Yimchai (Kingston) — Restaurant in London

After having a long and stressful (as well as foodless) day, me and my friend were looking forward to going to a restaurant and indulging. We were absolutely starving when we ordered our food, including a whole roast duck. Which we agreed that if we would not finish, that we would split it and take it home. All the side dishes we ordered were great, but we were really waiting for the main dish. When the duck came out, we were drooling. We ate 1-2 pieces each when we started questioning whether the food should be stone cold. With the London temperature being 1 degrees outside, we were looking forward to roasting hot duck. We asked the waiter to heat up the duck, and she said it was already room temperature (which it was not), she explained that the more they cook it, the skin and meat with dry up? Anyway she took the dish and came back, not 5 mins later, when my friend and I started eating it, it still wasn’t hot, let alone room temperature. My friend then discovered that some pieces were pinky red, which we found extremely off putting, we then questioned the manager once more, and she paused and looked at the duck for a long time and apprehensively agreed. So once again, she took the duck to have it cooked some more. It came out again, not 5 mins later, and to be honest, at this point, we were starting to lose our hunger. Once more we tucked in, a lot less excited than the beginning, and after consuming 2-3 more pieces, I was getting a strong metallic taste in my mouth (blood), and I just stopped eating, my friend also ate a piece and she got the exact same. At that moment, we asked for the manager to bring the bill and we explained that we couldn’t eat it because of this reason. Her response to us was that we were too enthusiastic about how much we ordered an that we wouldn’t have been able to finish in the first place and that we shouldn’t have ordered too much, also telling us it’s the bestselling item on the menu and then sell ducks left right and centre all day every day. How can you question a customer on how much they are ordering! When it came to paying, I asked for some money off as we literally didn’t even touch a quarter of the duck and it even went back twice, her response was that they don’t have service charge (which I would never have paid in the first place if they did) and she’ll take only 10% off. Absolutely ridiculous, don’t blame yourself, blame the customer for raw duck that costs £38. Never coming back again,...

My wife and I usually frequent this restaurant and have always found it to be the best with good food and good service, however this evening I took my father with me and the prawn crackers were old and stale so we sent them back. We then ordered our starters and the waitress who took our order told me not to state the name of the dishes when ordering but to give her the numbers. It was like a Chinese takeaway experience and not what you expect in a restaurant. She said she is not Chinese so doesn’t know the names of the dishes! When the chicken satay arrived it was dry and over cooked and not wanting to be an unreasonable ‘complainer’ I asked the manager to come and have a look to show her, to our surprise she defended the quality and said they have been serving this all day and nobody has complained and this is how they are supposed to be. I explained I have eaten here many times and they were previously always soft and tender but she maintained her position without apologising and rolled her eyes and took them away. Then our crispy aromatic duck arrived (which was not crispy) followed shortly by the steamed dumplings, the new waitress who stated earlier she was not familiar with Chinese cuisine took the lid off the dumplings and took it away. We asked the manager to please bring a lid back in order to keep them warm whilst we ate the duck and she instantly said the lid should not be kept on in case we burn ourselves. At this point it was becoming rather laughable and we realised the attitude here has totally changed and is not what it used to be like pre pandemic days. I hope the owner of the restaurant reads this review and quickly addresses these matters as they are at risk of loosing long term...

Our party of four arrived at 8.45pm on a Saturday evening - but the restaurant was almost empty - why? I convinced myself were were in for a poor dining experience and I've never been so wrong. The restaurant is modern looking with comfortable seating. The serving staff were all helpful, polite and cheerful, but the best thing of all is the food - really really good. I had ribs in a 'Peking' sauce that were probably the best I've ever had in a Chinese restaurant - meaty, a good amount of fat and a delicious sauce. Similarly, the satay chicken, beautifully marinated, cooked to perfection and served with a lovely fix of peanut sauce. I also had shredded duck with vermicelli rice noodle soup - lemon prawns with sesame seeds - a beautifully tasty classic roast duck and the obligatory shredded crispy duck pancakes probably the only average course of the evening) Looking at the menu, you don't see anything very different from many Chinese restaurants, but the chefs at Yimchai have tweaked their recipes and chosen excellent ingredients. The four in our party all had jasmin tea along with other drinks, complimentary water and more than enough to eat, but our evening cost less than £25 per head - we were amazed !! In conclusion, I wholeheartedly recommend this restaurant and suggest you go before the locals realise what they've been missing out on and the prices go up. I'll be returning to work my way through the rest...