Ritz Hotel Chinese Restaurant, Hurstville

The Ritz Hotel Chinese Restaurant is a fairly new addition to the plethora of Chinese restaurants in Hurstville. I had never actually been inside before it was partly converted to this restaurant, but I believe the restaurant area used to be occupied by pokies?

After renovation, it has large windows looking out on the pedestrian street. Whenever I’ve walked past at lunchtime, it seems to be popular with patrons.

Dinner appears to be no exception. We were having dinner with my brother’s new in-laws and it was a rainy Sunday night but the restaurant was full – unlucky for us, we didn’t think to make a reservation but on the flipside, we only had to wait five minutes before a table was free.

Perhaps because it is next to the Ritz pub, the restaurant had an extensive wine list compared to other Hurstville Chinese restaurants.

We ordered our food and waited for it to come out.

The complimentary soup arrived quickly enough.

However, it took FOREVER for the real food to come out!! About half an hour!

I was ready to chew off my arm in hunger.

Small fast forward to the end of the night:

The story of this roast pigeon: when we ordered the pigeon, the waiter didn’t state how much they cost each, which is what normally happens. When the bill arrived, the pigeons were a whopping $24 each! That comes to $48 for two small pigeons! The average price is about $16, although many restaurants frequently do specials, bringing down the price even lower.

Meanwhile, my father swore up and down that he had seen in the menu that it was supposed to be $x.

Of course we paid, but my father was very indignant and asked for the menu to be brought out again but couldn’t find a price for the pigeon. He asked the waiter who confirmed that there is no price for the pigeons in the menu.

So no price in the menu and they also don’t tell you the price when you order it? Hmm…

Anyway, back to regular programming:

So after the pigeons came out, we sat around and twiddled our thumbs some more. It seemed like dishes were being brought out to other tables so where were ours? And specifically, where was our crab???

Alas, another nail in the Ritz’s coffin – the crab was not brought out first. The crab is ALWAYS supposed to be brought out first! Instead, it was brought out last? Not only that, when it was brought out, they didn’t bring wet hand towels and we had to ask for them, and the cracker as well.

The crabs were a decent size and tasty enough. The noodles were disappointing, breaking off into clumps and dry.

It was also frustrating to let the other dishes go cold after the crab was brought out. Crab eating requires full attention and after we finished the pot, most of the other dishes had cooled down. Sigh.

Other things we ordered (which all came out about ten minutes before the crab):

The food was okay. Not spectacular. But the service was shocking. Throughout the night, it was incredibly hard to get the waiters’ attention. Once gotten, they didn’t really do much. For example, when we repeatedly inquired about the crab.

When the bill arrived, the pigeon drama unfolded but there was also another discrepancy on the bill. The total amount on the register receipt had been crossed out and a new higher total handwritten on. We asked what this was about and the waiter couldn’t provide an answer. He called another waiter over who also couldn’t figure it out. Finally, they had a brainwave and decided to go ask the person at the register, who explained that a typo had been made when entering one dish and that was why the bill was amended.

It would have been a lot easier if they had just said that when they brought the bill over.

I was glad to leave, even if it was out into the pouring rain.