Asia City Restaurant

Reviews 4

A

A Private User

My husband and I went for dim sum today and were pleasantly surprised at the quality of the food. The dim sum appeared to be prepared at the location instead of being previously frozen like most of the other dim sum places around here. The dim sum was also fairly MSG free except for the ingredients that had MSG in them prior to being added like preserved eggs in the jook (rice porridge). The Chinese style spare rib dishes were fairly lean not super fatty like at the other restaurants. We look forward to trying more types of dishes there in the future. The restaurant is still learning how to deal with large crowds and the naiveté of most people in the area to Hong Kong style food and dim sum service. It would help this restaurant a lot if they gave a sheet to the patrons when they were seated not only showing the different dim sum dishes, but also a short explanation of how to order dim sum from the carts instead of from a menu like at the other two dim sum restaurants in the area. There were a few tables around ours that thought the food off the carts were free and/or had no clue what the food was on the carts. The pictures and names of the dim sum available would help those that did know how to order with being able to tell the circulating wait staff what they wanted. The wait staff was extremely accommodating to anything we asked in spite of being very busy trying to keep the rush of customers at the restaurant for Chinese New Year well served. The biggest problem this restaurant will have to fix is their service. The hostess did not seem to have a good grasp of the turn over in guests. We were told when we entered that there was going to be a half hour to hour wait for parties bigger than three, but within ten minutes most of the parties of this size paid and left. They also did not have enough circulating steam tables and other food carts during high traffic times. There was only one steam table, one fry table, and one cart with desserts and other food that did not need to be kept warm constantly for a room that looked like it seated over 100. At similar sized restaurants there are usually three steam tables, two fry carts, and a couple of other food carts. Great Lakes restaurant a few miles away does have a small number of circulating carts on weekends, but they do the majority of their service from a check list that customers give to the wait staff. The couple sitting in the booth in front of us left because of they had waited too long for someone to come by with any food. Shortly after that some of the wait staff began carrying a few dim sum dishes from the steam carts around the room, which helped with serving customers faster. I do think this restaurant will be able to fix the problems they currently have and will become one of the premier restaurants in the area. They appear to have a staff that wants to do a good job for their customers as well as an owner who wants to build a major cultural center in that area. The owner also owns the large Asian grocery store next door. This restaurant is already starting off with well-prepared, delicious food from high quality ingredients that caters to both the typical American tastes as well as to the tastes of connoisseurs of Hong Kong style food. I am looking forward to seeing how this restaurant improve and grow over the years.

DE

Denise Crawford

My husband and I were excited to try out Asia City. We ordered the buffet which was OK. Good crab legs if you can get any as they were always empty. Very Good Sushi. The service however was HORRIBLE!!! There are 2 dining rooms, one for ordering off the menu and one huge room for people ordering the buffet. My husband and I were in the buffet dining room. We had just returned from our 2nd trip to the buffet when our server finally came and asked for our drink orders. I asked for extra napkins...never got them. I had to get up myself to get the extra napkins. You get a nice thick napkin that your silverware is rolled up in however, when you ask for extra napkins you are handed small thin ones and when I inquired about the thicker napkins the lady said"napkins...here you go." When we finally did get crab legs I had to get up myself to ask for the crab cracking utensil. The waitress I asked rolled her eyes at me and handed me one. I told her I needed 2 and she let out a loud sigh and rolled her eyes again, I had to get the second one myself. When it came time to pay the waiter handed us our bill, my husband asked him to wait as we were paying cash, the waiter took off. We tried stopping other waitstaff to tell them we wanted to pay, they would say Ok and never told our waiter nor did they offer to help us. Our waiter was standing in our view and I waved the bill in the air, he continued to ignore us as did every other server! My husband and I went and got in a line of about 5 servers to pay our bill. It was obvious we were in line to pay our bill. No one offered help or let us go ahead of them, they just stared at us. We paid our bill and will never be back!!!

A

A Private User

We were in your buffet section yesterday, a party of 10. Everything was going well until the server assigned to us complained about the tip. This is very irritating considering that: -in a buffet, we get our own food -the only services provided by the server is beverage and clearing of used plate The server was initially given an $8 tip. She then approached me and asked for a larger tip because there were 10 of us (8 adults and 2 kids). What?! I decided not to create a scene, and proceeded to give her a $20 tip to shut her up. In my opinion, a tip is optional and is a reflection of the services provided by the waiter. A buffet waiter doesnt necessarily require a lot of effort, as evidenced by the fact that most of them at Asia City are chatting and/or playing with their cell phones most of the time. Our server was lucky that I even gave her anything. Asking for an higher tip is very tacky in my opinion. The services, let alone the food, doesnt even compare to the quality and flavor of Dynastys which is a few blocks down the street. Those folks are more than happy to accept whatever tip I give them and is well deserved. This incident will be the last as I will no longer go to Asia City and will discourage my friends and colleagues to do the same based on my dining experience.

A

A Private User

I was so excited to try Asia City after reading the interview with the owner in a local paper, and seeing how much went into the building during construction. I loved their neighboring store, Hwa Xing, and figured theres no way they could go wrong. Honestly, the food and service were good. We went on a Friday night and the waiter was quick with our refills. The problem was the menu. The prices were comparable to a cheaper Chinese food restaurant (2 appetizers, 2 drinks, 2 very large meals was only $28), but the menu didnt explain anything. I cant have a lot of types of food, and when the menu doesnt tell me whats in a dish and the waiter is uncertain, well, thats a bad combination. The Vegetables section was small and should NOT be confused with "vegetarian," which this restaurant does not seem to offer. That seemed quite odd to me, considering the fact that Ann Arbor has a large veggie population and that traditional Buddhist cuisine contains no animal products, which is why many Chinese places offer things that vegetarians (and even vegans) can order with no problem. This wasnt the case here, and thats my only complaint.