TÀN CHÁ Restaurant — Restaurant in Dubai

I would NEVER visit this restaurant again. My dad made a reservation for my birthday and we visited Tan Cha on March 10. My family was excited to bring in my birthday with a good meal and pleasant ambience. We left with utmost dissatisfaction and disappointment. Our server was extremely slow and rude. The wine list doesn't provide details on price of bottles. The waitress simply said these are the wines we have by the glass and you can order a bottle of the same. She brought us a glass of red wine to dry which was extremely dry and we weren't too happy with it. The manager then came to us to suggest a bottle and returned with two bottles in hand. He mentioned to us a bottle is priced at AED 400 which is quite cost effective and I selected a bottle named Chocolate Block as I have a couple of them at home and it costed me AED 150 from Dubai Duty Free. The starters were literally bite sized portions so we were forced to order two portions of everything as we are a family of 5. To our dismay, the mains arrived one after the other with an extremely significant gap between each. First, we received truffle rice which was in a tiny bowl. The prawn dish we ordered arrived 20 minutes later and it contained only 4 pieces. After trying it, we realised it wasn't the right dish that we ordered and waited another 20 minutes to receive the right dish. As we were starving, we ordered another serving of rice and everything took forever to arrive. We requested the waitress if the chef could prepare the same prawn dish in chicken as the menu didn't have many chicken options. Her response was we're too busy today and you'd need to wait 20 minutes if you would like us to prepare this dish with chicken. We were speechless. Too busy?? Another manager came to us to apologise however it didn't change the level of service we were receiving. She mentioned to me our restaurant is quite reasonably priced but if you see our bill (attached for reference), you'd go home with a happy belly and smile on your face after spending that amount at say Tong Thai which is in the same hotel or even Zuma for that matter. At Tan Cha, you can count the pieces on your plate - that's how stingy they are with their portions. Towards the end of our meal, the manager came to me again and offered for us to select 3 desserts on the house. I politely asked her how long it would take for them to arrive considering our entire meal took an extremely long time to arrive on the table. She said I would need another 15-20 minutes as we are quite busy. I told her we had to be home soon so please check and get back. Considering my father had already requested for a dessert when he made the reservation, they should've been prepared. 15 minutes passed by and no desserts appeared on the table. We were extremely frustrated and asked the waiter where are the desserts. She said you told my manager you'll had to leave so we didn't prepare any. My father looked at her completely awestruck and simply asked for the bill. When the bill arrived, my heart sank. There were no discounts on the bill considering the manager kept apologising for the horrible service and experience we had. The bottle of wine on the bill appeared as AED 950. This is literally exploitation!!! Poor hospitality, terrible service, bite-sized portions, extremely pricey - I would NEVER recommend this restaurant to anyone. Frankly speaking, I told the Manager to her face you'd be known as a lounge and definitely won't survive as a restaurant. And I stand by that statement. Not...

Had a wonderful evening, great food until the Tan cha marketing team decided to descend on the restaurant with cinematic grade lighting to shoot what looked like pointless content while paying customers were trying to eat - leaving one client annoyed and needing to be moved. We waited and didn’t want to make a fuss until the light was right in our faces. And I told the waitress this was unacceptable, the manager “Simranjit” finally came and I asked him if this was a joke? And are you comping 50% off this bill as this must be a joke? He said it was the marketing team……and it was their idea. We walked into an empty restaurant at 7pm, why couldn’t they come at 6pm? The pointless filming continued….

Finally no longer wanting dessert, Angel brought the bill with nothing…. not even a drink or dessert (at this point) Now I was annoyed. Told her go back again and get the manager, I found it cowardly and rude that he would do that.

It took about 10 minutes for him to begrudgingly come back and said he “called the owner” and the owner said no to any discounts on the bill. But offered free dessert or a drink, by this point that gesture was too little too late and he could not care any less honestly. Now the lighting was right in our faces, sadly without sunglasses it would have been impossible to enjoy it. Angel brought the final bill extremely apologetic and sincere, I gave compliments to the chef for a wonderful meal. It’s a shame Simranjit didn’t have the guts to bring us the bill and sent the waitress instead.

At this point Simranjit (if he had any customer service skills) could have reasoned with us and said “Look this is out of my hands, please you’ve enjoyed a wonderful meal, come and have a drink and sit over here” we would have said ok. But no. He hid away instead and took no ownership instead leaving it to the waitress, Angel. Who might I add you should have as the manager instead. This is not a manager that protects and cares for his staff. I should have known by the Jordans he was wearing, which I found to be unprofessional for a restaurant as such. When we left he didn’t say a thing, and stood there… looking lost.

My partner and I haven’t been out in 4 months, and what started as a truly wonderful evening was ruined. Thankfully we had our nightcap in the vault, with wonderful staff and ambience.

To the marketing team : It makes no sense to disturb the paying customers…to create content to attract more customers….that you are going to disturb anyway. This is backwards and wayward. This cannot be the same marketing team that thought of the personalised chopsticks that do this, It simply cannot be.

Your policy expects and reminds me not to show up on flip flops or shorts, We don’t exact to be blinded by lights while trying to eat food that we are paying 100% for.

The one star is for Angel and the chef. Thank you for a truly wonderful service and food.

Simranjit needs customer service training en stat, and he knew this review will be making its...

About my experience at this restaurant i have mixed feelings. Upon entering to hear the hostess speak Portuguese was a moment, when I was surprised, I never thought this would happen in Dubai. I liked the way they received us friendly. The quick way that the collaborator's speech caused me some anxiety, I think it somehow causes some discomfort although I also have nothing to say against it, as the night went on, they were spectacular. Regarding the food, I found it simply delicious, careful in both textures and aromas. I ordered an Italian wine from well-known castes so it would hardly be bad. Not my choice but the castes 🙂. In short almost everything perfect. But yes there is a but, I was very upset with the chopsticks trick. It was very unpleasant. At first they came to show me my engraved name, as I was in Dubai on my honeymoon, I automatically asked for some with my wife's name to remember this moment. They told me that it was only for those who made the reservation and if I wanted they would do my wife's for 100D (about 30€). Okay, I immediately said yes, but the biggest surprise came at the end, after all, the chopsticks with my name were just for the meal I couldn't keep them if I didn't pay 100D too. It was a bad surprise because no body told this was the norm. A trendy restaurant that "intends" to be chic in which the customer has paid a bill of almost 1600D (500€ 2 Pax) cannot have such petty attitudes and that will only denigrate its image. The experience that remains is disappointing, unfortunately places like this are made up of small details. I send this review to Tan Chá before I wrote it here, that they answer "Thank you Tiago for your honest feedback. We are glad we exceeded you expectations. The chopsticks unfortunately are for the restaurant use, just like our other cutleries, and they stay with us and wait for your next visit, if you like to take them it comes with a charge, so sorry if that wasn’t clearly explained to you. We hope to see you and your wife soon again. Congratulations on your marriage from Tàn Chá team :)" This a bad joke 😁 comparing cutlery with chopsticks personalized with my name that they refer to as if it were a gift to me is simply giving me a certificate of stupidity. The problem is not a pair of chopsticks but the poor trick to get more 200D on the bill, that for shoore could be a tip to the emloyers. Good luck for your...