Ten Asian Food Hall — Restaurant in Philadelphia

My first visit was about 6-8 weeks ago and I didn't want to write a review because the place was clearly still going through it's opening hiccups. A few things have improved (the food) but the service is still crazy slow.

The good - the food is pretty good. My first chicken sandwich a few weeks ago was minuscule (especially for over $6). Today, it was actually pretty enormous (almost too big... I think there were TWO pieces of chicken in there which made it a little unwieldy, but can't complain about not getting a large enough sandwich). Is it the best chicken sandwich or best ramen or best poke in the city? No, but it's pretty good and priced competitively. Tea is not bad.

The service is a real killer though. I waited almost 30 minutes for a take-out chicken meal. Receipt was printed at 12:24pm, and my tea was delivered around 12:40. That's a 15 minute wait just for tea. The rest of the meal was delivered another 12 minutes after that. That's slower than some sit-down restaurants. For comparison, with 5 people ahead of me at another tea joint in Chinatown, the time between receipt print and receiving my tea was 4 minutes.

The other issue, which might be almost impossible to fix, is the incredibly poor layout of the interior. The line forms around the counter. But the menus are behind the registers and you can't actually see the menu if you're waiting in line. I think this causes a big delay at checkout because everyone is waiting for the person making their order to read the menu.

Also, there's no clear indication of where the line(s?) form. On my first visit, there were no signs or markers whatsoever. On my recent visit, there was a cordoned area, but they put the "line starts here" sign all the way at the finish/end of the line. Then, when you're waiting for your order, everyone is crammed into a tiny little space right up against tables where people are eating.

Finally, when the order numbers are called out, the staff randomly decide where to put your tea and food order. The staff calls out the order number, and then leaves your tea somewhere along the counter - by the register, on top of the Poke area, or near the "pickup" spot.

Another suggestion might be to get order number placards (like how Dizengoff does it) so that the staff can clearly identify where their order needs to go.

It's a shame; the food has improved but I almost felt like the...

Well unfortunately it was pretty bad and I had high Hope's, I even talked my friend into not going to her favorite place that nite. It started with no one working at the awkward front area when you walk in then a girl came from the bar and had her purse on her so I wasn't sure if she worked there and said 3 in your party? And we said no the guy next to us wasn't with us so she said oh and walked away, very odd. After another long wait a server eventually seated us. Apparently next to a broken elevator that kept opening and shutting over and over which at first I didn't really care but after 10 mins and 100xs of opening and closing I asked if we can be moved and she said yea sorry its broken (obviously lol) and they couldn't move us when the restaurant was only half full. Should have left then, then the bartender came over and started spouting off different beers and that's when I interrupted her and said do you not have the beer I ordered in stock? And she said well yea that's why I'm telling them and I said ok well I wasn't sure if you knew I ordered and didn't want to waste your time. She said real cocky this is my job at that point I was turned off so I said forget it. It was so bad even the table next to us started laughing and then said maybe we should all move our meals into the broke elevator lol. Food was ok definitely not worth...

I was honestly a little disgusted by the dirty tray that I was served on. It was sticky and had a dry piece of rice on it, and had clearly never been washed. Looking around, I noticed that many of the other patrons had a brown piece of paper over the tray. Not sure why I was served in such a filthy tray... I did point this out at the end of my meal however the only person behind the counter who could answer me claimed that it is really hard to wash these trays 😔

Regarding the food. This is my second time here. I had the poke bowl the first time around and it was good. This time I decided to try the lunch special that is apparently discounted 50%. I went with the salmon bento box. I thought that the food had good flavor and was delicious. The miso, rice and salad were ok. Quantity wise though, the salmon fillet was 1/4 inch thick and about 3 inches wide and 5 inches long. I would have been very disappointed had I paid the full price of ~$13. (Also paid $2.50 for a San Pellegrino limonata that is cheaper $1.85 next door at Paris baguette)

I probably wouldn't...