I went to mainland china last week with my wife and a few friends. They had a special offer for platinum card holders which at that point looked like an awesome deal. there was a soup of your choice, a series of 4 starters and 4 main course dishes which comprised of 2 non veg side dishes, 2 veg side dishes and 1 rice and 1 noodle and 2 deserts (i dont remember if it was 2 or 3)
the hitch is that it has to be a minimum of 4 people and you hvae to have a platinum card.
the deal is a good deal, but i was quite dissapointed with the quality of food presented. The soup was excellent, but after that everything was downhill. Yes, the crispy corn and the dimsums was still how i remembered it, but that was the star attraction. They served some fish starter in which the flavor had not reached the fish. The maincourse was pretty much the same. There were two veg dishes – which I can classify just that veg dishes – it was a hash of tasteless vegetables thrown into some gravy. I dont know what they were trying to serve- left overs or just all the excess greens that they had in the kitchen. I had half a mind to ask the staff if they thought we were cows – and looking for greens to graze on. I could not eat much of the main course as it was sub par to say the least. The chicken that they served was tasteless and almost the entire portion of the food went for a waste. The only saving grace was the desert. My wife loves the chocholate spring roles and they did not fail to dissapoint this time either. I was trying the honey fried something with icecream and loved it.
I suspect the fish was a little spoilt as it tasted a little off- and i spent the rest of the night and early morning rushing to and from the rest room. Yes, i did get an upset stomach the next day, but i also got a bad case of indestion from the food. I dont know if I can pinpoint it to the fish or the overall food. But this time I was really disappointed with Mainland china.
So if its chinese you stay far away from mainland china and try some other place.
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Update – 1st September 2010
I should have posted this earlier – but as soon as my review came out, I had someone from Mainland china contact me. It was nice to see them take some solid action against what was being said. They said they would look into the entire issue and sent me an apology as well. What i really appreciate is the fact that there was some follow up. Whether or not solid action is taken I guess would be secondary, but the fact that they extended a helping hand to look into this issue is nice.