[1456M]

Hi,

i was in a chinese restaurant with some friends from Switzerland yesterday in TST.
The restaurant was very tidy and food was good - once it was served.
But the waiting time was very long and other tables with chinese people got their food definetley faster served.
( we wait between 20 mins and 1 hour for different dishes, on other tables they get nearly all dishes together)
I really could not figure out to be unfriendly to the personal and my mood was quite good.
I had this experience also in another chinese restaurant for lunch short time ago, but never when i am with a local friend for lunch or dinner.

Do you had same experiences or explanations?
Maybe there i do something wroing, but really dont realize.... ( i am not speaking cantonese).

Further i want to know:
-Which restaurants are allowed to charge the 10% restaurant surcharge? (how about this small street restaurants? )
- And if restaurants put a dip on the table til the main dish comes are they allowed to charge it without notice?

Cheers,
Martin

[lowlight]

To answer your questions:

1) Almost all restaurants charge 10% now. From the most expensive seafood restaurants, to smaller HK Cafes, to western restaurants like Pizza Hut.

2) Some places do charge for dips and sauces, but it seems to be quite rare.

[HKChigger]

There is no legal requirement to pay the 10% service charge. Just a huge hastle and mess if you refuse to pay it.

[erictby]

Originally Posted by 1456M

But the waiting time was very long and other tables with chinese people got their food definetley faster served.
( we wait between 20 mins and 1 hour for different dishes, on other tables they get nearly all dishes together)

I really could not figure out to be unfriendly to the personal and my mood was quite good.
I had this experience also in another chinese restaurant for lunch short time ago, but never when i am with a local friend for lunch or dinner.

Do you had same experiences or explanations?
Maybe there i do something wroing, but really dont realize.... ( i am not speaking cantonese).

Which type of restaurant you visited?

For small or medium size restaurant, sometime they will give previlleage to their regular clients which willing to buy some expensive dishes. Or some regular clients will make their reservation before come in, some of it even ordered the dishes through phone before they arrived.

For big restaurant, you can't see these because those regular clients usually will in the private room. Another possiblity for big restaurant was different chef cook for different dishes. So. some dishes take longer time.

For the small and medium size restaurant, if you are close with them, a few "trick" you can play.

1. Through phone as I mentioned above.
2. While place order,ask them what dishes are in the front kitchen queue list, so you can order the same dishes to join the same cooking, so you can enjoy the dishes faster.

etc...

[xiaoma2]

I experienced once as 1456 in one of the restaurants in #1 Beijing road TST. I think it's nothing related to whether you're Cantonese or not.
You can try the 2nd time or 3rd time to see if this happens again.
For the 10% service charge, it's stated in the menu. Once you order, you by default accept this. Only those 'local tea restaurant' will not charge that.

[xiaoma2]

BTW, if you wait for an unreasonable time, just ask a waiter. In fact it may not really useful, at least they know you lose patient or you could check if they miss the order.

[sp1key]

just tell them you would like to cancel the order if it doesnt come within the next 2minutes... and really if it doesnt come after that time, feel free to pay up excluding those dishes that didnt make it.