Yum Cha Ending Without Dessert

Belated Post
19th April 2009

Kam Fook restaurants in Sydney are very famous, well known. During our (me & CL) uni days, we only manage to Yum Cha at Kum Fook during special occasion like after our exam or someone birthday as we were so tight on budget. As for dinner at Kam Fook was totally out of question. I love their yum cha. Last time I had yum cha there was 2 years ago at Bondi Junction,Sydney with my parents.

When I found out Kam Fook is coming to Melbourne, I got excited. It was supposed to be opened end of 2008. But we ended up waiting for months till April 2009. Why the long delay? Who knows. But it only proved they definitely earning a lot/at least enough to cover their lose from the restaurants in Sydney.

We planned to do some shopping at Westfield on Sunday morning and at the same time try the newly open Kam Fook Yum Cha if we manage to get a table. We were happy when we had no trouble getting a table, in fact the place was pretty empty. Bet their opening news has not really spread.

1st impression was actually pretty good. Tea was served fast and trolleys of food came fast too.

First we had Char Siew Bao, Chicken Feet and Pork Spare Ribs.

Chicken Feet was good. Full of flavour and not over cooked. It doesn't break into parts when I lifted it up using my chopstick. As for the spare ribs, nothing fantastic, the usual.

Char Siew Bao was disappointing. The filling was nice, not too sweet, not too dry nor wet. BUT the dough was not soft and fluffy enough. It was quite compressed and dense. :( I admit, when it comes to Char Siew Bao, I super picky!!!

Next was Congee (pork and century egg). The serving was HUGE! BUTTTT another disappointment!!!! It look thick but it wasn't! After a few stir, it all became super watery. Plus it was bland, tasteless. *faint* 1st time we adding soya sauce to our cooked food.

Follow up was Siew Mai and Har Gao. *shake head* I don't really remember what the siew mai taste like except it was dry. Definitely didn't leave good/ bad impression on me. As for the har gao, it was definitely dry! The skin was dry the filling was dry. Both oversteam???

After 6 dishes, we conclude the food wasn't as good as Tai Pan nor Golden Dragon Palace which were only 5 mins drive away from Kam Fook. So food wasn't their selling point.

As for their service, it all went downhill after we were seated within 15mins. Patrons started coming in, more tables were filled. We were being ignored! Trolleys stopped coming our area after they saw us stopped eating. What's there for us to eat when we had finished all the food we ordered and waiting for more????

Noticed we aren't being served, we decided to skip everything and go for the dessert. Saw the trolley, spend 15mins waiting but it never made it to our table/area. In the end, I had to asked a waiter who was topping up hot water for our tea what desserts were available. His answer was " I call the gal to push the trolley over". (For those who aren't familiar, only waitress served food/push trolleys/take order. Waiter job scope is set up table/clear table/ top up hot water for tea.) We spend another 15mins waiting for the trolley (can see we desperate for our usual dessert) and I finally told CL that forget it, we should just leave. I was sick of waiting!

That was our 1st time of Yum Cha ending without mango pudding for him and taofu fa for me. Ending our Yum Char after 6 dishes and adding soya sauce to my congee. *shake head* :(

I won't be going back there again unless someone who I can trust tell me they had experience a enjoyable Yum Cha there.

At the end of the day, we bought 2 slices of cakes as dessert which we had at the comfort of our own home. Btw, the cakes were delicious!!!! Tried their cakes before and knew it will not disappoint me at all. Sorry don't remember what's the stall named but it was just beside the Westfield Food Court. It also served pretty cute little cupcakes.