Harbor Bay Village Seafood-Chinese Food-Take Out — Restaurant in Newark

After we were sat, it took a while for someone to take our order. It seemed that one particular service lady would rather gossip with customers instead of take our order. We ordered 6 dishes and 5 of them came out. As the lady was placing the food on our table, we asked for a few bowls. Instead of acknowledging us, she looked very disgruntled as if we were disturbing her and yelled at another worker for bowls. The other worker said "bowls" which she then proceeded to say, "I didn't ask, they asked for bowls". Then I attempted to ask for a glass of water, and again, she was huffing and puffing to get another worker to do it for her. But seconds later, she was at the table next to us, smiling and laughing with all the gossip from other guests.

Our 1/2 order of chicken still didn't come out as we were eating, and we figured it was just a little late. We finished eating, trying not to ask for any other service because the lady was very rude, and we asked for the check. The rude service lady then brought out our 1/2 chicken. It was 35 minutes after all the other 5 plates of food came out. We told the lady we were done eating and she began to argue with my elderly parents saying "we already cut the chicken", followed by "you haven't paid yet" even though we asked for the check and the credit card was already in our hands. She wouldn't stop arguing so I had to interject and tell her that, what are we going to eat the chicken with, all the rice is gone and you came over 30 minutes late with the food. She had nothing to say back to me.

The servers got together and realized that the lady that was gossiping, and angry, placed the chicken dish at a different table where those guests ate the chicken. They said that the other table had "already paid and ate all the meat off the bones of the chicken". So that means the other table got a free plate of chicken, and they were debating on what they would do with us. The rude server lady then yelled "they don't want it", and my dad had to say, "no if we didn't want it we wouldn't have ordered it. We don't want it 35 mins after we have started our meal and finished it."

Ultimately they took off the chicken plate from our check and we paid in cash. As we were waiting for our change, it never came! We had to ask if there was change coming, and one of the servers went to ask the cashier "where is the change" and you can hear the cashier say "what change, there isn't even enough for a tip"

Absolutely ridiculous! Now, I'm always for tipping at restaurants, but after having rude customer service for bowls and a water, having the same lady argue and yell at my elderly parents, and the cashier not giving back change; I did not leave a tip at all. Especially after the cashier rudely came to the table to say "hey it was 9 dollars change right? it's not even enough for a tip" where my father proceeded to say "it's my right to leave whatever tip I want to leave and that's not your decision"

Needless to say, we won't be back for dinner or dimsum. We used to go there often for dimsum, but we won't return.

1 star for the food, most of it came our warm or cold. 1 star for the service, because the service lady and cashier were rude. 2 star for atmosphere because it was quiet (probably because others have been chased away from the terrible service) and also because they had a high chair for my 9 month old.

DO NOT COME...

4/21/2024

Every time when my daughter came home from school, she must go to this restaurant for dimsum, to her it’s much better than any restaurant in NY. The food here has been always excellent, and the prices are quite reasonable. Our favorite dishes are chicken feet, beef tripes, meatballs, xiu mai, beef rice crepes, taro crispy cake, tofu wraps. All the dishes seasoning and cooked just right and tasty. The service is quick and attentive as always. Now the service charge of 15% is added automatically, so no need to add more.

5/17/2023

This place has been renamed a few time. This is our favorite dimsum restaurant since forever. The kids love this place and we come here on the weekends for special occasions or just to eat out. We came back here on mother’s day, the place was packed, we had to wait for a while, but the food is worth the wait. The service has always been quick and attentive. The food carts come just in time for us to satisfy our hunger. The food is hot and tasty as always. There are plenty of parking spaces front and back. The prices are competitive although getting more expensive than before, but what hasn’t? Actually we come here at least once a month whenever we feel like dimsum. We love the chicken feet, the kids love xiu mai, shrimp dumplings, tripes, meat balls, tofu wraps, rice pancakes. We do spend money here LOL.

Update 2/4/2023

This place is where my family wants to have dimsum, it’s been a while since we’ve been here. The owner had been changed as I heard but the food is still excellent and the prices are not bad. The important thing is the food is tasty and the service is great. We’re hungry at lunch and the carts came out quickly, my kids had all the dishes they craved for and I had my chicken feet, I’m happy. Not sure why the ratings is low. For us, good food, good price, good service, clean restaurant, we’re happy and this one to us, has it all. Although the parking lot is big but sometimes we have to go around the back to park.

This used to be Saigon Harbor seafood restaurant that we used to come for dimsum in Newark. The kids wanted to eat dimsum again. Since the COVID rules had been relaxed, we came to have sitting dimsum. My wife was skeptical about the name changed, she was afraid that the food wasn’t as good as before. We’re surprised that the foods were better than before. The service was great as ever and we noticed most of the people were the same. All the food were tasty and the portions were big, although the prices are higher due to inflation. We came in late and the waiter wrote down all the dishes that we wanted and they came out quite quickly. The service was actually better than before the name changed. Yes, we will be coming back here for dimsum whenever we have the...

This place provides the whole dimsum experience with the carts. There is a wide selection of dimsum to choose from at each of the carts. There were siu miu with different meats, beef balls, shrimp dumplings, and sticky rice to name some of the ones we got. We also separately ordered the Cantonese style noodles which were nice and crispy with a good amount of sauce! The food was decent and we got to try many different dimsum. The experience of choosing what you want from the cart is fun and I recommend trying it out. A lot of smaller dimsum places don't have enough space for the carts.

The service might be a bit lacking. The server got frustrated when we were taking a bit more time selecting the tea. Also, when we asked for a specific dessert from one of the servers, they said they will send the cart over. However, we waited for a while and eventually gave up and skipped dessert. Another thing to note is that many of the servers communicate mostly in Chinese and Cantonese so it is a plus if someone in your...