Hai Bee Restaurant — Restaurant in George Town

Outstandingly terrible service, mediocre food. Wanted to put 0 stars but can't.

Dined in for lunch. It was a small space, besides my family's tables there were 2-3 tables left for other customers. It was not busy when we arrived, yet after serving all my family's tables with the first dish, the staff did not serve plates after a good few minutes. We had to grab them from their shelf ourselves. Same for after serving soup and tea. We had to grab our own bowls and when I went back to the shelf for tea cups, I got scolded instead for not asking for tea cups. Shouldn't the tea cups be served with the tea without question? What else could have been used to drink tea?

While this was happening one customer who had his table on the side have been waiting to order for a long time and the manager/ staff would not take his order and instead directly told him to wait even though he just stood there and watch my family table eat? He wasn't doing anything. The customer mistook me and my uncle as staff as a result of their slow service because we took the plates ourselves. Poor guy decided to leave until the staff called him back to take his order.

Food was nothing special, one large size seaweed soup had one clump of seaweed enough for only 2 people. Other dishes' portion were as expected. Taste for all dishes - vegetables, seafood clay pot thing, steamed egg, soup, stir fried noodles, pig feet, hotplate tofu all average.

Towards the end we brought the empty tea pot to the front to refill and the same staff was angry cuz we didn't call them over. (At that point would they have come if we called?) When he brought the refilled teapot back he just slammed it down on the table and rushed away without a word. Great way to end the meal!

Will not be back and will never recommend this place to anyone. Only consolation was that there was a cat outside the restaurant that offered better service than the restaurant staff. Cat let us pat him. Cat also got given a bowl for it's food and water. Better than humans. If service were not going to be their focus, a normal person would have at least expected equal treatment to what the...

[holiao]

1. takeaway - decent portion, reasonable price, offer plenty of food selection, tasted above average for most of the dishes we ordered, tasted like home-cooked food from Hai Bee Restaurant
2. Assam fish - full of flavour but low in sodium which is good, plenty of fish, ladyfingers, tomatoes, onions. Good with rice
3. stir fry potato leaves was good, low in sodium, very suitable for family
4. claypot tofu was great, tofu is homemade with the mixture of egg and silky smooth tofu, fry with plenty of other ingredient like prawn, mushroom, mixed vegetable… must order
5. steamed fish in soy sauce - fresh fist fillet, suitable for kids, average portion, tasted good
6. minced pork tofu - another good dishes, soft tofu, tasty flavour, generous portion
7. fried egg with bitter melon - surprisingly the dish did not have bitter taste from the bitter melon, good combo of eggs and bitter melon, smooth soft kinda runny eggs wrapped with bitter melon, nutritious...

The food was delicious. The Chinese Garlic Chives 青龙菜 with salted fish hits the spot with generous amounts of salted fish.

Belacan chicken was well coated with belacan powder, so for some people it may be a bit salty. It met our palates' expectations. Eating it with rice or dipping in chili sauce does bring down the level of saltiness.

The cod fish in soy sauce was the pièce de résistance - soy sauce just right, well paired with ginger, chives and kintsai.

It is a neighbourhood restaurant and so it is noted that patrons to the establishment should not expect the service equal to that of larger restaurants. The wait staff were possibly tired when we visited at 8 pm and were of rather dour countenance. When we smiled at them, they did smile back, albeit in a reserved manner.

The restaurant is apparently 20 years old and so, it does not look so new and fresh. With that in view, it was acceptable and we have no complaints of...