We were quite disappointed after yumcha on Saturday. The food is very average, the service is slow. Over long weekend, Easter saturday is not public holiday, still been charged surcharge. When we provide entertainment book voucher which entitle to have 25% discount, we were rejected and been told that restaurant decide not to accept the offer on long weekend.
We then cheque the book about rules of dining, it clearly says only easter Friday and sunday are not allowed to use it. The restaurant did not apologize and told us they were only accept this time as if did us favour. We definitely don't recommend this restaurant to anyone.
Yum cha has always been fine (cos I don't expect service at yum cha), but we recently went for husband's birthday dinner and were very annoyed at the lack of service/waiters and long wait between dishes. The place was also only a third full on a Saturday night. We used to come here frequently years ago and it has really gone downhill. Management changes I've been told.
I was introduced to this place by a Taiwanese-born friend who really knows her yum cha. Have been going for years. Most recent visit was in February, the food wasn't as good as usual but service was the best I have ever had a yum cha- simply amazing!
Dinner on 12/12/08, Friday night. Arrived at 7:15pm, ordered at 7:20pm. Keep waiting, waiting, no food until 8:50pm. Why?? The waiter told me there were too many people ordered at the same time and the queue got stucked somewhere. Ridiculous. I have not had this kind of service for a long time in Sydney. I really missed this.
Awesome food, only if you haven't tasted any real Chinese in your lifetime. The crabs that being served got no meat in it, just have shells, I guess they have been starving for some time before cooked. Maybe the fish market was on strike and forgot to feed them. Don't understand why a dinner took sooooo long to finish, I really wanted to walk out but my family and friends were there...If you have plan to visit this Chequers, I would recommend you eat at the food court next door and spend your meal money to watch some nice movies upstairs at Hoyts.
Many people go to yum cha and forget you have to be pushy, ask the wait staff for what you want, even if you have to chase them around the room. And if they don't have your booking for seven including a wheelchair, just remind them they do.
Once that was sorted out, the food was fine, not enough variety in the steamed goodies for our liking but generous on the seafood quantities (no cabbage padding here). Will go somewhere else next time but this is a low-hassle option in Chatswood as there is rarely a queue.
I went to Chequers with 4 other friends on a sunday afternoon. We were lucky enough to get a seat pretty quick. I was immediately impressed. However, after that, everything was downhill. The service was so disappointing that I was getting really annoyed. We asked for tea, and the waiter told us to wait and so we did.
All in all, I think we waited for 30 minutes just for tea, and asked for it 3 times! We had already gone through most of our meal by the time the tea came. We even had to help ourselves top up tea. And what's worse was the waiter saw us do it and they didn't say anything!
The food wasn't even that great to cover the fact that the service was so disappointing! It was only average. My spoon was dirty and smelly! I was so disgusted. The value, however, is reasonable.
Chequers serves an adequate Yum cha lunch but it's nothing special. The service is okay but also nothing special. There is plenty of competition in Chatswood so we'll probably try elsewhere next time.
I have not been to Chequers for about a year. How can a restaurant go down so fast. The food when it came was oily. It was Monday long weekend. No food, after about an hour with only 3 small plates of gunk served, we walked out. It seemed like a food shortage. Would never go there again. Would never recommend it to anyone to go there. Disgusting is the word I would use!!!
Deciding at the last minute to get yum cha during a shopping expedition to Chatswood, we tried Chequers for the first time. The two of us were seated in a side (private?) room with two large groups. The secluded position meant we had to beckon the waitresses in to get any yum cha selections.
One helpful waitress offered a form to fill in what we wanted and she would bring it to us. In hindsight I guess this could bump up the price but $58 for two was a lot steeper than I expected. Overall, the spicy fried beef strips were good as well as the steamed dumplings. Anything with prawns tasted really fresh. I'd go again but with a group and sit in the main area.