Hong Kong Cafe — Restaurant in Madison

Meh. Recently I stopped in there for dinner. The staff was very friendly which is great. The downside is I felt the food was kind of just okay which wouldn't be a problem except it's also fairly expensive. Dishes like my General Tso's chicken are currently $19. Okay fine a little high in my opinion but then a couple things felt a little sketchy to me when it came to the bill. When my check came I saw they took the liberty of adding on a gratuity ($4.xx). That was pretty much what I was going to tip anyway but not sure why they felt it necessary to add it on themselves. I know how to do math and I wasn't going to stiff anybody on the tip - I don't do that. So my dish and a soda and the gratuity they added on themselves plus tax came to $28.xx. Fine. Paid with a credit card and when they brought the receipt to sign, it still included the spot to add your own gratuity (which okay fine I get the machine probably just prints that automatically). Above that was my total of $28.xx but it was labeled "pre-tip total" or something to that effect. The dollar amount was definitely not "pre-tip". It included the tip they added on themselves. I wonder how many people do not pay attention and unknowingly add another tip on top of what the restaurant has already added on as a gratuity. I don't know if that is done intentionally in the hopes of receiving a double tip from unobservant diners or not. At this point for me it doesn't matter. It all just seemed unnecessarily shady even if it wasn't their intention. Given this, plus the average food at above-average prices, means I will not...

My family and I visited Hong Kong Cafe on a Saturday just as they opened for dinner. We happened to walk up to the door as the owner was unlocking it, he did not look like he appreciated a group of 5 arriving right at 4:00 pm (first red flag!). He was quite rude. We were not aware that they close for 2 hours between lunch and dinner.

Our server was a friendly lady and we were happy with her service. In my opinion, the dishes were overpriced for the quality and quantity we received. The rest of the group thought the prices were acceptable except for two different duck dishes that were dry and overcooked.

To top off the underwhelming experience, there was a 20% gratuity added which was surprising since we were only a party of 5. Having worked in hospitality in college, I thought the standard was an automatic tip on groups of 6 or more. However, I understand different restaurants have differing policies. What my issue is that the server was not transparent about the addition so it felt seem dishonest.

Lesson learned: 1) Always review your bill! 2) There are numerous other Chinese restaurants in Madison where one can feel welcomed and not feel as if they...

To my fellow post mates people and any other delivery service I do not recommend going here especially if you are new delivery drivers. I was unaware of the hours after I accepted a delivery. When I arrived they were closed and I was forced to cancel my delivery and inform my customer of the situation. While I was doing so the owner of the establishment approached my car and told me to leave and as I said I was doing so and apologized he continued to tell me to leave and I said I am you do not need to be rude sir. I was letting my customer know what happened. He continued to yell at me and read my license plate number out loud as if he was going to call the cops on me for trespassing and as he was doing so he kept coming towards my car and I have never felt more scared in my entire life then that exact moment. Needless to say I will not be accepting deliveries from this...