Hello Oriental Trafford Centre — Restaurant in Trafford

I am utterly disappointed with my experience at Hello Oriental yesterday at the Trafford Centre perhaps the worst experience I have ever had at a restaurant in my whole life I’m afraid. I visited yesterday with four of my friends and queued up for around 15- 20 minutes for a table, we didn’t mind as we were hungry and had heard great things about Hello Oriental online. Firstly, a couple and their baby skipped the whole queue of people and walked into the restaurant, my friend pointed this out to one of the staff as they sat on a big table - there were plenty of tables for 3 and we were waiting a while for a table of 5. The staff member apologised and moved them to a smaller table so we could sit at a table for 5 as we had waited. We were pleased by this and sat at our table, it was dirty and had not been wiped but we didn’t mind so much as we were hungry. We were then told the food would come out as and when it was ready, again we didn’t mind this as many restaurants use this nowadays. We had waited around 35 minutes and were bought the prawn crackers we had ordered. Half of the prawn crackers were rock hard, undercooked and inedible, we politely raised this with our server who was lovely, apologised and brought some more out for us. Unfortunately the second batch of prawn crackers were the same as the first. My friend then got beef satai brought to her, which I can say looked a little odd, she attempted to eat it but noted it was ‘disgusting’. Another of my friends was bought her soft noodles as a side (her main then did not come out until around 40 minutes after this). I was brought the beef pho I had ordered, I have had this before elsewhere and I enjoy the dish as a whole, I have never seen it as it was yesterday, the herbs and chilli were brought on a side dish and looked dehydrated. Even the lime was brown and looked off and disheveled. The beef was like chewing a boot and looked an odd colour, the broth tasted like aniseed? Quite a bizarre taste and I could not eat it. My other friend order the chilli beef and it literally filled the whole table with a strong, pungent vinegar smell. She said it tasted like brown sauce and could not eat it. We ordered salt and pepper chips and salt and pepper chicken. Immediately one of my friends who works in hospitality recognised that they had been seasoned with cayenne pepper. We were never informed of this before ordering. Upon cutting the chicken, my friends discovered it was grey, completely inedible along with the odd seasoning of cayenne pepper. Even the draught coke was flat and tasted odd. We raised this with our server and he referred us to the manager, who seemed to be swept off her feet. Upon looking around the restaurant it seemed as though a lot of other customers felt the same way, a lot of full plates of uneaten food and disgruntled faces. We waited around 20 minutes to speak to the manager, she had first told us she would take 30% off our bill - we had not even eaten 30% of our meal! After further discussion she agreed to a full refund and eventually apologised. As we had ordered from the QR code on the table and paid as a ‘guest’, the manager said it would be more complex to receive our refund, she could not refund us through their card machine either. Oddly, we then all gave our email addresses, amount that each of us paid for our meal and our order numbers on a notes app on the managers phone, she said we would all receive an email soon to organise a full refund for each of us. I’m not sure how legitimate this was, or if we will ever receive a refund - but as of now none of us have received a follow up email regarding this. All five of us, though we ate little of the food at Hello Oriental have since experienced food poisoning symptoms which is no surprise. Overall an absolute disaster, will obviously not return...

Disappointing Experience at Hello Oriental, Trafford Centre

I decided to make a reservation at the newly opened Hello Oriental restaurant at the Trafford Centre on 1st February, and unfortunately, it was a decision I came to regret. The restaurant had heavily promoted a grand Lunar New Year celebration on social media, promising a spectacular dragon dance and traditional red envelopes containing surprises such as discounts and complimentary dishes. However, none of this materialised. When I enquired with a waiter, he assured me we would receive a red envelope at the end, but we left empty-handed.

The food experience was equally underwhelming. Ordering through the QR code was frustrating due to poor internet connectivity. Once the order was finally placed, the wait for the food was excruciatingly long. When it did arrive, it was a complete let-down, especially for the fine dining prices being charged.

Salt & Pepper Chips: Average, nothing special.

Korean Chicken Loaded Fries: Dry chips with minimal toppings.

Salt & Pepper Crispy Chicken: Over-battered, salty, and bland. This was a restaurant, not a takeaway, yet the food didn’t even meet takeaway standards—let alone those of a well-established restaurant like this, which is their second venue in Manchester.

Vegetable Spring Rolls: Surprisingly one of the best items, paired well with the sweet chilli dip.

Drinks: A basic cranberry juice and 7UP Free.

The only saving grace of the evening was that the restaurant was Halal and Kim, the server, who was friendly, knowledgeable, and attentive. However, even her excellent service couldn’t redeem the poor food quality and disappointing ambiance. The open-plan layout made half the diners feel as though they were seated in a cold walkway within the centre.

For the price and hype, I expected much more from Hello Oriental. Sadly, it felt like overpriced takeaway food served in a chaotic setting. It's a real shame given their promise of a vibrant Lunar New Year celebration, which never came to fruition. I sincerely hope they improve both their food standards and customer experience...

Staff very friendly, Ange was the star of the show.

Reason for 2 stars is a few things, portion size is very small compared to most places around, prices is high, when i ordered bao buns for £6 i was expecting around 3 to 4 bao buns for that price as everywhere else its usually 4 for £5, instead i received 1 Bao Bun for £6, very very very overpriced, the bao bun had no taste at all, first time ever i actually ate a bad bao bun anywhere tbh, to improve this remove the chicken you put in now as its flavourless and dry, put your korean fried chicken inside.

Next reason, i ordered korean fried chicken, theres nothing to accompany it, such as chips, noodles or rice, and neither is there an option to order these seperate unless buying another main dish, that needs solving, as eating just chicken it gets boring and sickening.

The next reason is the small tables, how you putting 4 grown adults on 1 small table, multiple times there was accidents of drinks spilling, sauce spilling, all due to lack of space, and your plates and bowls are small if they struggle to fit on the table safely then theres a issue there.

So please sort out your table sizes, those small tables is only good for table of 2.

The speed of the food coming out was very good, i counted 8 people working in the kitchen that i could see hence the good speed.

The cutlery was a little dirty so that needs improving on, the plates and table was clean though, the tissues are just like your tables too small haha, cmon guys how much money you trying to squeeze out of customers, especially when charging extortionate prices for the portion sizes at least make sure everything is good.

All these things can easily be fixed if manager or owner wants to sort them. Not expensive to sort these issues.

It was my first time here and will be my last, theres so much better food choices in the trafford centre that its not even worth coming back here again.

I eat a lot of food and go out a lot, i also have ran restuarants myself to know that you guys can do a lot better, Ange you are very good woman keep up...