Don't Expect Royal Service here

When my mom took us to CheonSan, Imperial Palace's Chinese restaurant. I didn't have high hopes. For one, I really don't expect much from hotel food. Second, we weren't exactly welcomed by the guard. My mom has been to Imperial Palace just a couple of days before our visit, but even if she didn't we found it strange that we're even having this kind of convo with the stupid guard. (Read more after the jump)



Guard: San po kayo?
Mom: Sa CheonSan
Guard: May reservation po kayo?
Mom: No (When we got to the restaurant I found out why we didn't need a reservation)
Guard: Gagamit po kayo ng coupon?
Mom: No, we're paying
Impatient me: Sa loob nalang kami magtatanong

Then when we got to the restaurant, we were met with another stupid employee.

Note: We had 3 meal coupons that were included on our day pass, but there were five of us.

Stupid Host: 3 lang po yung coupons
Mom: I know, we'll pay for the rest
Stupid Host: Pero tatlo lang po yung coupons
Mom: Kaya nga babayad kami sa mga extra order. Are you saying hindi puedeng kumain yung mga walang coupon?
Stupid Host: Teka lang po tatanong ko lang po. (WTF?!)
Impatient me: yung manager nalang kakausapin namin

So when we eventually got in, after our conversation with the stupid host, I wasn't surprised that at high noon and on a Sunday, CheonSan was this empty.

The only thing keeping me from walking out was my brother's constant raves about their siu mai. Even when the Stupid Host who turns out to be our waitress as well reminded us about the coupons. I was so pissed I told her, "Siya nalang kausapin namin" Pointing to the woman in black (I think she's the manager), whom we talked to earlier and refreshingly not stupid at all.

As in Korean tradition (the resort is owned by Koreans)... we had mini appetizers- Kimchi, roasted nuts, pickled veggies. Oh and I thought the table setting is cute. The plate reminds me of a bathroom tile.

When the siu mai arrived, chaos ensued.

There was only one quivering piece left by the time my camera app loaded. (Taken from my phone, my brothers were ninja-quick). It was as good as The Siu Mai That Got Away*. It had the same sweetish taste and crab roe. I was told Chef Kenny's Cantonese so he does dimsum really well.

But mom and I loved the har gao.

The skin had the right thickness and it tasted fresh. But the shrimp, OMG! It's so fresh that it crunched when you bite into it and taste the ocean. My mom couldn't stop raving about the har gao.

We also ordered other dimsum items like the almond-crusted shrimp...

I didn't quite like this, the shrimp didn't taste fresh.

We also ordered the beef with xo sauce (twas good), roasted chicken (so-so), chao fan (I was told it was good, but I'm not a rice person) and the taro puff (also good, my brother loves this)

Michellan Rating for CheonSan: 2 Stars

I would've them full marks, but the stupid frontliners really ruined the experience.

- Kristine

* Lemme tell you about the Siu Mai that got away. Back when HK Disney was new, my cousin J and I decided to have some siu mai after a 6 or so rides at the Space Mountain. It was The Best Siu Mai we had ever. The meat was sweet, but not the sugar-laden kind of sweet, and topped with crab roe. It was so good that we didn't mind it was 5HKD/piece. We kept ordering and ordering and thought maybe we should just ring 2007 beside that dimsum cart. So when J and I went back to HK Disneyland a few weeks ago, we couldn't wait to sample those Siu Mai again. We were extremely disappointed. I figured Disneyland might have changed their food supplier or something.