Happy Village Restaurant — Restaurant in Sooke

I feel compelled as a public service to share my experience with Happy Village Restaurant with the good people fo the internet. In early December 2018 my wife and I spent 10 days in Sooke, BC, for our honeymoon. Sooke (as I'm sure you've already found if you're reading this review) is a delightful little town, with a number of very good eating establishments. However, in my experience, Happy Village Restaurant is not one of them. My bar for Chinese takeout is not high, even greasy grocery store is usually still a passable meal. However, I'm not even completely certain the meal we received, partially ate, then consigned to the trash can (which itself had to be banished to the back porch to exorcize the rancid smell of the "food" from our cabin) was even food in the traditional sense of the word. The staff was pleasant, and prepared the order promptly, though I was concerned that at the height of the dinner rush, the restaurant was empty save for a single couple eating in the corner, perhaps most of their business was takeout, I told myself. As I drove the winding highway back to our cabin the car filled with the strong smell of rancid cooking oil, and my doubt began to grow. Arriving back at our AirBnB (a picturesque little cabin on the water a few miles north of town) we began to unpack the layers of styrofoam cartons, hoping for the best. First up was the Deep Fried Wontons (#2), which were blackened to the point of that they looked more like something that you would cook a hamburger over than something you were supposed to eat. One bite was enough to consign them directly into the bin. Next, the generous amount of rice provided did not compensate for the fact that half of it was congealed into a solid glob, perfectly molded to the shape of the pot it was prepared in. Next, the General Tso's Chicken (#30) looked edible but tasted like it had been boiled in seawater, both soggy and salty, slathered in a sauce that seemed to be comprised mostly of dollar store ketchup. The Szechuan Style Chicken (#36) was bland and almost entirely devoid of flavor, making it hands down the best dish we received from Happy Village Restaurant. Finally, sitting in a pool of oil and grease in the bottom of the bag, the last Styrofoam container revealed their Signature Chow Mien (#7), apparently the source of the rancid oil smell that had defiled our Toyota RAV4. The noodles were soaked in the aforementioned unidentifiable oil (based on the flavor I'm thinking possibly Motor?). It took days for the smell of our order from Happy Village Restaurant to clear from our seaside cabin. I honestly don't know how any business could serve food that was so unequivocally, almost comically bad. To give them the benefit of the doubt, I suppose it's possible this was just a really, really off day for them, or this was everyone in the kitchen's very first time preparing (or eating) food of any kind, or at some point an early 2000's Ashton Kutcher is going to jump out of my shower and tell me I've been Punk'd. Whatever the reason, I'd recommend you save yourself the money, the hassle, and the lingering odor and just order a pizza. Sooke has several options that are...

What can I say? I really do not like speaking badly of a local business but I owe it to you (to make an informed decision) and to the Restaurant (to provide them an opportunity to improve) to speak out. I will preface this review by noting that the owners of this restaurant only seem to respond to favourable reviews (read previous reviews) and I am not sure whether or not it’s because they don’t care or do not know how to handle criticism. Either way, here we go.

My wife and I went there for a long overdue dinner for just the two of us. We chose to dine-in. It was not overly busy as most traffic seemed to be for pick up orders. There was just us and another table dining in. Once seated we waited approx. 10 minutes before the server re-approached us. She was pleasant but had few customer service skills. After being completely sticker shocked by menu prices (even after the Covid inflation) we settled on a pot of tea and for simplicity sake, the dinner for 3 in hopes of having some left overs to take home. The tea was tepid at best and nowhere near what a hot beverage should be served at. The meal took about 15 minutes from ordering to table. This built the anticipation of a soon to be presented hot and freshly prepared meal. The reality couldn’t have been further than expected. The food was barely warm enough to have come from under heat lamps let alone a stove. We have enjoyed Buffets with warmer food in the past! The food was dull and flavourless perhaps drowned from the amount of MSG used. The beef and greens had virtually a spattering of beef (costs to high??) and the rice was brutal (who can ruin rice?).

After enjoying a second pot of tepid tea we were presented our bill….. $75.00 plus tax and expected gratuity!

We are not old grumpy cheap customers, but we do expect value for our business. We expressed our concern regarding the experience to our server (and yes we left a tip as the food quality and pricing are beyond her control and she shouldn’t be penalized matters beyond her control). We did express our displeasure in a quiet and tactful way. We will, however, not being giving this place another opportunity. The whole vibe seemed to be about extracting the most from the guest while providing sub-par quality food/services.

Just a footnote: we do not begrudge any business the opportunity to be profitable (especially those that were so harshly effected by the Pandemic) but do not play your customers as fools to make up all your losses experienced over 2 years on a...

Ordered takeout, food quality low, very cheap, bland, and chewy. Very overpriced, spent 120$ on what was worth more like 65$ on a friends advice. Specifically requested no bell peppers to be added to any dish and were supplied with bell peppers in half of dishes. Blackbean garlic chicken may as well have been bellpepper chicken for all we could taste past the peppers. Would reccomended trying the dumpster behind may gold village on goldstream for similar quality at a more competitive price. The only "food" of any quality would be the wonton soup which was passable at best though still overpriced and the broth tastes more of fish than it should. The chicken wings were stringy, tough, and the batter was greasy and oversweet, similar in consistency to wet newspaper. The fried rice was hard and flavourless, though of equal quality to many of the worst chinese restaurants i've been to, again i would say the price of 20$ is far beyond what i would be willing to pay again, might be worth 8$, though certainly not more and i'd rather just buy elsewhere. The sweet and sour pork was exceptionally chewy, and the flavor was once again absent. I can only assume their kitchen staff have lost their sense of taste from the epidemic and i heartily hope they recover soon. Until their price point is drastically reduced, their food quality is drastically improved, and they learn what a bell pepper is i cannot reccomended in any way shape or form to order from this overpriced garbage can of a restaurant. I will say from what i've heard the quality has decreased drastically recently, so if you wish to keep this establishment alive and well then try the wonton soup, its aggressively standard at 3$ more than their competitors, but at least...