaos. And to make matters worse, I later found out that Sharika had been badmouthing us, making false claims about us having more children than booked (completely untrue — we booked for 5 kids: 3 are my children and 2 are my nieces; we couldn’t possibly have had any “extra” children). Sharika also mentioned that we asked for extra seats, which is again untrue. We simply moved two seats to one side so my sister-in-law could sit with her girlfriend. One of those chairs was being used by my disabled brother-in-law for his belongings. In fact, when moving the chair, Sharika herself asked if he would like a chair to put his things, and he said yes.

Towards the end, dishes were being dumped on our table in bulk as if to rush us through the experience — but by that point, most people had already lost their appetite. They began giving us multiple dishes that had already been served. We told them to return the duplicates as we didn’t want them, but by this time they had overdelivered so much food that it felt chaotic and excessive. Some dishes were taken back, while others they told us to just pack into takeaway containers.

To top it all off, we were double-charged for the meal and had to come back to request a refund.

This wasn’t just a bad experience — it was a complete breakdown in planning, service, and professionalism. Sharika’s attitude and conduct were especially disappointing and unbecoming of any hospitality venue, let alone one associated with the China Doll name.

Edit 5th of June: Emailed as requested below, no response. Followed up with another email, no response. Clearly they don’t care. I will write to China Doll directly about this experience and...

The place is beautiful. Unfortunately, our dining experience was terrible. We went for pre theatre banquet and the service was really slow. After being seated it took a really long time for waiter to attend to even order a drink. When drink arrived they gave the wrong drink. Following the small dishes the main took ages to come. When arrived it was only one main. I asked about the other main waiter asks if we ordered that dish. We sure did and it was the one we were most looking forward too. Unfortunately, the pork belly did not get put through and as service had been slow and we didn't have long for our show to start we ultimately did not get to try this dish. We asked another waitress for clean plates before starting on the main. She took our plates and cutlery away and never came back ! After a few minutes we had to eventually pull up a waiter to ask for plates and cutlery. At the end of the meal the Maitre D approached our table and asked hurriedly how our meal was. I informed that the service was not great. She was a quick talker and in a robotic way rambled off so sorry its a busy night attempted to change subject. I had to interject and highlight the fact that it was not only slow service but our main was forgotten and our drink order was stuffed up. She apologised and said I can get you a drink on the house. My friend said she'd get a pineapple juice. Before I could even say what I would like she turned away in a hurry. I asked my friend is she only bringing one complimentary drink? The Maitre D turns up with two drinks. My friend asked what is that? Apple juice !! I said my friend ordered pineapple juice ! Without saying a word she turns away quickly, still I do not get a chance to say what complimentary drink I would like. Pineapple juices laid on table without a word, awkward ! Such a disappointing night, with missed food and poor service from...