Chunky Chau Rosebank — Restaurant in Gauteng

When a friend booked his birthday dinner at this restaurant. I arrived with enthusiasm. My first impression of the menu, ambiance and warm welcome were positive but they did not foreshadow what was to be a tedious, frustrating and disappointing experience.

We arrived at 7pm and ordered a beverage (not listed on the menu) a delicious looking and tasting cherry ale. The beverage was tasty but small , more on that later. My boyfriend and I put in our order for two vegetarian dishes.

Hungry we waited And waited And waited..

Two hours later at 9.20 we still had not received any food. We made a few Enquiries as to the ETA of the food with fruitless returns.

Hungry turned to hangry as eventually small plates of food began to be brought out. Upon further Enquiry and discussion it appeared people who had ordered tapas plates got their food as starters.

I was now rather ravenous and a further wait lay before me. At this point upon my queries as to the whereabouts of our meals I was asked if I would like to order a vegetarian starter as they were only now starting making the food !

I declined and said I would just like the dishes I had already ordered over two hours ago!

To give fair context the table was large and it was a Saturday night. Eventually at some hour past 9.45 we received our meals. (There were various other people who had similar dissatisfying experiences in our party but I will only speak of our own)

The food, a miso ramen, and vegetarian PadThai were, okay.

Nice enough nothing I would send back but it definitely did not live up to the hype of the menu and I probably wouldn’t order the dishes again on taste alone.

When paying the bill the unlisted beverages were surprisingly expensive at R100 per beverage. For around 300ml of ale!

No attempt was made to rectify our experience nor was any apology made.

Finally and most horrifically Both my partner and I spent the rest of our evening in the bathroom due to the unpleasant liquid consequences of the the food.

If you’re not into long long waits, being overcharged or food poisoning this is probably not the...

Fair (likely considered good by Jozi standards). Cocktails reminded me of my varsity days, weak mixes of cane and cream soda. For the price I expected a handcrafted mix of fresh ingredients, a unique tea-infused flavour as advertised and some sort of kick. The hibiscus tea infused vodka cocktail came doused in ice and after a minute was just a watery cranberry juice to me.

Potstickers were missing the actual pork and herb inserts and came swimming in a pungent orange sauce. It was just sauce and dough.

The sticky chicken wings were not sticky nor sweet. They were boiled pick n pay wings with a generic light sauce. None of the typically Asian tastes were experienced, albeit being present for what I could see.

The noodles and curries were nice enough and ‘saved’ the meal. Nothing spectacular but tasty enough. Again, the freshness that should come with pricey Asian food was not delivered on.

The atmosphere and decor are pretty and make you feel like you’re in an urban garden restaurant. I suppose it’s an instagram worthy spot (the food also comes out laid out pretty) and that may be what you come for most (oh and Shisha if that’s your thing). The price does not match the quality of food but few places in Jozi manage this so it falls in line with most similarly priced places I suppose. I wouldn’t go back myself as I didn’t enjoy the actual food or drinks (at least not for the price). I would rather go back to Proud Mary (same location and similarly attempted vibe outside of the Asian theme), or to Momos, only the Rosebank one, for Asian tapas and order the drinks in from the next door bar.

It was a busy Friday night and they are one month in. So I may have been unlucky. Even so, I’ve def had more memorable...

“Asian fusion”, but basically seems like the main ingredient is sugar. We ordered: the chicken skewers starter: just a thin, long skewer of chicken that tasted like we could have made it on the braai. Then the calamari starter: so so sweet. Could barely taste the meat , couldn’t taste the seafood. The crispy calamari heads were barely crispy, there was no nuance, no delicacy. Just calamari in a sweet sticky sauce. Then I had the pad Thai , and once again it was soooo sweet. It had carrots and zucchini, noodles, chicken and prawns, but I could barely taste these individual flavours at all because the sweetness of the dish just overpowered everything. And lastly the duck dish - SO SWEET! The duck was quite tough, and completely doused in a sticky sauce, quite chili. So… not bad? But basically the same as any takeaway Asian food that is made with too much sugar and soy sauce. The rice tasted stiff and hard, like it had been standing for a while, it wasn’t fluffy or sticky Asian rice, but rather quite dry/stale. Although it did have a nice aroma.

This was just a overload of sugar, sweet hoisin sauce, sweet soy sauce. I don’t eat much sugar but I literally felt a sugar rush after having my main meal?

The service was good, the design of thee restaurant is nice. The chairs are comfortable. The music was good. The cocktails were tasty (but sweet!), the atmosphere was also nice. But I certainly won’t go again because I paid R1600 just to feel like a ate a...