Ba Orient

review

I had the worst meal I have ever had in this place last Saturday night.

The staff were ok. The decor is ok, nothing special. The toilets were disgusting. The clientele were interesting; a high proportion of aspirational weekend millionaires buying the cheapest champagne on their no-doubt-maxed-out credit cards.

My plate had a chip in it. They couldn't get the difference between coke and diet coke. We had to ask for soy, hoi sin and plum condiments. These things are basic, and not mistakes that should be made in a restaurant, especially one that's claiming to be a "posh" one.

The music was way too loud, it was like being in a nightclub. It killed all table conversation. The tables are too close to the people drinking at the bar, so people kept bumping into the benches we were sitting on. We sat on uncomfortable benches, and every time the front door opened we got a blast of cold air. And cigarette smoke, and ash from all the smokers right outside the door. That's right, fag ash fried rice. Not nice.

The food was actually quite nice; however it came out at random times. There were four of us in the group and one was waiting an absolute age for her main meal. Apparently that's how they serve food in there. I also think nearly £10 for a bowl of average rice is a bit steep, even if it is served in a pineapple.

It took 45 minutes after we'd finished our meal for the plates to be cleared. There was no drinks service to speak of until I managed to grab the manager; the drinks arrived 30 minutes later. Guess what? Coke again.

The girls wanted desserts. They took 25 minutes to get us some dessert menus. We'd had enough by now and eventually got the bill. A 10% service charge had automatically been added! What the ****? This practice really winds me up. If the service is good I'll happily give a generous tip; if it isn't then they get nothing. Don't try to force me into it, you pirates. Needless to say, I didn't pay it. We ended up buying our desserts and coffee from Tesco over the road and had them at home.

In my opinion, baorient would make either an ok bar or an ok restaurant; trying to be both simply doesn't work.

Posted 13th Apr 2008 11:19am by keith_b