Consistently worst at Ruby Tuesday, Taikooshing HK

There are times we might make some X-file mistake of going back to places where we had some horrible time.  Last weekend I did such a X-file return to this place.  A one trip salad bar at HK$88 for some canned fruits and veggie in no-frills salad dressing.  The beef burger (HK$128) can be the more eatable one, but only the burger.  The fries is warm and too wet and oily.  The fish fingers - forget it.  It's soaked in the oil not deep fried.  The waitress kept on asking me to join their membership (payment of HK$250 for 3 months and getting 50% discount).  I kept on replying "no need".

Fallen Dynasty - Sweet Dynasty, Hysan Place, Causeway Bay HK

Such so many bad lucks with all the branches in this new mall Hysan Place, including this one which used to be my favourite place (only the Happy Valley main shop but now no more).  The branch in Happy Valley reminds me of so much good old memory esp. with my very best friend that we often got their almond sweet and pork chop on rice.  Unfortunately, this new branch didn't even keep up to a standard of a decent Cantonese dessert shop.  The almond sweet is horrible like corn starch water.  The red bean herbal jelly is not chilled and the red bean is not cooked well.  The only half edible one is their sticky rice dumpling with Malteser (photo 2) because of Malteser.

An hour for a meal but a day of suffering, at Piccolo Pizza & Bar, Tin Hau, HK

Some areas in HK, like Tin Hau, Soho or Kowloon City are not what I prefer to visit. Restaurants are mostly on the surface and charging higher than normal, and with many human-like scanners. For those who wanna show off, these 3 areas are the choices. With this pressure, I tried not to have any prejudice in judging the food in restaurants I tried in these areas. However, not only me but also my friends have the same feeling.

Got attracted to this place due to its fireplace for baking pizza. Thought it's a good one. The pizza is just average. The sauce is too thin and the cheese too, but it's charged at HK$135. The important dough isn't that appealing either. The house salad (HK$68) is in a very small portion. It's interestingly put on a small plate for a coffee cup, not a decent plate. The veggie was tossed with some cheap olive oil and lemon juice. Supposed it's a correct making but the cheap olive oil destroyed the whole dish. This is worse than a fast shop indeed. Tried their so-called signature calamari (HK$68). The squid wasn't fresh and the coating didn't cover up that. A disastrous dish! See the shop entrance. Click to enlarge to see how they treat customers. Besides the table where 2 customers are there, there is one more table on the other side at the entrance. So the entrance is only 1 foot wide. We needed to walk pass it like a snake. Most of all, they are not charging street stall prices when they are giving services worse than street stall. BTW, they reminded every customer to return the table in an hour time.

Consistent worst meal at Lan Fong Yuen, Woodhouse basement, Tsimshatsui, Kowloon

The last several times at the courtesy of my friends that I went to Lan Fong Yuen in Central were still so horrible. This time I gave another try at their branch at the basement of Woodhouse TST. The answer is still "the no. 1 in its worst consistency". Check photo 3: I ordered an iced ovaltine. I recall my French friends calling certain coffee as "stocking water". Next to it is their house signature pork chop bun. When I saw this sesame bun and the ever-so-thin pork chop, I hesitated. Supposed the bun should be a crispy "piggy" bun. Photo 4: corned beef with egg sandwich - so so... The only (or I should say "better") good one is their milk tea though not the best to me. Forget it!

Rip-off breakfast at Chu's Cafe, True Fitness tower, Asoke, Sukhumvit BKK

So after the interesting one-kitchen-two-system breakfast at Minibar Royale, I was frustrated in finding another place for breakfast but simply checked the one nearer to Park Plaza soi 18. Chinese saying - don't care if it's good or bad, convenience matters 唔理好醜，只要就手.

So I was given a breakfast with a panini set at around THB260-320. Then I ordered an iced mocha together with a roast beef panini. The bill came and showed a separate charge of the iced mocha of THB130. As I checked with the waitress, then she pointed at the small square box on the menu "add THB100 for a hot coffee/tea and a brownie". I decided not to argue with them about why Panini set is titled on the menu, since the waitress didn't respond with a word.

The iced mocha is not bad, but the panini is awful - too hard to chew. The filling is not bad but just over-cooked. Waste of food. On photo 2, one thing caught my attention. Choose from dark chocolate 58%, milk chocolate 35% and white chocolate 28%. It has been known to most people that dark and milk chocolate are one type of chocolate with varying cocoa solids, but white chocolate is another type of chocolate without cocoa solids.

On photo 3, check on a note on right top. do not bring food and drink from outside, esp. Starbucks and Cha Lee. So by now we know who the owner of this shop is.

In conclusion, the lesson learned from here tells us not to take the most of convenience. So the next morning I walked across the street and got a very nice breakfast of a 6 inch sub-sandwich with a hot coffee from Subway at just THB69. At least the bread of Subway is far much better than this place.

Luk Yu Tea House 陸羽茶館 (not the one of HK), Starhill Gallery, Kuala Lumpur

This place is just opposite to my favourite Korean restaurant KoRyo on the basement of Starhill Gallery and it's been there for quite some years. At first, I doubted how good it would be. So as Ritz Carlton gave a RM50 discount voucher for the bill over RM100. I took it a try. Turned out I needed to take another meal right after.

1. The shao mai was horrible and the chef used ground chicken meat, but it had the frozen smell. 2. The chicken feet wasn't deep fried well first to make it a bit spongy under steaming effect. 3. BBQ pork bun was too wet inside. 4. this is the most awful stir fried flat noodle in seafood egg sauce. Some frozen seafood was used and the ginger slices weren't first pan fried to make it aromatic to offset the frozen smell of the seafood. 5. See that miserable steamed rice roll. The flour wasn't made it right and it's too mashy. They put the baby bak choy to go with it to make it a bit bigger. Then at last the 2 desserts almond tofu and mango pomelo - forget it!

Horrible dinner at Wan Hao Xuan 萬豪軒, JW Marriott Shanghai

Due to my good impression of The Pearl of Marriott City Wall Beijing, I thought the Chinese restaurants of this JW Marriott shouldn't be missed. The answer is "so wrong"! This one is double worse than Wan Hao of JW Marriott HK and BKK.

First the drunken chicken - it's not either with any wine or chicken flavour. So I asked the waitress "is it a drunken chicken?". I pointed out it's not with any wine and chicken flavour. Then she replied "our drunken chicken is in a special cooking style that light taste is the main point.". I kept on telling her "this is Shanghai and this dish is a symbolic dish of Shanghai cuisine. This is not about the cooking style. It's about the essence of this renowned dish...etc.". Then she handed me a comment form to fill in. At first, I did write down what I feel. However, after the other dishes, I crossed out my comments and decided this restaurant doesn't deserve a single word of comments. The pork terrine is too hard and yet a strong smell of fridge. The soup is average. Another horrible dish is the stir fried beef. Check how small the portion is. Besides, the thickening is in a wrong step not even a beginner chef should make this mistake. See how those thickening be in bits and pieces. That means the chef didn't stir in well.

As I left the restaurant, I found out it got a best restaurant. Really amazing!