Chai-Yo — Restaurant in Dublin

We booked a table for five, a la carte and had specifically requested a whole Hong Kong duck during the reservation. However, the experience that followed left much to be desired.

Firstly, the waitress was evidently untrained. Despite informing her about our pre-ordered Hong Kong duck, she repeatedly questioned us about whether we wanted pancakes with our duck, suggesting that the Hong Kong Roast Duck should be wrapped in pancakes - a method suited for Beijing duck, not Hong Kong roast duck!

The food was also disappointing. The Hong Kong duck was merely average, with a lack of sauce to complement the meat. The claypot aubergine was passable, but the remaining dishes were letdowns, seemingly more a case of cultural appropriation than a reflection of authentic Asian cuisine. The so-called 'Singapore Noodles' were in fact reminiscent of bland and soggy friend noodles and lacked any hint of curry and had only a couple of meat pieces (not even sure if there were shrimps), while the mapo tofu was bland and the tofu was soggy. The egg fried rice had no wok hay and tasted like steamed rice with a few scrambled eggs thrown in, and one dish was so forgettable that I can't even recall what it was.

In terms of condiments, asking for hot sauce was met with confusion and a lack of understanding. The waitress brought us chili oil, which did not satisfy our request. Yet, she encouraged us to add chili oil to the Singapore Noodles for extra flavour (what extra flavour? I wished there was any flavour)… Even after escalating to a different waiter and the restaurant manager, the best we got was sweet and sour sauce! How can an “authentic” Asian restaurant not have hot sauce readily available? One waiter did eventually manage to procure hot sauce from the kitchen, but by then, our food had already turned cold. The lack of initiative shown by the rest of the staff, including the manager, was frankly appalling. This disregard was further underscored when the waitress had the audacity to double-check if we intended to pay the exact amount on the bill after leaving most of our dishes barely touched.

In conclusion, I can't recommend this place due to the poor service, lack of staff training, lack of and the food's...

Poor quality from start to finish: I ordered cashew chicken, stir-fry shrimp, and a California and Salmon-Avocado roll online, to be delivered about 2 miles from my location, and was promptly delivered to a Dominos-esque que screen which informed me my food's arrival time would be approximately 15 minutes from then. 10 minutes later I called to check on the order and when I should expect it, and was informed by the staff that answered that, essentially food typically takes ten minutes and delivery can take up to 10 as well. Well, 25 minutes later my food arrived, I paid the tip and sprinted up to my room to enjoy it. Everything I've read indicated that Dublin was the place for seafood, but apparently not sushi. The salmon-avocado roll was in 6 HUGE pieces, with probably 70% rice to some insignificant pieces of cucumber and avocado, with a weak strip of salmon on top. The California roll also suffered from the rice-ratio, and I found that both rolls were beyond room temperature and were actually warm... The two main courses were honestly the most unsatisfying, however. It felt like the two dishes were exactly the same, save the proteins changing. Weak, flavorless beef broth with assorted steamed vegetables and cashews and mushrooms, respectively. How a stir-fry or cashew chicken turns into a soup, I have no idea, but I certainly didn't order cashew chicken or shrimp stir-fry soup. Needless to say it was a disappointing experience, but as I will be returning home tomorrow thankfully I don't have to...

Went last night to celebrate my niece's graduation from Trinity college, heard good things about this place but I wasnt impressed. Got off to a very bad start as we arrived 25 minutes early thinking we will have a drink. The man at the front desk was not friendly at all and said we are full so we had to wait in the tiny area at the front desk. 10 minutes before our booking time of 7.30 there was 11 people squished into this tiny area waiting to be seated and the other diners could hardly even fit past to leave the restaurant. Then we were all sat at the table and introduced to our chef who was lovely. We ordered drinks gave our food order and all got our drinks and soup. 10 minutes later a man came over and embarrassingly told us he had 2 Marks booked at 7.30 and we were at the wrong table. We had to get up and got moved to another table downstairs. They never even apologised for the mistake which was clearly on them. I had the wagyu beef which was very nice but the some of the starters were not great, my wife's chicken main was way over cooked and very chewy, not tender at all. The drink selection they have was also not great, cocktails are very weak and they only have one Japanese beer for sale which costs €7 per bottle. Overall not a good experience and I definitely...