JING JING — Restaurant in Hamburg

I went there with a friend for dinner the other night. The place is quite hyped, so my expectations – especially concerning the food – were high. However, it was a completely underwhelming experience food-wise and in general.

I feel like that they added some sort of flavor enhancer to the food, because afterwards I felt a dryness in my mouth and thirst that was not quenched by drinking water.

The aspect that bothered me the most though was the way the waiters were trying to upsell what felt like all the time. E.g. when we ordered two glasses of wine, the question straight away was: Why not make it a bottle? Quite regularly we were approached and asked whether we wanted more this, more that, more drinks – but not in a way that felt natural but more like there was some pressure there. And more than once wer were approached and asked whether we were done when it was apparent that there was still food on our plates and we were not quite done yet. We had slot around 8PM while the kitchen closes around 10PM, so we were not occupying tables while other guests were waiting to be seated. So I do not understand the whole pressure in the atmosphere. It made me feel quite uncomfortable.

And the food was super greasy and seriously nothing special. I wish I could say otherwise. No need to repeat...

Summary: High end wannabe restaurant, expensive, little proportion, surely hungry after dining there, food is not tasty, menu is problematic (wrong description of food).

Wouldn't say it's authentic Thai food since there're several Vietnamese dishes on the menu. The menu is by the way pain to read and does not hold true with what they served. My dish was extremely spicy for an Asian who does eat spicy food but they did not put on the menu that it was spicy or anything. Then two of my friends order Khao Soi Gai Curry which LITERARY said noodle with chicken but then they didn't put any chicken on there and when asked, the waitress said in Thai-language it means chicken broth and not chicken. Lol but we're in Germany and the menu is supposed to be understood by German no? Drink was alright. Price is too oddly distributed overall. The Vorspeise is too expensive for what it is, always around 12€ for one Vorspeise, which is almost as expensive as a Hauptspeise 19€ (Also very little). 4 stars restaurant might be more expensive but they put a reasonable price on their Gang and afterwards you aren't left hungry! 2 stars for the friendliness and the effort of decoration. Like overwhelmingly nice decorated the whole restaurant. Prime example for what looks nice but...

A number of the other reviews dock points on price performance, but that seems totally wrong-headed to me -- with parched lips and peeling skin in the desert, one doesn't scoff at the value of the oasis! Jing Jing isn't your neighborhood Thai spot, but rather represents the sort of quality dining befitting a global city that there seems to be an absolute dearth of in Hamburg. Before ordering, the ambiance ought to clue you into that. The food was good, bordering on great, and since the options are limited in that respect here, you'll have to pay. (I do wish, though, that the papaya salad and the pad krapaow would've had the spice dialed up significantly.)

My one real qualm, and it's unfortunate as it really came to countervail all of those positives above for me, was with the service. In a word, it was mostly just perfunctory, but there were flashes of coldness, too, and it was tough to get anyone's attention for another beverage or for the bill. Speaking of which, when we asked if we could split the bill 2 ways, we were told No...which felt borderline malicious, an unpleasant bit of punctuation (from "?" to "!" on the question of poor service, you might say) as they'd brought 3 POS machines over but then would only...