Charlies Choice
Special Guests - Will and Katie
What a disappointment. A restaurant that came recommended would defiantly not be recommended by the dinner club. After visiting we did talk amongst friends, finding out that a handful of them had visited David's in the past all experiencing the same lack lustre and expensive meal experience.
Arrived at 7.30pm on a Friday night to an empty and overly bright restaurant, the tables quickly filled up, the lights were never dimmed! Some of us arrived 10 minutes late, the early guests had drinks already and we weren't even acknowledged for at least 20 minutes. For an empty restaurant you would think we would get noticed. Wine was ordered a red and a white, the waiter didn't even ask who was having what and poured just one glass, the others had to wave him down for a pour. We had to ask for extra menus, we decided on the "David's Deluxe Banquet" and two serves of dumplings to get the night cracking.
The banquet was a hit and miss mess, as was our under enthused waiter who smashed a wine glass, dropped a bottle of wine and had to be reminded constantly for refills as the wine bottles aren't kept on the table. The final straw for me was when we were leaving, once again the restaurant was empty (10pm) all the waiters were standing around the bar doing what not and as we were walking out you would think that at least one would say goodbye and thank you - NOTHING and at $100 a head I find that ridiculous. Thank god for the company, we still laughed and had a great night all knowing that we would never return.
The deluxe banquet includes; $49 per head
- Mixed seafood San Choi Bao
- Salt and Pepper Calamari
- Peking Duck (2 pancakes each)
- Stir fried fish fillet with snow peas in coriander, light ginger and garlic (served with steamed rice)
- Pan fried tender eye fillet steak with seasonal vegetables in secret ginger soy sauce with a side of lightly stir fried Shanghai spinach and bamboo shoots (served with fried rice)
- Golden Almond Pudding served with vanilla ice cream
Prawn dumpling, I eaten my fair share in prawn dumplings and these are up there with some of the best I've had. Consensus from the table was the same.
Lets play spot the seafood, for a mixed seafood san choi bao I found it hard to find the seafood it was in a sea of snow peas! Also I hate restaurants that are stingy with the hoison sauce, put a little ramekin of it on the side.
These can recommended, Pork Shu Mai dumplings, I didn't have one after a bad experience with the "soupy dumplings" from a place in the city. The table said they were delicous, however all the soup dripped out by the time it got to your plate.
After the san choi bao it was the salt and pepper calamari, i'm sorry I don't have a picture of this it was too tasty and we had all gobbled it up before I realised. The calamari was soft and the batter was light a perfectly seasoned, a little bit more chilli and I would have been a happy camper.
The peking duck was also lovely, however the hoison sauce fell to the bottom of the pancake so your last bite was predominatly sauce.
The fish fillet looks like what it tasted and it was COLD, not only were we seated in the brightest part of the restaurant we were seated directly under two airconditioning units. By the time the waiter "showed" us what we were eating and served the proportions up the meal was cold. (Emphasis on show, he hardly communicated what it was and to get our attention he would just put the meal in front of us). It was ok, im not one for ordering fish at chinese restaurants its usually powdering rockling. The steamed rice was also hard and cold.
The eye fillet was a win, this was really nice but once again it came out cold after finally being served up. It was exactly how it was described, tender and the sauce was tasty. Would have been even tastier if it was hot.
Dessert - i'm not even going to explain this disgusting thing. I couldn't even be bothered getting my camera out to take a picture. I can't beleive they served it to us. It was a slab of orange almond pudding dusted with almond meal and a triangle block of vanilla icecrem straight from the safeway freezer. It was also presented on a side plate, making it even more obvious that no effort was put into the last meal. Maybe they hope people will be too full to eat dessert. The consistancy of the pudding was like hard turkish delight.
I don't think I would have been as negative in this review if we had at least five minutes of service throughout the night. When you are paying $100 a head for dinner you expect to walk away from the restaurant happy with the whole experience, we left having no feelings. I guess you win some and lose some, it was the dinner clubs first flop. Still a great night out though, good friends and cocktails at Vodka Borsche and Tears will do that.
To yum things up: wait staff are terrible, don't order a banquet, wine list is great, dumplings are a must, don't come here for a special occasion, request a table in the raised dining area, how they get a chefs hat from The Age each year baffles me.
4 Cecil Place
Prahran VIC 3181
03) 9529 5199
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