Tim Ho Wan Chatswood Sydney Review

I typed this right after the soft opening. Don't know why I didn't publish it back then...

Queue was long, 2 hours, as expected for a soft opening. So that's fine. We were seated around 11:45 AM. Floor staff were friendly, we had no complain about them. 1 recommended the desserts, saying he tried those the previous day and they were nice, while the other one didn't know chinese tea is for a pot or a cup, but she happily went and checked it out without me asking. So first impression was good.

The food came and they were great enough. I expected better though, since the HK one was awarded Michelin star. However, they are not bad, just not AWESOME either. Pork buns and both desserts were the highlight for me. Oh steamed cake was nice, soft and fluffy. I don't usually like steamed cake, but theirs was great.

At the beginning, the food came quickly. However, 45 minutes after we sat down, the food stopped coming eventhough we still had 6 pending. We waited 15 minutes, and decided to order 2 more since we were still hungry. That's when we realised that the fried prawn dumplings with wasabi sauce was not in the receipt eventhough we ordered them. We told one of the staff and ordered 2 more dishes. That was the first mistake.

10-15 minutes after, the food from our 2nd order came. They came fairly quickly, and within 15 minutes or so, all 3 dishes in our receipts were delivered to our table. Then, stop.

We waited and waited. We asked one of the staff who took the receipt, went to the kitchen etc, but nothing happened. By 1:30 we couldn't wait anymore and called one of the staff who had earphones on, thinking she might be manager or something. She came, checked with the kitchen, genuinely apologizing to us, and said they are making them. 10 minutes past, and a dish came to our table. It wasn't what we were waiting for. She came to our table again asking about it. We said we were only waiting for har gao, fish maw and 2 desserts. She then went back to the kitchen. She returned to us, said she was terribly sorry and she assure us the kitchen is making them now. They should come in 10 minutes.

10 minutes after, ALL the dishes we ordered started to come one by one. I mean ALL. Including the ones we already had. Except those bloody har gao, fish maw and desserts. We kept getting our hopes high and then crashed back to the ground as those were all wrong dishes. I could even see in the faces of the staff delivering the food to us, that they were sorry and frustrated for us too. At one point I was SO pissed off and asked the staff who brought the food to us, "Okay, what do you have there now?" And nope, those were not the har gao, nor the fish maw.

By 2:10 PM we couldn't wait any longer. So I called that girl who chased the kitchen for us and said, if they are gonna take longer, just cancel those dumplings and give us the desserts. She said yes and left. Right when she left, another staff came with the fish maw. F.I.N.A.L.L.Y. He was sorry for us too, saying they have made too many mistakes already.

Desserts came straight after. We finished around 2:30. We were seated around 11:45. 2 hours and 45 minutes.

To make that worse, when we went to the cashier, the woman asked us, how was it? We said they were nice, but 2 hours? She said "Sorry, but this is our first day so it is expected to be a little slower." I said, yeah but 2 hours? And she went on talking about how they still have a lot to learn as it is the first day blah blah blah, first restaurant blah blah blah... dishes not showing up is expected blah blah blah... long story short, she was defending herself. I doubt she even listened when I said we were there for 2 hours.

The only "Sorry" she said was that very first one and that's it. She was not apologetic and was not showing sympathy whatsoever either. Honestly, the service the floor staff gave us made me want to just forgive and forget, but this one made me not to ever want to let it go. Then she had 5 tries to enter the amount we need to pay into the eftpos machine and I was the one telling her how to do it. She really needs to be re-trained.

Today was your soft opening, fair enough, mistakes are expected, delay is expected. However, out of those many dishes we ordered, they ALL came again after we complainedexcept the ones we were waiting for? And a little bit slow is ok, but 2 hours and 45 minutes? And we didn't even get all the dishes. Is that a little bit slow? If you think it wasn't, what if I tell you, the table next to us already had change of customers 3 times!

I really had no complain about the floor staff. They were friendly, nice and helpful. I really need to commend the girl with earphone who chased our orders for us, she was really attentive and show genuine care to us, apologetic and showing sympathy. She really has good customer service and a sense of urgency. If she isn't the manager, I think she deserves to be one. The cashier needs to be retrained, and if she's the manager, she needs to be retrained in dealing with register, customer service and learn to put herself in customers' shoes. I don't know what happened with your kitchen, but someone needs to manage the dockets better.

If it's not because of the food and the floor staff, I'd have given it 1 star.

They haven't done their quizzes!!!

Not sure if I have mentioned this before, but we always have to do quiz after attending training. So, yesterday morning when I was in the kitchen, I bumped into super excited. He then said to me, "Purple Lady, when I checked the quiz, I couldn't find yours". The truth is, I haven't done it hehe XP I then replied, "Oh, I haven't done it yet. I will try to do it today, but I have other things to do though".

Actually, the whole IT dept except James Bond haven't done it yet :P the reason being is simply we have been busy. Plus the quiz is hard. For IT people, that is hard. Another reason is, Water Tap said to me not to do it, and of course I happily said OKAY :P which I passed on to Little Missy too XP but really, the main reasons are just simply busy so we forgot.

After he met me in the kitchen, he went to Lao Er's office and started yapping. I wasn't listening, however I could hear some "she"s. Not long after, an email was sent to us from Lao Er asking us to spend an hour to do the quiz. You might think an hour to do a quiz is too long. Eitttt one hour is actually too little! On average I spend 2 hours to do those little quizzes. Even the other department, whose quizzes really are meant for, spend 2 hour-ish to finish it. How long do you think IT needs? Plus, we can't leave any questions blank. And, if we got bad marks, we might have to sit for another training.

Yesterday I was soooo busy. So many errors to fix, new developments to do, and to top it off 007 was off, so I had to do Mr Bond's day to day tasks. And of course out of all days, that normal daily task decided to have tantrum yesterday. Great, just great.

So with all those, add a quiz to do it. And that's top priority -_- talking about prioritizing. Even Lao Er came out of his office and spoke to me and the others to spend half to an hour to do the quiz. He said, "I know you guys are busy. I just want to avoid some drama." AND, Water Tap's mate sent an invitation for training recap to help us do the quiz 0_0 See how serious it was?

I didn't plan to attend it, so I tried to do my quiz before that recap. However I kept getting urgent things I needed to look at, so by the time the recap supposed to take place, I still wasn't finished.

Water Tap's mate came to me at the time the recap supposed to happen. He asked if I was going to attend, to which I replied annoyed, "Even if I was planning to, now o can't." He then restlessly stood there, seemed not willing to leave, and then said "I just want to make sure you get what we want you to get out of the meeting. The key points are intrinsic and extrinsic motivation bla bla bla....". I said, "I understood the training and I got all of it with extrinsic, intrinsic etc. However, the way the questions are worded, I don't even get what the questions ask for". He agrees with me, saying "Between you and me, I think the questions are confusing". Then, he went on and explained to me what EACH question asks for, and gave me POINTERS on what to look for in the slides!!! Such as, "for this question, find the slide that has 'sustainable environment' in it". WOW! Honestly, water Tap's mate normally is a jerk. He has that characteristic to waste your time with his long and winding explanations and likes to explain a sentence with a paragraph and likes to keep talking when other people is trying to say something. In addition, I just had a heated argument with him the previous day. Now he's helping me with MY quiz? WOW

After he finished, I said "Thanks for that. But, why are you doing this? Helping me with the quiz. You don't usually do this". Apparently, you know who had a big speech to them about IT not doing the quiz. Everyone knows IT is busy, therefore doesnt have time especially today to do it. Plus, we complained the quiz was so dank hard. So, without super excited knowing, they set up that recap training to help us finish the quiz! I didn't know that! Even the timing was super excited's lunch hour, so he wouldn't know! Another WOW!

So I did it, and also the whole of IT dept. Just to avoid another drama. We did put a note though that quiz was too hard for us.

Update: you know what, I got full mark for that quiz lol! So much to point out that the questions were hard and confusing! XD

Book is The Window to The World

Book is really the window to the world. Whatever kind it is. Before, my teachers in school ALWAYS said that, but I didn't really get that. But now I'm reading a Scandinavian crime novel translated into English, and I have learned quite a few about Australia. Who would have thought eh? Surely I haven't cross checked all those information, but they can't all be 100% wrong I think. Did you know that the story of how the world was created in Aboriginal culture has a lot of striking similarities to Christians/Catholics? It's really interesting considering Australia was not touched until 1800s when the first settlement came (I don't remember the exact year, so please don't quote me on this). I learned that in The Bat. And books do take you to places you've never been. You involuntarily imagine all those places described in the books don't you?

Luckily my mum and dad are fans of books too. Every Sunday afternoon when we were small, my parents would take my siblings and I to bookstores, supermarkets or shopping malls. Most of those Sunday included bookstores. And every time we went to bookstore, they allowed us to pick 1 book to buy. WHATEVER it is. They really are not discriminative towards books. I could buy story books, novels, or comics. Textbooks are on different genre. If we need a textbook, we were still allowed to pick another book. AND, if even one of us didn't pick one, my dad would say, "There are so many books here, really, there isn't one that's good??" Hahaha... Missed that time a lot. When life was so simple.

I was lucky yes to have supportive parents like that. I remember one day I took my comic to school, and this friend borrowed and read it during breaks. She hadn't finished it, so I told her she could take it home. She said no without thinking. She said, she's afraid her parents would find out. They didn't like comics. Last time they found her reading a comic at home, his dad took it off her hand and tore the whole book to shreds. That comic was her friend's.

I asked my mum after that, why was she not like that? Why did she let us buy and read so many books? Most of them surely weren't textbooks. She said, books give you knowledge. You learn about things in books. Don't you think? I thought and said yeah it's true, I could write my essay last week because I have read so much, so I knew how to structure it. Even as a little girl, I realized what good thing could come out of it.

I have to credit my English to novels and comic books too. Comics helped my speaking when I just arrived in Sydney. I even told my dad to read comics to improve his spoken English. Comics language is casual, the way people normally converse in real life. So it does teach you how you ask questions and what vocabs to use in daily conversation. Novels on the other hand, help with my written English and vocabulary. I surely have to credit books for all the posts on my blog :)

I wished I can tell my friend's dad how useful non-textbooks are. His idea was just plain wrong.

Good Bye Old Manager

I forgot to save what I wrote last week, so here I am typing it again T__T

Last week my old manager quitted. He started working for this company around 15 years ago, setting up the first company website. He became IT manager for so many years, even when he moved to Far Far Away he was still the manager, watching over IT department while working from home. He came to office only once in a while. But still, he was the one who interviewed me and took me into this company. Few years ago, he stepped down and became supervisor instead. At some of the points, he even became a contractor. But still, he was always an important part of the company.

He then quitted last week. He's been wanting to quit a long time back. But knowing you know who, it is indeed damn hard to quit. Especially when you are considered important in here. If you aren't and if you aren't well liked, then it is easier.

Then, on his last day before he left, he came to me and James Bond, saying, "This is it. Good bye guys. Thank you for everything." 3 of us talked for a while, Little Missy joined us too. Then, my ex-manager left.

James Bond then said, "That's it?? After all those years, that's it? No present, no directors, no nothing!".

Yes, that was it. I forgot myself that it was his last day. Nobody arranged for gift collection. No farewell card. Directors and manager are in a meeting. Even no big speech from superexcited. It was sad really :l Though I did find out that Lao Er and my manager took him for lunch that day, but still.

Then Little Missy, James Bond and me typed a thank you and farewell message for him in our employee nomination system. He would still be working from home the next day, so he could still read it. When we typed it up, at the back of my mind I was thinking that there was possibility that superexcited would skip it, or make a big speech about old manager not exactly leaving, but will be back as a contractor blah blah blah... I texted Little Miss Nice that night about it to get her prepared.

The next day, it was read out. I was a little bit surprised, not too much though. Then after it was read out, superexcited started talking about how old manager was not really leaving, he wants to work closer from home, and it's good that he finds it, and that the opportunity for him to come back as a contractor is not closed for him and he can come back to us in the future. Ha! What did I say before?

There isn't any clear talk about him working as contractor. It's just a possibility. But nothing like he works for us 1 or 2 day a week like how it was with Slitherin. It's just "maybe you can do contractor work for us in the future". And that's considered NOT leaving? Doesn't that mean everyone who leaves doesn't really leave then? They can always come back in the future right? 

He really is special. Even with Slitherin, superexcited fought to have him 2-3 days a week while Slitherin wanted 1 day or even none. And when it started, Slitherin was only asked to come once a week for the first 2 or 3 weeks. After that? Nada.

So yeah, my old manager is gone now. Gone the guy who rarely talked to me but always jokingly said "Purple Lady, what have you done??" or "This is Purple Lady's fault!" when any problem occurs. I will definitely think of him every time I see or have a blueberry cheesecake, his favourite.