Ho Sai Gai Restaurant — Restaurant in Philadelphia

I was having a bad night and wanted some good comfort food. Unfortunately, I made the mistake of giving this place a second chance. The first time wasn't great, but this time was terrible.

First, I ordered a chicken wonton soup. Wontons are usually made with pork, and I don't eat pork, so I wanted to take advantage of the fact that they have chicken wontons. Instead of being four or five delicately wrapped wontons in the soup like I am used to, they were two grotesquely large wontons, each one stuffed with one large lump of ground chicken. There wasn't any fungus or anything that is usually in the wontons to give them flavor and texture.

For my entree, I ordered a chow mein, something I had eaten my entire life all over the world whether it's Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York, or Hong Kong, and it was always the fried mein (yellow egg noodles). The "chow mein" here has no noodles at all. It's just bean sprouts, celery, and onions. The egg roll was similarly just cabbage inside, no fungus, no vermicelli, no shrimp, none of the things that give it flavor and texture.

I spoke to the waiter, an older Chinese gentleman who is very nice and friendly, about the "chow mein" and he gave me a little Chinese-American history lesson about how the Chinese here couldn't get noodles a hundred years ago and so this "chow mein" doesn't actually have any noodles. The chow mein that I want is on their Chinese language menu. Another thing is that despite the name of the restaurant being Ho Sai Gai which is Cantonese, the restaurant is actually Taiwanese, and their specialties are actually Taiwanese dishes like beef noodle soup which not even on the menu at all. What?

Deception is not good business practice. If I go to a seemingly Cantonese restaurant, it's because I want Cantonese food. If they want to cater to Chinese-Americans like me who read English instead of Chinese, why would certain items be only on the Chinese language menu? If their specialties are Taiwanese dishes, why isn't that advertised? Had I known that the chow mein I wanted was on the Chinese language menu, I would have asked for that. Had I known that their specialties are Taiwanese dishes like beef noodle soup, I would have ordered that.

Another thing is that I hate onions. I spent a lot of time trying to pick out the onion strips from the "chow mein" but it was very difficult to find all the onion strips among the bean sprouts in the clear sauce. I eventually just gave up and asked for a doggie bag. Unfortunately, between the bad food and the onions I had consumed, I felt ill that night. I was up all night feeling nauseous and threw up in the morning. Then I had diarrhea for four days. The whole experience was so bad that I will never give this place a...

I went to the Center City, Philadelphia, location last night (1/27/24) and had the worst experience:

First, the waitress, who looked and acted like a mean, little 80 year old, hurried to seat me and my friend, whom I decided to treat to "authentic" Chinese Food. Then, she rushed us to make our selection (complete with facial expressions and bored sighs). WTH?

After ignoring us for the 40 or so minutes we were there, I managed to get our check. The check, which had the amount of each item noted, was written in Chinese, so I couldn't tell what some of the smaller amounts were for. And, the check amount was $5.00 LOWER than what they charged on my credit card!?

Despite them having "tip percentage" boxes on the check one could check off, I decided the extra money they charged to my credit card would be her tip! However, as my friend and I prepared to leave, she abruptly stopped me and exclaimed, "Tip, tip!" And, that's when I decided to ask her about the smaller charges on my check. She said one was for "Hot Tea" (which I turned down and never received!) and the other charge, she said sarcastically while gesturing to the onlookers in the crowded room, was for "Food tax that everyone pays." I explained that I never received tea and that although I expected to be taxed, I didn't expect the check to have one amount, but my credit card charged $5+ over and above the check's total. At that point, she mumbled some things while rushing me out of the door!

The last time I went to Ho Sai Gai was 15 years ago, and they were great. Now, the food is subpar, they "pad" your bill, and the service SUCKS!

One final thing, in addition to last night's horrible experience, l later became nauseous behind their salty and greasy Beef and String Beans plate and their Orange Chicken plate with the muddy,...

I dined in here for dinner. I ordered Hot & Spicy Hunan Wings, Red Cooked Beef w Chinese Broccoli, and a Mango Smoothie. The wings were crispy and maintained their crisp despite the lovely wet, sticky sauce that they were served in. All of the vegetables that they came with tasted very fresh. There was something about the flavor of the wings that I couldn’t quite place and it may have been reused cooking oil, but this mostly seemed to give the flavor of the wings a more positive complex character, rather than detracting too much from the experience.

The beef had an amazing rich, complex flavor and was a very lovely tender texture, but it was a bit too salty. I still very much enjoyed it as it was very tasty otherwise. It was definitely worth the price and was probably one of the best beef dishes I’ve had.

The smoothie was alright, and a refreshing relief from the spiciness of the wings, but it was not very homogenous in texture.

The server was friendly and attentive, which was much appreciated. However, he asked if I wanted tea when I first arrived, which is usually not an extra charge at Chinese restaurants, so I was disappointed to find a charge for this on my bill without having been informed in advance about it. The same happened with the plain white rice - it is often included, so I didn’t know it would be an extra charge until I received the bill. This would be less of an issue if customers are informed in advance that these are separate charges.

The atmosphere of the restaurant is overall warm and comfortable. The dining room appeared very clean. They do have a TV, on which they had the news playing and in my opinion, no matter what is playing, a TV detracts from...