Robotic Chef — Restaurant in Exeter

The restaurant seemed to be absolutely dead when I had visited, my father and I were the only customers. The food was alright, from what I've heard it seems to be authentic and was definitely on the spicy side which made it really enjoyable on a cold evening. The main reason I am rating this place 2 stars is because of the ambience, the cleanliness and the waitress. The place seems to have no vibe to it with very little invested in the interiors, the table I was sat on was dirty from the spillage of a previous patron of this restaurant, the waitress did not clean it but rather provided us with some tissues to clean it ourselves. She was obviously a student doing this part time so I don't expect the most enthusiastic of moods but honestly her behavior was quite astonishing and left a bad taste in my mouth. The portions are huge and are priced equally so, another reason I was a bit displeased with the experience was it was hard to communicate with the staff as I don't speak Mandarin or Cantonese. It's definitely on the expensive side as well which is one of the many reasons I would not be going...

I love this restaurant and would give it five stars for the normal food there such as the selection of dishes cooked in the bowl of soup noodles. However with regards to their grilled fish hot pot which used to be very authentic, I have to give them 2 stars instead. This is due to them switching the fish from saltwater fish to tilapia which is unsuitable for this Chinese delicacy. Not only that, they even deep fry the tilapia instead of marinating and grilling it. This completely deprives the fish from properly absorbing the taste of the soup. Their grill fish hot pot is not authentic at all. It was much better in the past when they didn't use tilapia. It is not true that saltwater fish is unavailable in summer because they are commonly sold year round in tropical countries such as Malaysia...

£5 for a warming, hearty, delicious soup where you can choose from a wide selection of broths, noodles and 5 toppings (proteins and veg). Portions are generous and once mistakenly got a large size to take away and it was enough for 2 people. Have not tried it yet but was told by one of the cooks that there's apparently also a secret option to choose a number of the toppings which they will cook up for you (not soup, looked like chilli stir fry of some sort) to have with rice for £10. Have not tried it but they also do hot pot if you want to eat in...but not the nicest ambience to sit and...