Chinatown Restaurant — Restaurant in Halifax

This was my favourite place for Chinese food in the HRM area. I would visit as a child with my family 35yrs ago before we moved away. 11yrs ago I had the chance to return and the food & service was just as good as I remembered. They hadn’t changed their recipes and the flavours took me right back to my childhood.

I was back in the area this week and decided to go there again. What a disappointment.

The outside of the building & grounds are in a clear state of disrepair. The dock has been closed off and looks to be ready to fall into the bay at the slightest breath of wind. The entrance way has a coin operated candy machine, the base of which has a thick layer of dust.

Further in, the water feature behind the greeting desk is dry & non-functional, looking like it hasn’t been in use for years (it was operational when I last visited). As we were led to our table the cook and a woman (we guessed the owners) were in a closed off section doing paperwork that was spread out over a couple of tables.

We three came in first and were expecting more to join, so we asked if we could be seated at one of the large round tables. We were told no, but the reason why was unclear, so were were sat at a series of smaller square tables pushed together.

We noticed an unidentifiable odour that appeared to be a mix of chemicals, MSG, and something from the bathroom. My wife & our guest both went to inspect the washrooms. Up until then our confidence in the restaurant was shaky at best. When they returned they were shaking their heads & said in unison “We’re leaving.” Rule #1: If a restaurant can’t keep a clean bathroom, their kitchen won’t be any better.

I made a polite excuse to leave so soon after our arrival and the host didn’t seem to care. Luckily we met up with the rest of our party in the parking lot before they came in. They took us to their favourite Chinese restaurant on the other side of the bay ... and it was immensely better from the moment we walked in.

Sadly I don’t foresee returning to China Town ever again. The nostalgia has been destroyed by a disappointing last visit. Only a major & complete renovation would encourage a...

I went to eat with my friends today. Before I went the restaurant, I confirmed with them that they were open for dine-in and decided to eat at their home. As soon as we entered the restaurant, we saw a round-faced waiter rolling her eyes at us. We felt baffled. When she got to our seats, before we could sit down, she threw the menu and pen on the table, turned around and left. Yes, she just threw it on the table. I never expected to see such poor service attitude in Hafa. And she didn't say a word the whole time, and was very rude and rude to her work attitude. Not only that, the restaurant is very slow to serve food. If the restaurant does not welcome us to eat, then we can just tell them when it is snowing that it is not convenient to open the door when we call. We don't have to come. In short, the service attitude of this restaurant makes us feel very disgusted and disgusted, and we cannot understand why they can continue to operate. Or do they treat customers differently?

Update： Your reply is pure nonsense. You said it was our fault that we came to eat during a heavy snowstorm. Actually, before we came to your restaurant, we called your and repeatedly confirmed that it was open and welcome customer come to eat in your restaurant. However, when we walked in, your waiter rolled his eyes at us. Is this what you call good service? Also, you said that we were very rude and spoke loudly to the waiter, which was really funny. The “good”waitress you mentioned didn't even say hello to us since we entered the door. And looked us super impatience. How could we take the initiative to talk to her, but we still said thanks every time when she served the food. Moreover, your restaurant's service was super slow and the waiters are rude. Is there any point in this that gives us good service? Anyway, It's really a joke that you don't find out the reason for your 3.7 rating and blame the guests for it. This is really the first time I have seen such an outrageous restaurant, so shameful. So instead of replying apologizing for your poor service, you...

We decided to go give the new location a try, specifically the dim sum on saturday. The newly renovated location is modern, nice and bright with a nice view. There are large round tables that can accommodate large groups as well.

Firstly the food was excellent with some cavets (most of the food came out cold), the sesame seed rice ball filled with salted egg yolk was a standout. The BBQ pork buns had a nice filling and a good pork to bun ratio, however these came out luke warm, they should be hot.

The pork bone congee was very tasty but again this came out cold but the flavor was great. The BBQ pork puffs were not bad with lots of pork but the amount of pastry should be more. My favorite dim sum item is rice rolls, they were good with a generous portion and nice sauce but again it was not hot.

Ok now to talk about the service which is why this review only got 3 stars, and actually it's more like 2.5 stars. The service was terrible, we've been to Hong Kong and other parts of Asia where, while the servers are not the friendliest, they make up for it with efficiency, it was not found here. Also the restaurant was not packed so it's not like they were maxed out.

We were there for at 30 minutes before we got any food and then the rest came very slowly, with the final item arriving after we asked the servers (yes we had to ask three times) to check. Nobody ever came back to let us know that they had looked into our missing item either, nor ever check to see how anything was, the communications was terrible.

We will give it another try for sure because the food is that good and hopefully the service will improve since they just moved to the new location. I'd like to see the...