Do "CLEAN and Expensive" Chinese Restaurants really exist?
 

As a Canadian born Chinese, sometimes I find it embarassing as to why some Chinese restaurants can be so "cheap/ (somestimes expensive)" and "dirty", especially in North America.

The most expensive meal at a Chinese restaurant I went to costed about CAD 1,000 for 10 people (menu consisted of items such as individual abalones for each person, sharkfin, bird's nest etc), yet still, the washroom at the restaurant was very dirty (oily floor), the wine glasses had food stains on them (yuck), and tea cups were slightly cracked. A couple of Chinese restaurants in Vancouver Canada even had to be shut down because they did not pass health inspections (and the owners know nothing about "food safe".

Whenever I find a "clean" restaurant, the food served is usualy a bit too "westernized" and not as authentic. For example, in the Netherlands, I was at a Chinese restaurant, and it was very clean, expensive, and even had table settings resembling that of a higher end "western" restaurant. However, the food [there was no abalone, shark fin etc. on the menu] wasn't very authentic (even though the owners are ethnic Chinese and spoke perfect Cantonese, and even bragged about catering for the Chinese consulate).

The only Chinese restaurants where I have found BOTH the "environment" and "food" to be acceptable was in Hong Kong at places such as the Spring Moon at the Peninsula.

Is the "dirty washroom/tea cup" phenomenon just a thing for "low-mid end" Chinese restaurants in Hong Kong, and "most" Chinese restaurants in North America/other parts of the world?

Yes, there are some "clean and expensive" Chinese restaurants. By "Chinese" I assume you are refering to east asian cuisine. I know of several very good Thai restaurants. There is an outstanding Thai restaurant in the Sunshine Post Office mall in Anchorage, AK. The cleanliness and quality of food is not an ethnic thing. Just look around, wherever you find a funky little chinese restaurant........there will be numerous other establishments serving various foods.......and they will be pretty much the same. If your looking for really high end dining...........meet me at JFK and bring the platinum card.

Daniellam,

I noticed that as well!!

When I go to a Chinese restaurant, I make sure I go to the washroom before heading out.. One time I was out with friends and had to go to the loo at the restaurant before dinner, and let's say, I quickly felt ill when the meal started. I now avoid going to the washroom when going to china town..

As for good Chinese restuarants with "clean" washrooms" I can recommend Lai Wah Heen, in the Metropolitan hotel in Toronto.

Come to wonderful Singapore and try some of the top chinese restaurants. You will find them to be:

• Clean and this goes for most, even the not so upmarket restaurants
• Affordable, in USD terms you should be able to get a table for 10 and leave only USD 300 lighter

Try Hu Cui (Shanghainese) at Ngee Ann City or Lai Gardens (Cantonese) at Chimes. Furthermore, every 5* hotel in Singapore has a chinese restaurant.

Yes, they exist. We have a very nice one here IAH vicinty. It is called Ming Dynasty, and the food is excellent.

I am multi-generational Hua Qiao, as my great-grandfather was from Canton [Shunde area, hamlet of Hoh Chin on the Pearl River]. My grandmother was the last of the Putong Hua speakers in the family. That is the only bloodline that is Han in my family. The rest of me is faan kwai loh, and most of us look kwai loh now, mostly Latino. In any case the restaurants in the old Chinatown of L.A. used to be great [I grew up there]. Now because of all the recent immigration, the newer restaurants do not exhibit the same quality as before. Competition will take care of this eventually.

Z

I'm a first generation Chinese-American with parents from Hong Kong. Many good, authentic (read: not P.F. Chang's), Chinese restaurants can get away with things like water glasses with spots, smelly and filthy bathrooms, and harried and surly waiters because the majority of their clientele (native Chinese) only care about the quality of the food and price.

Please forgive me for extrapolating, but my parents, my relatives, and friends' parents who were born in China/Hong Kong don't give a fig newton about good service or sparkling clean facilities. Whenever I go out to eat with my parents at a Chinese restaurant, I'm offended that waiters treat my parents in such a rushed and rude manner. I'm also shocked that my parents would put up with it.

I took my parents to Lai Wah Heen at the Metropolitan Hotel in Toronto. I thought it was great. They thought it was a total waste of money.

My best dim sum meal has to be Jiang-Nan Chun at the Four Seasons Singapore. Exquisite and very imaginative dim sum, serene environment, and sterling service that is above and beyond the typical Four Seasons service in the United States. For US$30, I ate like a king.

I find that most chinese Restaurant in North America are generally ordinary.
As they generally cater for Kaay Lo (Westerners - Causasians)

Outside of Asia, I find the best Chinese Restaurant exist in LONDON!

Hakasan is my favourite!!

Nice Atmosphere and EXCELLENT food

LOL! That sounds like something my parents would say too :)

Everytime I go to Toronto, I make it a point to go to Lai Wah Heen. It's rare to find dim sum restaurants that don't do push-cart service in North America (the opposite is true in Asia) plus the service and the quality of the food at LWH is head and shoulders above the competition, IMO. Yank Sing in SF has clean bathrooms and awesome dim sum as well.


I also had a dreamy dim sum lunch experience at Jiang Nan Chun. The service alone was worth the price of admission :) So very elegant and so very civilized. Singapore has quite the monopoly on clean restrooms as it is probably illegal for it to be otherwise :D

I find most high-end Chinese restaurants anywhere in the world (including ones attached to hotels) to have impeccably clean restrooms (thankfully!). And I also find most mid- to low-priced Chinese restaurants anywhere in the world to have restrooms that are forbidding to the senses.

Most 5* hotels in Asia have at least one Chinese restaurant onsite but surprisingly, almost all do not in North America. I would've thought that a luxury chain like Mandarin Oriental which oozes all things Asian would have established a superior Chinese restaurant - with clean bathrooms to match! - in one of its North American establishments (Miami, NYC, SF, DC) by now. Maybe "expensive" and "Chinese restaurant" just don't compute for most Americans?

Not when you can get away with a $7.99 dinner buffet.

They do exist. I have been in some in London, Paris, Frankfurt, the best in Geneva and Zürich. I am a lover of Chinese food.

The biggest problem is more of a cultural clash. I do not want to discriminate or offend anybody, but along my travels I have noticed that hygiene and cleanliness in kitchen are not a primary concern for Chinese, the world over.
There are countries however, where the health department is much harsher than elsewhere (Switzerland, for example) and this is one of the countries where I can almost vouch that ALL chinese restaurants are spotless. From the cheapest to the most expensive.

As far as the food is concerned, economics is the main judge who'll decide what is on the menu. There are many countries where chinese food is well loved, but in a mild form of exotism. Certain dishes could never be sold in say Germany or Switzerland.

I just came back from a trip to Japan and was confronted with beans that are a delicacy over there but just triggered a violent reproval from my stomach as soon as seen....

If you order in advance, I am sure you would have the possibility of getting anything you wish, but don't expect to find everything chinese in a "European" chinese restaurant...

Of course they exist. Right at Lincoln Center in NYC, there is Shin Lee which is very pricy and of course quite clean.

How about this one?

http://www.dorchesterhotel.com/defau...n=236&page=249

This stament is kind of gross but...

I've found that the quality of food is directly proportional to the relative level of cleanliness, or lack thereof, in a Chinese restaurant. The dirtier the place, the better your food tastes. I never, ever visit the bathroom.

On another note, my girlfriend is Philipine and when we go out to a Chinese restaurant together, we get better service, and better tasting food when we're together than when I go with any non-Asian friends.

The other weekend we went for Dim Sum in Chicago's Chinatown. We were seated with all of the "ethnic" people while all the caucasians sat together in another part of the dining room. The dim sum trays come fast and furios to us, but not on the other side of the room. Just something I've observed.

"How about this one?

http://www.dorchesterhotel.com/defa...on=236&page=249"


Yep The Oriental in Dorchester is highly regarded.


I think US generally does not have the same level of cusine when compared to UK. Especially Chinese food.

I love London!

I think someone mentioned the Shun Lee Palace in NYC.

I think that is AVERAGE ( and very Kway Lo!)

And it seems clean from the face of the restaurant but I saw a RAT running out of the kitchen when I dine there last time!!!

Therefore don't be deceive from what you see on the face of things!
YOu never know what is behind the doors in the kitchen.

Flower Drum, Melbourne, Australia.
 

Has to be one of the best Chinese restaurants outside of Hong Kong.

The food is always top notch. Prices are on the high side but not unacceptably so. The place is clean, too.

Problem is that even the Sheraton conceirge can't always get me a table.

http://travel2.nytimes.com/mem/trave...ia%2fMelbourne