The Eight — Restaurant in Sydney

I use to come here often as a child however I haven’t been since Covid happened. I came today with my family and was expecting good food and service as always however today disappointed me a lot.

From the entrance to the door, I had 3 different people that took us in, each standing 10m apart in the crowd, we had to search for them whilst getting yelled at to “follow that person”

No culture, and the food is not authentic anymore. I take a seat waiting for someone to come around to ask what tea we were after.

Usually the person who takes us in would ask or at least have someone who manages the floor to be at our table asking once we sat down, however, today we had to reach out to ask for our tea.

Before we can even ask for our tea, we had two cart ladies bombarding us telling us what they have and placing stuff on our table and grabbing our card though we said no. They gave us a look and walked away.

After 5 minutes, finally someone came around to us and asked us what tea we would like.

So as we waited and chatted amongst ourselves, a lady came with her cart and told us what she has and my mum said nicely in Cantonese, “we’ll get some later, we’ll wait for the tea to come first”, but then, she literally stood by our table for 1-2 mins waiting for our tea to come, tapping her toes.

Once our tea came, we were annoyed at that point because of the ladies attitude. She watched us talk, pour our tea and take a sip. And she’s asked us in MANDARIN “do you guys want or not? I have this this and this” with an attitude, though clearly she can speak Cantonese. At that point we just straight up said no, I don’t feel like it. Felt so disrespected.

There were however 2 cart ladies who were very polite and I think the restaurant should take notice.

One major factor as to why I’m leaving a comment this late at night is because, I’ve been having a sick stomach all day till now. Been in and out of the toilet. Everyone on my table is having this issue. So I very concerned about the cleanliness of this restaurant.

I won’t be coming back here anytime soon after today’s experience. I understand it’s busy on Sundays but I go yumcha every Sunday as a child and this wasn’t an issue before.

Food wise: Everything is over sized Hargow: skin too thick Siumai: too much meat Ham sui gok: skin too thick and hard Wugok: crispy but too thick as in filling Mango pancake: sour cream

Everything else I had was decent.

I would come here for dinner as it should be more calm, however the yumcha environment here is too...

The Eight Visit Update 16/6/2023

It's been one year since I attended a wedding banquet. Nothing has changed, in using the quality of food and service.

Well done. Visited on 11/6/2022

It is a very big restaurant within a shopping complex, and I am very impressed with the management, the waiting staff that serves us, and last but not least the food.

I come for a wedding banquet. Trying to get to the restaurant is a great challenge if you drive around the area. Basement parking is available, and parking fee is waived after 6 pm if the ticket is stamped by the restaurant.

Although I am not involved with the reception preparation, I was informed that the management took every effort to accommodate the customers' requests, seeing that the venue setting, colour coordination, and menu are in perfect order.

The waiting staff is friendly and attentive. Clean bowls are supplied after each course, and I jokingly say that what a trouble we created for the kitchen staff, and she replies that it helps to keep her emploed!

The quantity of food is excellent. It suits diners who prefer less salt (although I do not belong to that category). There are great variety of sauces for the different dishes.

As a chicken (eating) lover, I find the crispy chicken is a bit of a let down.

After all the thumbs-up, I have to say my piece of negatives. The restaurant is packed to the rim, and obviously many people use the toilets. They do need attention to keep the floor dry and free from used paper.

PS I have no financial interest nor receive financial benefit from...

Incredibly disappointing service and the rudest staff we have encountered in Sydney almost bordering on racism.

Group of 4, went for yum cha on a Sat - we had already started ordering food from the trolley ladies as soon as we sat down. My wife is vegetarian and we were asking the serving staff/ manager if they had any vege options and were told grumpily there's 1-2 options. We asked for a menu hoping to order some ala cart dishes for her ( as we have in other establishments) only to be told very rudely - ' this is yum cha, you take the food from trolley going around'.. the staff didn't even look at us while saying this, he was speaking as he was walking away..

This wasn't our first time at yum cha - many establishments offer a variety of vegetarian dumplings or are able to customise something if they don't have it as a standard offering.. e.g. Lotus, Panda Yum Cha, marigold (unfortunately closed).. so we were quite taken aback by that comment and harsh tone..

And we saw the same staff talking to the next table a lot more politely - given the next table was a caucasian family we could not help but feel discriminated..

Apart from that the food was alright, place looks great and even though the line was long it moved quickly.

Maybe it was just that 1 manager who was bad - however given the bad experience (especially considering that this place is not cheap!) just would not come back again or recommend anyone to go here !! So many other places where they food is better and you don't get...