City Wok — Restaurant in Palm Desert

My experience with the service and food was poor and disappointing. This City Wok is located at the mall in Palm Desert. This was a family outing with my wife and 2 children age 12 and 8 as we went to shop at the mall first. My kids suggested Thai Cuisine as it is their favorite. I suggested somewhere where we would have a better experience instead of the food court since we don’t get a lot of family time due to work and kids activities.

First step into this restaurant and it felt chaotic and unorganized. We waited to be acknowledged which took them until we reached out to be seated. The lady seating us was so on edge and scatterbrained that she only gave us 3 menus. As she came back (which wasn’t right away) had to ask for 2 kids which I shouldn’t have to ask as clearly my kids look like children. The lady wasn’t just scatters brained but seemed like she was rushing us by talking extremely fast and not listening to what I was asking including when I asked what brand of Spiced Rum they had. Instead she gave me a drink menu which should have been given to me from the get go. The drink menu did not describe what kind of Spiced Rum they carried. At this point I am extremely dissatisfied but not yet upset as I want to have a good time with my family.

As the server came back I placed my order and my wife placed hers and the kids placed theirs. The server mentioned that it was happy hour and we had ordered drinks and food that was on the happy hour menu and we should order to save a few dollars. My wife agreed and I was reluctant but after quick thinking I agreed as well. We placed our orders at roughly 550pm and happy hour was over at 6p.

The server comes back at 601pm and says that happy hour is over and she wasn’t able to put it in the system quick enough and we are going to have to pay full price and that the owner of the restaurant is there. We are dumbfounded that we don’t agree and disagree. With her whirlwind like presence she leaves and she brings us our drinks. And I tell her “You know what just forget it we will go eat somewhere else.” She changes her tone and says “I don’t want any problems I’ll just give it to you.”

We agree and stay seated and as it takes me a little while to compose myself as I am extremely upset at the whole experience. Keep in mind I am extremely understanding, patient and humble as I manage over 150 employees successfully in customer service as a living. That being said if she was my employee I would have said make it right it’s only 1 minute after 6pm but instead she managed to upset a customer that will not longer be back and will spread his experience by word of mouth which is bad publicity.

The cherry on the top (I don’t know if it was being vindictive or not) was she charged for my kids drinks and their dessert despite it stating that, that was included with their meal. In addition we were charged full price for the alcoholic drinks that we ordered during happy hour. Which I didn’t make a big deal because I wanted to have a good time with my family and was over the whole experience.

Part of me assumes that it was racially motivated, economically discriminated or discriminated for being an interracial couple with kids as the older Caucasian males seating near us were not in any way affected. My conclusion of that was that the owner came by and asked the older Caucasian table if everything went well which he skipped by our table without even a smile or acknowledgment. But it’s only my assumption.

Please draw your own conclusion but as for my family and I’m concerned I will take some time to go down the street to PFChangs at the River for the better food, and definitely the better service.

Thank you...

13 days in Palm Desert and I’m really missing my Korean Cuckoo rice cooker. I researched various Chinese restaurants in Palm Desert and was impressed with City Wok’s website claims: “our sauces are homemade. We never use MSG. We believe in Clean…” Since all dishes are supposedly made-to-order, we felt that we should be able to order something without garlic in the sauce or content. The interior has more of a California Club ambiance than Chinese Restaurant. The host and servers are friendly enough though. We ordered Chicken Satay, Steamed+ Fried Chicken Dumplings. Braised Tofu was in the online menu, but not showing on the dine-in menu, but they agreed to make it for us. Upon request, they made our dishes without garlic, including the braised tofu. The chicken satays were already marinated with garlic and cannot be changed. First to arrive were the steamed fried dumplings which were ok as European dumplings, but not delicate enough as Chinese dumplings. Parts of the dumplings with double dough were under steamed and tough – this would never have happened in a proper Shanghai restaurant as they would have steamed or boiled the dumplings more thoroughly before frying to get the soft & moist but crispy texture. The house-made sauce was very pleasant. The chicken satays were a big surprise, we expected delicate pieces of chicken tenders on skewers, instead, they were four chicken breasts, each on a stick. The garlic was light and not detectable at the restaurant but the garlic effects was still noticeable long afterwards. The breasts were not tough, on the dry side, and BBQ’d too long, burnt like Portuguese BBQ chicken instead of tender and juicy like Malaysian/Thai/ satays. The difference may be in the size of each piece, since they are so big, they would naturally have to be cooked longer. Because they were so gigantic, it was not possible to enjoy them like bite-size appetizer satays. The rice was a bit dry (not enough water) some people like their rice tough, we prefer our rice more steamy & soft. The tofu dish was OK, again, not very authentic, the bamboo shoots were the toughest I've ever had. Our server was a very nice lady and always approached our table with a smile. She alone gets five stars. The inside section where we sat felt like a fast food place – a different feel than the patio. Unfortunately, all the outside tables were taken. One thing I forgot to try was the half size, it would have been a great idea for the chicken skewers and actually everything else as we left half the chicken and tofu as neither of us enjoy this kind of left over Chinese food as it would have been two greasy on...

We frequented the former PD location on CC for years and tried the new (mall) location for dinner this evening.

Same great food we've always enjoyed, same outstanding service.

Ambiance is very pleasing, better outdoor dining than the former location.

Inside was smaller than we expected. NOISY to the point we had a very difficult time communicating with our server throughout our visit. I will say there was a big group close to us who left after we'd been there, and all we would think of is how noisy it's going to be in season. That was a major disappointment to us.

The mall parking lot was far more congested than we had expected for 4pm out of season.

We were seated near the mall entrance glass wall, and it was enjoyable people watching during our visit.

In all honesty we are pretty disappointed in this new location. We kept an open mind through out our visit, and did have an enjoyable walk through the mall after dinner. I'm sure we will be back, but this location falls short of our dining expectations which is difficult to admit as much as we enjoyed the former location. It is worth a try to draw your...