Oriental City — Restaurant in Leeds

We visited early evening on Mother’s Day. It was supposed to be a Mother’s Day treat for my mum. It was a nightmare.

We’d booked a table for 5.30pm. We arrived at the restaurant and were made to wait twenty minutes until 5.50pm for the table we’d booked for 5.30pm. The table we were shown to wasn’t even made, the table next to ours was nicely made with rice bowls and chopsticks, someone dumped some cutlery on ours, we weren’t even given the option of using chopsticks, which we prefer. I noticed other tables were given prawn crackers with dipping sauce, we were not.

At 6.00pm the rudest waitress I have ever encountered barked at us to order and then made out it was our fault for going on Mother’s Day as to why we’d been kept waiting so long. We ordered drinks and the set meal for four. The drinks arrived promptly but the Diet Cokes were warm and flat. At this point though I was almost dying of thirst so I didn’t really care. The soup came after what felt like a long time and was just dumped on the table by the extremely rude waitress leaving us to sort out who’s was who’s. It was at this moment in time that some prawn crackers were finally dumped on the table too.

The soup was nice, I had hot and chilli and it was very tasty. I didn’t expect this would be the sum total of what we actually had to eat at Oriental City though. The soup bowls were cleared away and I asked for a jug of tap water for the table, however a pint of tap water was plonked in front of me. Other tables were given jugs I noticed but everything about us seemed to be an inconvenience to the staff at Oriental City. Next up were mixed hors d’oeuvres, always a favourite course in a Chinese banquet but we waited and waited and waited. Other people who’d arrived after us were tucking into their main courses by now and it was 7.00pm. The nearest we got to our mixed hors d’oeuvres was some mismatched crockery on the table which was warm when it was put out, but had long since gone clap cold. It dawned on us we’d been there an hour and a half and had only had soup and a few prawn crackers. It was absolutely ridiculous so we made the decision to abandon the meal and leave. There were still three courses to go. If we hadn’t we’d probably still be there at midnight.

We told the staff exactly why we were leaving and offered to pay for what we’d had, which was four Cokes, four bowls of soup and a few prawn crackers. The manager did not charge us. It was pointed out to him how extremely rude one particular member of staff is though.

All in all, it was such a massive disappointment. Other people in there were treated far better than us, they received pleasant service and were spoken to in a friendly way. We received no service whatsoever and were spoken to in an abrupt and rude manner. I felt both angry and upset at how we were treated.

We ended up getting a Chinese takeaway on the way home, so that was my mum’s Mother’s Day treat ruined. I felt especially bad because it was me who’d suggested it and booked it. Thanks for nothing...

Was really keen to try out some #Halal Chinese. Went for this after reading the reviews as there are no other such places in Leeds. Just to be sure I asked the waitress if the food was 100% halal and was cooked separate to the rest of the non halal food? Her English was poor along with her response, so asked to speak with the manager. He tried to answer my question by showing me the halal certificate on the bar wall. He however did not fully understand what I asked for. I wanted to be sure the kitchen had separate areas along with the pots and pans to cook halal food for Muslims. Anyway we ordered 3 dishes on his recommendation and asked if the dishes could be spiced up. With less than 10 minutes our ordered was cooked and packed up. For spending a fair bit on a take away he gave us some free prawn crackers. We got home and felt a little uneasy with our purchase. Not feeling confident that the kitchen staff fully understanding what halal actually means. Ask our Jewish cousins about kosher food principals or a vegetarian about food cooked in mixed environments and you will understand what I am trying to say. I gut feelings of having eaten in many places along with working in the trade is that you can't cook 3 to 5 dishes in less than 10 minutes unless it's half cooked. Which turned out to be true. The dishes were poorly cooked, looked as if the mixed vegetables were just dipped in the wok for few seconds, as it was still raw. Too spice it up lots of green chilies were thrown in. We were very disappointed with most of the dishes but eat one of them, as we had very little choice. If you are a Muslim looking for a halal choice, then please ask yourself, if you believe that new staff entering the kitchen will understand and appreciate what halal means and stands for. I'm sure most other customers will be happy with the food. But my experience was poor. We will not go there again. None halal customers...

I just had lunch here today, and unfortunately, it was a disappointing experience. We ordered dim sum including the rice porridge, but it tasted like it had gone bad. When we brought this up to the waiter, he initially insisted that it was freshly made today. However, after we asked him to try it, he agreed to cancel it. Aside from the porridge issue, the rest of the food was decent.

What really ruined the experience, though, was an unpleasant encounter with a waitress (or manager, whatever position she is in). When we checked out, we realized we had been charged twice for dessert. I went back to ask for a refund, but the waitress, with a very tough and unfriendly attitude, suggested I take a dessert to-go instead, which I didn't want. After I declined, she became extremely rude and gave me the money back without returning my receipt. She acted as if I was causing trouble, when in fact, they had just served me spoiled food earlier without any apology.

It’s frustrating and unacceptable to be treated like this, especially when the restaurant made the initial mistakes. To top it off, I now have concerns about getting food poisoning from the...