Imperial Peking Harbourside

1.3 Not Recommended

Food  1      Ambience  2      Service  1      Value  1     

As with so many other reviews, my boyfriend and I went here using a voucher. However, there were full-paying patrons who received the same shocking service and awful meals.

First, in a nearly empty restaurant, we were seated at a shocking table which was wobbly and in a draught on a cold night and all of our cutlery was dirty so we had to wipe everything with our napkins. The wait-staff were apathetic and lazy, our meals were brought out at different times and we were mumbled to by the waiters. We were served their house wine which I would price at $9 a bottle.

Our entrees, the duck rolls and the vegetarian bean-curd rolls were served a good 10 minutes apart and were in no way worth the extortionate prices. To make matters worse, when my order of the vegetarian steamed dumplings was served, I took a bite into a steamed pork dumpling. We were offered the excuse of the kitchen mis-reading the order. However, with only three tables to serve and cook for, I am highly dubious of this excuse and instead propose that the whole establishment is lazy and sub-par.

My partner's Mongolian lamb main was on the same level as a dodgy meal we once had in a food court in Chinatown which set us back a total of $10 instead of $40. The dessert of two slices of rockmelon and two scoops of ice-cream was shameful. The rockmelon was straight out of the fridge and dirty.

Even though we were voucher customers, we are not cheap, and so we were also very prepared to tip our waiters. That was, before we arrived at the restaurant. Regardless of the deal, when we go to restaurants whose meals are in that price-range, we expect immaculate service even if the food isn't amazing.

At the end of the night, we were so disappointed in our meals and the whole experience. My partner, a corporate waiter, summed it up perfectly: "You could cook better food, I could serve it better, we could buy better wine and be home where it was warm."

Apr 11, 2012 

2.3 Not Recommended

Food  1      Ambience  5      Service  2      Value  1     

It's all been said. Disgusting food! How embarrassing that overseas visitors end up here because of the wonderful location. I cannot remember ever being served such bland and boring food. The prices? What a joke. Buy a $2.00 loaf of white processed bread. The food experience will be the same but you'll save a fortune.

Apr 05, 2012 

1.8 Not Recommended

Food  1      Ambience  3      Service  2      Value  1     

Worst Chinese food in Sydney. Only recommendation is to stay away.

Apr 01, 2012 

2 Not Recommended

Food  2      Ambience  4      Service  1      Value  1     

Beware - this was an awful food/service/value experience! Apart from the view this restaurant was not good at all. All the other reviews do not lie! I went here when I was younger and it was rated one of the best in Sydney but I can tell you it's slipped a long long way since those days.

My entree of sam chow bow had brown lettuce leaves, my crispy half duck was, unfortunately, fried and very poorly presented, my fillet beef was tender but small portions served on a sizzling platter the chef didn't even bother heating.

The service was poor, food slapped on the table, when I go to an expensive restaurant I expect service. When I complained about the food I was thanked ("thank you" was the response), when I thought the waiter misinterpreted what I said, I complained again and was thanked again, no, I'll let the chef know or I'll get the manager, just thank you! I didn't even bother looking at dessert.

There's no value at this restaurant - very poor.

Mar 21, 2012 

1.5 Not Recommended

Food  1      Ambience  3      Service  1      Value  1     

The food was so bland, not even a bit of garnish, the plates had black marks, I wipped mine before I used it, service was nearly non existent. What a shame as the view is amazing. We had a deal voucher, and I feel totally ripped off. It could have fed 6 at our local chinese for the same price, and had a nicer meal.

Dessert was fresh fruit (4 little slices of watermelon) or ice cream (2 scoops of vanilla on a plate. I just had to laugh. So very very disappointed, I wanted to tell the people at the door not to come in. I should have read the reviews before I got the voucher. I will never ever go there again, and I thought the idea of the deals was to encourage people to go back. They have done a disservice to themselves by putting on a B grade menu for deal customers, and treating us like we were 2nd rate.

Mar 11, 2012 

1.3 Not Recommended

Food  2      Ambience  1      Service  1      Value  1     

Cutleries are dirty! Service is horrible! Food is very ordinary. Waste of money.
A complete waste of the fantastic view.

Feb 24, 2012 

2.8 Not Recommended

Food  2      Ambience  6      Service  2      Value  1     

I bought the voucher before I read all the bad reviews. Really wanted to cancel the booking but forced to try it out by my husband. What a terrible mistake we made.

The food was tasteless and the service from the waiter was next to none. They looked like they did not want to be there at all. Their menu was overpriced (lucky we bought the voucher). Even with the voucher, it is not worth it! We got out of the place as soon as we had our dessert which is meant to cost over $20 (Few slices of watermelon and 2 scoops of ice-cream). There was no "Thank you" or any acknowlegement when we left. They acted as if though we didn't existed. We will never go there again!

Feb 22, 2012 

2.5 Not Recommended

Food  3      Ambience  5      Service  1      Value  1     

We only came here because we had a voucher for a discounted meal, supposedly $200+ value for $89, as per the previous review. We'll certainly never be back. In fact even at $89 I'd like my money back.

Literally the only redeeming feature of this place is the view of the Opera House. The service was almost non-existent, in fact it seemed strongly like they'd prefer we weren't there. I'll be happy to oblige in future. Maybe it's because we were the "voucher customers" but if you're going to treat customers like they have the plague then don't offer discount vouchers.

On the other hand maybe that's how they treat all their customers. Along with the disgracefully overpriced food it's no wonder the place was almost empty at 8pm on a Saturday when the rest of the strip was buzzing.

This place is pricier than Golden Century in Chinatown but doesn't come anywhere close in terms of quality. If I'd paid full rack for the $50 baby duck main for a couple of overcooked bony morsels I'd be asking for a refund.

Avoid, avoid, avoid...

Feb 07, 2012 

1.8 Not Recommended

Food  3      Ambience  2      Service  1      Value  1     

My husband and I had a voucher for 2 entrees, 2 mains, 2 desserts and a bottle of wine. Supposedly over $220 in value for $89. Omg - what a shame the Imperial Peking has lost the plot. It had its heydey 20 years ago and it was so bad last night.

We ordered Peking Duck Pancakes, priced on the menu for $20. We got one each, with One piece of cold duck inside, the waiter came up to our table and literally threw it on our individual serving plates. These were $10 each! Are you kidding. Then our other entree was Crab Claw and it was singular, there was one and the menu price was $20. My husband and I had to cut it in half so we could try some each.

At this point we were laughing it was so bad. I asked to speak to the senior staff as it was obviously a mistake but he confirmed No there is only 1! I told him that this is why he had an empty restaurant and all the other restaurants were Full - there was no value for money. He said he realised but the 'management' won't listen. I said there was no point selling vouchers online as its going to accelerate their bad reputation because every bad experience is going to have those people telling 10 other friends.

The mains finally came out, and we too had to wait for 5 minutes until the rice came out after. The Sizzling Beef plate was not sizzling at all and contained 7 pieces of beef. At a menu price of $39.80, this was $5.50 per mouthful. Ouch! You would have to be a senseless person to pay full price at this place. Then we had to keep asking for service as the waiters wandered around but wouldn't make eye contact with the customers.

Finally we were asked what dessert we want "fruit or ice cream" (this had a menu price also of $10.80 per dessert) and the flavours of ice cream were Vanilla! That was it - the only variation you could have was the topping - Cottees Chocolate, Strawberry or Caramel! Are you kidding me - we felt like we were at out childrens pizza birthday party and getting the Kids Menu ice cream at the end.

We ordered Chocolate and Strawberry and it was so funny - we got 3 small scoops each on a side plate with about a tablespoon of topping. This night was so Bad and the restaurant so Pathetic that it was Fun because we laughed so much, more than I have laughed in a long time. It was all you could do - after all we had already paid....Don't Go There Though. There has to be cheaper laughs somewhere else....8.

Jan 29, 2012 

2.8 Not Recommended

Food  5      Ambience  3      Service  1      Value  2     

I'm going to preface this with saying that we did go in with a voucher for this restaraunt. However, I can understand now why the owners are relying on vouchers for numbers. As per most of these reviews, the english on the staff is awful, and there is no maitre d'. We had a booking but were ignored from a range of 5m by about 3 staff with nothing to do.

Ambience is rough due to the noise from other places on either side. The food is good value when you look at the voucher (25$ per head), but a complete rip off if you paid full price. We ordered entrees, and got 2 peking duck pancakes. They had been pan fried to heat them up (I imagine they were made yesterday) and were charred, and the sauce wasn't great, meat only warmish.

The Sesame prawn fans (19$ rrp) we expected to be some kind of prawn wrapped in wonton and fried or something. It was a single piece of sandwich bread turned into prawn toast and cut into soldiers, staggering for the price and very deceptively named I thought (its normally called, well, prawn toast!). The Crispy Chicken was great, very well done, spice wise, flavour and texture wise. A winner.

The shredded beef was a mistake, standard deed fried beef with raw-ish garlic and cool oil lying on the plate. We didn't finish the average wine and didn't feel like dessert, but as we left we heard a very vocal complaint about the same voucher service. I'm not one to look a gift horse in the mouth, but given the objective of vouchers would be to get more customers, the owners need to have a good hard look at themselves before they go out of business, people will only go there once in my opinion.

Jan 28, 2012