Shaukiwan — Restaurant in Saint Paul's Bay

It was a Wednesday, and although we did not know it’ it was “Buffet night” at Shaukiwan, but as we had had a large lunch we opted to go al-a-cart. To start, we ordered the, “Crab” & “Asparagus soup” and the “Won-ton soup” My “Crab” & “Asparagus soup” had been slightly mis-described, the liquid was “thin” and almost tasteless, the asparagus consisted of about half a chopped stalk, (No head) and about half, yes, just a half of a “CRAB STICK” no real crab anywhere in this dish.

The nearest “Crab” to this dish was still in the sea across the road.

My wife’s “Won-ton soup” consisted of exactly the same tasteless liquid and what looked like, and tasted like, “Undercooked, soggy very thick ravioli pasta, filled with minced pork. There followed a selection of small starters, “deep fried Seaweed” (Cabbage) “Spring rolls” “Sesame prawn toast” and “Prawn crackers”. The “Prawn crackers” were too perfect to be “Home made” (Obviously from a catering pack. The “Sesame prawn toast” was “Un-noteworthy” to say the least, (From the same source ?). The “Spring rolls” would have done “Iceland” proud, or perhaps I have done “Iceland” a mis-justice? The “deep fried Seaweed” turned out to be the star of the show, the cabbage had not been deep-fried long enough, and had not cooked through, consequently, it had gone rubbery and was hard to chew, it also lodged in the teeth and felt uncomfortable in the mouth, defiantly, the worst “deep fried Seaweed” we have ever had, anywhere. Then the “Crispy Duck and Pancakes”. The pancakes were so bad they were defiantly “Made in-house” they were “Soggy” they all “Stuck together” surely no “Caterer” would pass these off as “Pancakes?? The “Duck” itself was good and tasty enough, but it was not “crispy”as it should have been, it had not been pulled from the carcass with a fork, it had been cut and chopped up with a knife. The best things about this dish was the “Black bean sauce” (From a jar) and the fresh sliced cucumber and the spring onions, I suppose thy could not MUK !! these up, all in all a failed attempt. We paid the bill and left.

OBSERVATIONS. On their website they say say that: “We also pride ourselves with our honest and open kitchen.” An open kitchen can be a “Good thing” and work for you, or a”Bad thing” and work against you, some people look at as a “Novelty” others, in the know, can not take their eyes off it, noting everything, good and bad. One of the things I noticed was that all of the the waiting staff helped out in the kitchen when things got busy, I could clearly see them going straight from working in the restaurant, clearing dirty dishes etc etc, to going into the kitchen and dishing up food on to plates to deliver to diners, without washing their hands. I also witnessed another waitress putting uncooked meat products into the deep frier then just wiping fingers on their apron and carrying on serving food in the restaurant, not good practice.

THE STIR-FRY CIRCUS. There were 19 dishes on the help yourself buffet, and 4 or 5 of the staff must have had a competition of who could stir the dishes the most, because every time one of them walked past it without having anything in their hands, they gave it a quick stir. Occasionally one of the chefs would poppet and give it a stir, and at one stage i saw there were two chef’s and one waiter, all giving it a stir at the same time, very entertaining.

You make your own mind up, but we won’t be going back...

Regrettably giving this review after years of getting the occasional take out and enjoying my meal every time, but of recent the quality has been terrible. I had a bad experience months ago and gave it one more shot last week and it was even worse.

Specifically, the pork wontons were stuffed with absolutely nothing (pastry was wrapped around more pastry and fried, giving the illusion of filling but with nothing there), the egg fried rice was almost entirely plain boiled white rice (no seasoning or oil, hardly any egg or veg), the chicken and cashew nut dish was sour tasting but it's not meant to be a sour dish so something was either off or there was cross contamination with utensils used for sour dishes, and the beef and black bean dish was also tasting off but I didn't manage to figure out why. The vegetable noodles were probably the best thing out of the order, but even then, this dish used to be much tastier in the past.

Really not sure what has happened but this definitely isn't my go-to Chinese take...

This used to be a popular Chinese restaurant but sadly it’s gone downhill . The place badly needs a refresh and the staff need some training. The real pity is the food. It used to be a popular place because the all you can eat buffet was great but it’s deteriorated very badly. The quality is terrible, fried , greasy dishes dumped in a lukewarm warm buffet self serving station that need better light, a good cleaning and better signage. The quality of the food itself also needs serious work. You can help feeling that the ingredients aren’t the freshest. Honestly we went for my partners birthday as she loves Chinese food but our group of 6 won’t visit again for a while as what we paid versus what we got just isn’t fair!! The notable exception was the Peking duck which is a non-buffet item and was quite good . Management please note and revamp this place to the standard...