A. Wong — Restaurant in London

OK. Here we go......I bit my tongue on this one in the restaurant, as I hate to be the party pooper shaming my friends nearly 300 a head lunch.

Food was well prepared, tasty, but was simply not generous enough. It felt like a light lunch despite going for the main event (and being TOLD we were having the wine flight), and although precise cookery, nothing really stood out. Mainly due to the lack of portion generosity (yes yes, I know it's Dim sum).

The food came in fits and starts and we were never really party to the dishes' philosophies, inspirations or any technical explanations, other than the basic X with Y and Z and a few buzzy words you'd expect to hear in a high-end Asian eatery in London. Really quite poor service and atmosphere for this level of accolade, even if most of the service team themselves were lovely. Initially enthralling bustle of the many staff and humdrum of the kitchen (adjacent to our table) in reality made it hard to comprehend even the basic spiel of the offerings. I've done a fair few top end restaurants of late and this was scraping 1* in my view. Due mainly to the lack of pomp and ceremony amid the quite frankly average service, poor atmospherics, and lack of context (I appreciate these aren't the strict criteria).

My main issues were the lack of transparency in pricing and the uninspiring wine program. Yes, we were given Dom Perignon 2013, as well as the more budget end of Schloss Johannisberg's riesling spectrum, but the wines to follow were easy to source from UK retailers, and simply mid-range gumph. We were not once offered any insight into their origins, and the rationale for how they were paired (with, admittedly, some complex less wine-friendly flavours). I'd have expected some more umami focused wines, and why feel the need to serve a red at all? The Sauternes with dessert was pleasant but it was young and easily sourced (from Majestic) for 15 a half bottle. Not exactly special or interesting. I'd have expected them to be serving something with some age, oxidation or distinct character if I'm honest, rather than the namesake 'badge of honour'.

A couple of major hiccups that left us sour, a bit salty, and certainly not sweet....

1. Asked if we fancied some Champagne before we kicked off....... it was tempting by the range on show, but luckily my friend queried the prices up front and we were simply told it's 37 per glass (I believe in reference to the Ruinart Rose. Woof). We quickly asked for alternative aperitifs and were presented with a cocktail menu at a shade less ridiculous prices. Of course, monsieur sommelier was not forthcoming with this and wanted to flog the pricey stuff. What a terrible way to build rapport with your customers at the outset.

2. The lack of pricing transparency continued to the conclusion, where we were offered a choice of 2 coffees. Little to our knowledge they were not included, and were priced eyewateringly at a respective 9.5 and 15 pound. Shameless.

To boot, there was zero effort from anyone in the kitchen, or the latterly present main man, to greet or acknowledge us, and we never received the promised menus.

I've corroborated my views with others' who have visited on recent occasions. The petit fours were delicious, but the plum shot will unfortunately last as a sour taint for much much longer than intended.

No doubt chef and team have worked their woks off to get where they are, but I personally wouldn't venture back or recommend - maybe the 2* is a great ticket to 'single visit/ international churn', but in terms of sustaining a business and maintaining an enduring reputation, I doubt it's a very good strategy.

Apologies if you're reading this and are past the pay wall of no return on your booking. My advice would be.....if you care about value for money or your wallet's contents, keep a keen eye on that pesky cheque, and certainly get your coffee...

Total waste of money. Far better Cantonese food can be had elsewhere – fine dining or not. Trust the other 1-star reviews, because they’re all accurate!

I arrived 10mins early for a noon seating and was asked to wait outside the restaurant until noon, which was surprising. Thank goodness it wasn’t raining!

The staff were all very nice, but most clearly had no experience with service at fine dining level, though a few clearly did. Champagne is pushed on you almost immediately (as if it’s a welcome drink - it’s not!), and before a drinks menu arrives, which feels slightly tacky particularly when no other beverages are offered that might be more suitable for lunchtime or people who don’t like champagne or alcohol.

Most distressingly, the sommelier had a persistent cough and was coughing into his hand regularly through the whole service, and then proceeding as if nothing happened, touching everything everywhere before washing his hands. It’s well known in foodservice you cough into your elbow so you don’t go around contaminating everything - even trainees in fast food know this! One or two others seemed to have a cough as well, and I spent my entire seating wondering whether I was going to catch something. If they hadn’t had my credit card details to hold the booking with a minimum spend, I would’ve walked out. I mentioned my concerns and asked if he was unwell, but in hindsight, I wish I had asked to break the booking with no penalty since it’s a clear health and safety violation and the guy kept doing it.

The food is shockingly mediocre for what’s supposed to be a good Chinese restaurant. You can get much better elsewhere for the same spend or less.

I know my restaurants, and I know my Michelin-starred restaurants well. Stars should be a good indicator but they don't necessarily mean good food or service. That said, it beggars belief the cooking here won any stars at all. It’s downright disappointing food for a restaurant with any Michelin stars, let alone two. Their focus seems to be more on elaborate plating than balance and seasoning, which makes no sense since it’s mostly a per-piece dim sum menu and the huge plates for each piece don’t even fit on a table. The cocktails were well done but 85% of the dishes coming from the kitchen were bland. The Peking duck was the same as a bad takeaway, which is strange because the dim sum item featuring the same type of duck came with the duck done the proper way. One dish another Google reviewer mentioned was indeed overpowering, unbalanced, and highly acidic, being delivered early in service despite it basically destroying the palate for the rest of your meal.

If the Michelin inspectors come by again this year, I don’t see Chef holding his stars much longer. You can see from the reviews that many of us genuinely don’t know how he got them in the first place.

The à la carte pricing is actually reasonable, but I agree with those who say it would be difficult to hit the minimum spend of £100 per head without ordering alcohol or the most expensive items on the menu. My problem is with the quality of the food, not the pricing. Had I opted for the tasting menu (or worse, the pairing!) I'd be fuming right now.

I wouldn’t be surprised if the minimum spend was introduced because once people had their first few dishes they decided it was not worth sinking more money into!

If you’re looking good Cantonese food with an upscale environment, there are so many other places in central London where you can spend the same money but get much better food and a much better ambience.

If you don't care about throwing away £100-200 out of curiosity, make a booking. If you do care, then best find another restaurant, because it's pretty much guaranteed you'll get nicer...

I hate writing bad reviews, but I'm afraid in my opinion this place should not have a Michelin star until it addresses several very basic areas for improvement. The food was interesting and my guests said "exquisite", but the experience from start to finish was not good. Frustrating because the mistakes are very simple and easy to fix. I've tried to be constructive, and I do hope my suggestions for management below are looked at.

Booking - Almost impossible. The online booking facility is completely redundant. You think you've booked, then you find out you're just on a waiting list. The only way to actually book is over the phone, but they rarely pick-up.

Price - At £130 the tasting menu would be very good value I thought for a Michelin star. However, 4months after booking they called 5 days before and slipped in that the price is now £160. It was done in a sneaky way - not informing me, but assuming that this had been the price all along. I flagged this and asked why they couldn't honour the original price, they said it was because of new dishes/ingredients. I had studied the menu in detail and this was not the case. *Suggestion to management - Just honour the original booking price and change the price for future bookings. It's a really bad start for diners.

Seating - After 4 months of waiting, you'd expect a nice table. We were seated outside in the cheaply done extension which is a conservatory. The lighting is different, there's no music and the heating is literally patio heating. It's not a calming environment, because the front door is constantly opening with new diners arriving and there's not much space between that and the tables. They also put a service station (small table where they put empty dishes), right behind my guests. Very close, so they were constantly being disturbed by clattering and having to lean forwards to let staff drop plates. I've never seen anything like that in a Michelin restaurant. *Suggestion to management - Make the conservatory walk-in only. Keep the inside for reservations. You'll have no problem filling and at least there's a feeling of 'fairness' with everyone knowing what they're getting. Also, do not put a service station centimetres behind guests heads - it's very unsettling and easily avoidable. It's not a huge restaurant, so this isn't necessary.

Service - We were refused an indoor table. I wonder if the Michelin inspectors were made to sit outside..? When I said why I wanted to move inside (decor, ambience etc), one member of staff said "it's exactly the same." I found that to be a very strange and inaccurate comment and not one to make to a customer. One female waiter was very nice indeed - the right tone, polite, funny and caring service. Others we encountered were quite pleasant and one other was really rather grumpy. The standard was not close to what I've seen in other truly Michelin star level restaurants.

Menu - I was amazed at how unaccommodating they were for intolerances and allergies. Two of our original guests were unable to come because of this. *Suggestion to management - It really is very strange not to have some options for this - I would build some flexibility.

Food - Very interesting and quite tasty. My guests all very much enjoyed what they ate.

I hope the suggestions are useful. I'm not trying to be difficult - lots of really easy fixes, but very important...