Juno — Restaurant in Hong Kong Island

Glad to see a new addition to the Sheung Wan neighborhood. Hence, I invited some friends to try it out on a Saturday night. The evening started with some hiccups. I’ll list down what happened.

The restaurant called me one hour before the reservation time, to confirm my reservation. Usually, I get this type of call a day before, or maybe at noon on the day, if it’s a dinner. So it’s a bit strange to get a confirmation call right before. But this is not a big deal.

Although we made a reservation beforehand, we were seated in the worst seat in the restaurant, which is the seat facing the door and these seats are just one meter from the entrance. There is a lot of traffic and disturbance by the entrance. I feel I am in a Cha chaan teng during lunchtime, not in a relatively high-end restaurant in a nicely decorated place. I know the façade of this building is still under construction, so I am not sure if the current entrance is the official entrance or the alternative entrance before construction is finished. However, these seats should never be here without a buffer zone at the door if you know about hospitality and guest experience. I immediately asked to change seats when I arrived at the restaurant. The hostess told me that the two tables on the side (a big group having a birthday celebration) would leave by 8 pm and she would move us there later. After that group left, we asked to move. The hostess changed her mind and refused to move us there for some reason. Instead, she asked us to wait longer for another table inside the restaurant to be cleared. Then she moved us. When we moved to the new table, the table was missing one set of tableware, and no one paid attention to it until we requested it.

A tasting menu is offered. However, some of my friends were not too hungry, so we opted for a la carte. We saw a nice dish on the adjacent table and asked the hostess (since she stood close to us by the entrance). She said that the dish is only on the tasting menu. We asked the name of the dish, then found it right away in the a la carte menu. How strange?!

We ordered three main dishes (two fish, and one lamb) and two appetizers initially. Later, we ordered another main dish (scallop). The appetizers and scallops came, and two fish dishes and one lamb dish never came. We asked the hostess. She returned from the kitchen and said, “They have been delivered.” We said it never came and pointed to our empty table. She returned and asked, “Are you sure it never came?” I found it ridiculous. After keep pointing to our empty table, in order to prove “these dishes never came”, the hostess finally went back to the kitchen. Our dish came shortly. They are delicious, though.

If only talking about the food (taste, presentation, price), I would give this place a good review. But I really hope the seating layout could be put into user experience as consideration, and a lot of staff...

Overall it’s a poor experience to have dinner in this restaurant. I wish someone had asked me how was everything but no one asked so I have to do it here.

Service- I think all of the staff should take a day off and get some training from the restaurant manager who is the only helpful staff there. I got a call for reservation confirmation an hour before the booking which is strange, but that’s fine. I brought a bottle of wine and ask one of the staff to decant it the second I arrived. An hour and a half later when we wanted to have it we found the bottle was not opened at all. The first staff “explained” they did not open it because some customers doesn’t like to have their wine opened early but apparently I told them to do so 1.5 hrs ago, the staff kept making excuses why they are not doing it which was nonsense to me . The second staff came over and asked what he could help me with when he could not offer anything to help and just keep asking me repeatedly. After that the only helpful staff came and offered a way to decant the wine faster. Still my wine was not decant well but still better then the food they served. This entire experience was rather ridiculous. If the restaurant wants to present itself as a high end restaurant maybe the staff are the show stopper.

Environment - we were sitting very close to the entrance and it was around 15 Degree Celsius. The doors were open all along for no reason and seems none of the staff considered that’s a problem. We were like dining outdoor during hurricane. The place is nicely decorated though.

Appetiser - the burrata salad and the “signature” caviar eggplant were served very cold, as if I was eating ice cream. Obviously there were pre-made and taken out from the fridge when we ordered, just like how local cha chan tangs usually do but the dish here is costing around $150 each. And they are not tasty, at all. We left half of the eggplant uneaten and none of the staff cared to ask for the reason. Also, I don’t understand why there is no cold cut in the menu.

Main - normal, nothing special.

Dessert - surely not the best in town but I have...

I dined here with a friend last night, ordered from the tasting menu and shared a bottle of red wine. The total bill was HK$2,095. For what we spent and for the quality of food and service we received, it was definitely not worth returning when compared to other far superior restaurants of the same ilk in HK. Given that they are trying to be a high end restaurant in Sheung Wan, I am naturally going to nitpick accordingly...

The Good:

1. Maitre d'/manager was very professional and attentive
2. Decor is nice
3. Seat was comfortable and our table in the far end near the bar was nice as it was shielded from all the noise in the main room.

The Bad:

1. I waited at the entrance for several minutes to be seated and made eye contact with 3 waitresses huddled near the food service counter gossiping but none of them came over to assist even though the maitre d'/manager was busy dealing with another patron. They just looked at me and continued chatting. Surely, all staff should be trained to greet guests and welcome them even if they can't confirm the guests' bookings. It's customer service 101.
2. When the starters came, the waitress just put them on the table and walked off. I was expecting her to at least tell us what she had brought to the table. Having dined at other similar restaurants where they do tell us what had been served, I kind of expected the same.
3. Our sparkling water was not topped up the whole night though the wine was.

The Ugly:

1. Focaccia tasted very dry.
2. Citrus mayonnaise was indistinguishable from regular mayo
3. (Beef Cheek) risotto was completely bland. When I asked the waitress about it, she said it was because many patrons had complained it was too salty before!!
4. Pork Ribs were over-seasoned and all one could taste was salt.
5. I definitely didn't taste any berries in the Red Berries Creme Vanille. I didn't spit it out to inspect but in my mouth, the fruit tasted more like strawberry chunks and was very uninspiring dessert. It should be removed from the menu...