Hoi Tin — Restaurant in Amsterdam

If I could've given HoiTin zero stars, I would've. The workers at the bakery are so ridiculously rude. Or they are just tired. It is December 30th, 2024.

After a long walk, we finally found this bakery. After a long wait, we started ordering, and not long after, out of the blue, shit hit the fan. The lady took a bun from the display, bent to the floor, only to come back up and put the bun in the paper bag. In a playful way, I asked, smiling: "Just to be sure, the bun didn't fall on the ground, right?" to then continue looking at what else I craved. While I was looking for my next bun to order, the lady got mad and started yelling that, of course, the bun didn't fall on the floor. Why did I think that? How would she sell something that fell on the floor? If I didn't trust it, I shouldn't buy there. Then her colleague came by to ask what all the commotion is about. I didn't even understand what just happened. I was still flabbergasted. Then I told her that it looked like the bun fell on the floor because her colleague ducked under the counter and came back up and put it in a paperbag. She said that there was a drawer(?) or something there, why would I think that they would sell food from the floor. If something fell, they would throw it away. I replied that that was a good thing, but I couldn't see what they are seeing, since I'm in front of the counter. (Mind you I was still figuring out what just happened.) She continued to say that if I didn't trust it, I shouldn't buy there. There are so many customers, so the quality is high, etc, etc. So... we have the same high standards, but they chose violence, over confirming that of course, it didn't fall on the ground. On top of yelling, they also made me feel so uncomfortable by showing their arrogance because they have enough clients and made it clear they don't need me. Obviously, they don't need me. I was just buying a box of 8 buns and looking for a snack from my childhood to show my little daughter, but a little customer service goes a long way. The way they defended their "high quality, hygiene" with their life, made me question the actual hygiene of this place. I can't think of a reason why one would get this angry for such an innocent question. I wasn't even angry or anything. The only thing that comes to mind why they are defending it with their lives because in reality it is not that clean. I see no other reason why you want a first-time customer to feel that way. I just don't. 😔

I wrote this review with my other account because I have never given a 1 star review. I want my other account to stay happy...

Brought a friend here for dinner on a Friday eve and we were really looking forward to it. I had only known the bakery items but was confident that we would have a great time.

Reservations highly encouraged (easily done online), as it is super busy with people queuing for walk-ins. Though they seemingly have a lot of staff, they yet seem a bit overwhelmed with the overall occupancy.

Once we were seated in one of the various rooms we did choose everything to our liking on the designated ordering form. It took the staff some time to realize we had been done, and they were in such a rush that this nearly prevented us to add drinks but we successfully did. We were asked whether we wanted our dishes in phases of appetizers and mains, but we opted for everything as soon as it was ready, which might have been the better choice, given that some of the food took very long to be brought out.

Highlights: • Peking Duck Pancakes - super yummy only downside was that the pancakes already arrived cold • Roasted pork belly - top notch

Lowlight: • Xia Long Bao - quality of those was really questionable, super dense, nearly no soup inside

Overall we had the feeling that the atmosphere and the food was very great and reminded us a lot of our times in Asia. The establishment is way bigger than expected and the service might be lacking a bit when it comes to the speed. But everyone was super friendly, and the mass of people might be a bit overwhelming.

Extra points for the super refreshing and yummy homemade...

Positives: staff was super nice and helpful dim sum was overall very tasty the place was larger inside than it seemed from the outside, and the ambience was nice free flowing tea and homemade chilli oil on demand was quite nice food was served quickly, and anything else we asked was also promptly delivered shrimp cheung fun were downright unbelievable, delicious stuff

Negatives: their black tea wasn't my favourite (big fan of oolong here but good luck finding it outside of Taiwan) - though my lady loved it we were sat next to a huge family table with kids screaming to the point it was physically painful. When they left, they were immediately replaced by staff with another large family with screaming kids previously sitting nearby, in spite of the fact the staff spontaneously apologised about the kids before moving the new family over the deep fried shrimp dumpling came to us still sizzling, which was nice, but also soaked in oil as a consequence. One minute or so in paper towels might have made a big difference, there cheung fun only had two shrimps per roll (usually it's 3 in most large dim sum places) and still cost 8.5 euros per portion, which may be fine for you, but it's lower than my expectations in terms of bang for buck

Note: I'm frankly a super demanding customer. In spite of the negative points listed above, I'm 100% coming back to this place whenever I feel like celebrating...