Shoom Restaurant — Restaurant in Vancouver

This review is for a takeout order. Let me start off by saying that I didn't appreciate being priced differently between ordering take out over the phone and online. I will not take down the review for rectafying after the fact. They should have corrected when it was asked about.

Ordering over the phone ended up being $240 without being charged taxes for cash payment. They also included an extra $3 bucks for take out supplies.

As the attached picture indicate, ordering online was cheaper and also included the taxes at $233. It also includes a bag fee of only $0.50, versus the over phone order of $3.

When asked, their explanation for the price discrepancy was due to providing smaller portions for the online order. Okay, so how is a portion increase or decrease for a whole crab or chicken that justifies about $11 for a crab order? I can believe for veggies or fried noodles, but not a whole crab or chicken.

Why the increase of 2.50 for take out packaging?

The prices are also different on a picture of the menu that was posted on other folks review. No consistency whatsoever.

Overpriced for the same quality as other Chinese restaurants for similar dishes. I'm some cases by $10 more and as much as twice than other comparable dishes at other restaurants. Why the premium? The opportunity to get ripped off/cheated?

Now to critique the food. Food was okay. The dishes tastes like anywhere else. The only unique dish we ordered was the salted egg yolk crabs with rice cake, but didn't meet expectations. It was a bit bland when considering it is supposed to be salted eggs. The truffle chicken was a little overpowered with the taste of truffles. I like truffles, but it was too much. I take it this is their signature dish as I was not able to find this dish elsewhere. I do like salted eggs.just didn't like the combination. Obviously a personal taste preference. Also didn't like the rice cake with the dish.

Can't comment on the scallops because we never received it. They didn't get the order right. Instead, received just an order of sauteed pea leaves.

I think I might have given 3 or 4 stars for the overall experience, but the price discrepancy and their explanation knocked it down to 1 star. Either set the price the same and increase or decrease the portion if it is really necessary (which shouldn't be) or match the pricing and portions. It's...

Order at your own risk, especially on a Delivery app:

If you order something expecting to receive the dish as described, beware of not only potentially getting the wrong item, but the restaurant owner possibly accusing you of ordering the wrong item as a kneejerk reaction. And when you politely remind them the order is placed on a delivery app (UberEats, in my case) and the records should check itself out, they will come up with an even better rebuttal "well I hooked you up with extra [insert irrelevant ingredient you did not ask for] in the dish as a substitute".

Great, except there are two problems with this:

1. I did NOT ask for the side ingredient you so generously threw in (minced pork) - and it so happens my mother who ordered this dish, is a vegetarian, so none of that mattered.

2. Maybe try contacting the customer to let them know if you ran out of a particular item/dish, and NOT decide for them without any prior communication what they should be getting??! A dish not being available after placing the order on a delivery app has happened to me before with other restaurants, and it was always kindly resolved with a follow up call to let me know it isn't available and offered an alternative that I am at least aware of. Now that is proper communication and customer service.

To add salt to wound...when suggesting they could perhaps you know, correct the order or waive charges for wrong item, they will come up with the brilliant solution that in your next order, if it includes so and so dish they could look into sending you that one for free, as long as it it is not the only item you are ordering. Did they really expect I will be back to waste more time and money after their horrible attempt at resolution? Not to mention, during the entire conversation, not a single apology was offered.

Nice job trying to make more business out of your customers from a mistake on your end. The owner also sounded gleefully delighted by the fact because I had paid for delivery from UberEats (and the restaurant itself doesn't offer this service) there is nothing they could do, or would do.

Place ain't cheap either, averaging at $20+ per dish, with food (lukewarm) that didn't taste like it was worth this price tag. But the experience itself soured everything above...

Food was actually pretty decent, service totally sucks. After we finished eating, we got desserts that they gave at the end, we saw a lot of people receiving cookies and sweet red bean soup, but when we finished our food only the red bean soup came so we questioned them about the cookies. The waitress told us that because the other customers, since they were non-asian, didn't want the sweet red bean soup, so they got cookies instead (every table i saw with both cookies and red bean soup were all asian). I then asked, "why the table behind me had the cookies and the red bean soup?" - which were still on the table as they were cleaning it up which then waitress then asked now if we wanted the cookies (We didn't take any after that ordeal). We ordered a total of 8 dishes for 6 people and ended up with the bill of $152. But guess what? THEY CHARGED US EXTRA ON 2 OF THE DISHES, when we questioned the waitress about it, the waitress acted as if she didn't understand what was wrong, then grudgingly fixed the price for us after we showed her the bill to the menu prices, no apologies or anything. After we got the bill fixed THEY DIDN'T ACCEPT ANYTHING BUT CASH. There were no signs outside the restaurant stating that they only accept cash. Although there was one sign behind a pot of flowers on the cash register which my brother saw after he went up to pay the bill. We also asked for a few take out containers which they didn't give us a plastic bag for until we asked for one.

So in conclusion, if you don't mind getting ripped off a few extra dollars (or a lot more than a few if you decide to eat seafood that charges by weight) with some attitude from the waiters/waitresses there, the food isn't bad. Personally, I would...