Ceci Hong Kong Hot Pot Restaurant — Restaurant in Athens

Scammed…?

Based on generally good reviews and a craving for hot pot we came to this restaurant. Was given a paper menu to fill out selections and we ordered 1 serving of beef and 1 of lamb (~€18 each). The food came with the correct number of portions and we thought nothing of it as we were ready to dig in. The beef looked like it had maybe been sitting around but for €18 a portion we didn’t question it too much.

As we were nearing the end of our meal we wanted to add another serving of beef and this is where the problem arose. We were first informed by the wait staff that they forgot to serve us another portion of beef. After giving them a confused look, they brought the paper menu back to indicate we had in fact been served a €35 serving of beef and were missing the cheaper serving. This was super weird, as we had filled out numerical values throughout the menu for what we wanted to order but the expensive beef option had a check mark. Additionally, this “VIP tier” (as listed on our receipt) beef was only listed on a tiny slip of paper that was stapled on the main paper menu, so we were not even aware that such a pricey option was offered. Since we had already eaten the expensive portion of beef and wanted another portion, I didn’t dispute the mistake with the waitress though I probably should have.

€35 for a portion of beef is crazy expensive, and it is awfully convenient that they forgot to serve the cheaper portion of beef and only mentioned it after we asked for an additional portion. Plus the expensive beef seemed to have been sitting around for a while based on looks and taste. Other Google reviews seem to indicate some pattern here, maybe they’re forgetful, maybe their service is bad or maybe they’re racist towards specific ethnicities. We even spoke to them in Mandarin the entire time.

The food was pretty tasty but this ridiculously expensive plate of beef definitely left a bad taste in our mouths. If you have a strong craving for Chinese food, tread carefully and check against...

I wouldn’t have given any star if Google let me just write the review. Here’s the thing: we noticed this restaurant because it’s well rated and it has famous Cantonese dishes and the milk tea. When we were seated and about to order, the owner of the restaurant (I guess) gave me a blank paper and told me to write down our orders as if I work there instead of being a customer (I wasn’t bothered at all since we were many ppl). Followed by this, I gave back the paper with the dishes we want and he basically said no/sold out for all the traditional cantoneses dishes including the drinks. The excuse used was “we cannot make any of this because the machine is broken”, well it wasn’t the end of the world for not eating those dishes so we adapt to the things they had at the moment. Having ordered everything and ready to wait for the food. I saw the waitress serving milk tea and lemon tea to the next table (they came after us), therefore I double checked with the girl and ask the owner why we’ve been told the drinks were sold out. So he came up with this saying of “we prepared new ones” and later on made up another excuse by saying “I had only one drink left”. After all this bad experience we decided to pay for the drinks ordered and just leave the restaurant ASAP. We waited 10 minutes for the bill to come up and it turns out that the man wasn’t even addressing my needs and instead he asked “what did you drink?”. I have to say this was really shameful and about the friendly service we didn’t experience it at all. Besides everything, the owner seems to be a racist of Chinese people because my mom greet him in Chinese and he was ignorant and during the order he said “I don’t speak Chinese” whilst the menu was in Chinese and the background music was also in Chinese. I’m sure the restaurant serves great food and have this good service. But be careful with who you are or they might treat...

So this is Chinese food done proper here in Greece well at least as Proper as they can do it. I gave the food 4 stars because it could have been just a little bit more authentic was missing the spice they said it was spicy for me it was not spicy at all. I gave the service 5 stars because our waiters both the girl and the guy were very good at their job very friendly very kind very nice and very clean. The atmosphere I gave it 3 it was kind of like a So many other Chinese places that I've been to thit kind of left me like whatever. But I feel like this is one place that there is plenty of room for improvement. Especially when it comes to your pricing. Other than that I got 5 dishes I loved all 5 of them but all 5 of them could have been just a little bit better as I've lived in China for quite a few years both northern and Southern China. The dumplings were probably the best thing I had it took me right back to Hong-Kong and to this fantastic Taiwanese restaurant that I would visit that is a chain existing Hong-Kong shanghai and a few other places. I most definitely intend to return back to this restaurant and sample their food with more friends so I can have...