Kuaizi Modern Fusion Restaurant

1.8 Not Recommended

Food  1      Ambience  3      Service  2      Value  1     

People, Stay Away! Came to dine here with my partner her sister and her boyfriend as they are moving to Queensland. My partner bought a Groupon voucher for all-you-can-eat prawns cooked 8 different ways. We're all big lovers of prawns (as I'm sure anyone would be!) so we thought what a perfect way to see them off.

We arrived at Kuaizi, the ambience was quite pleasant and modern looking. The music was a bit too loud for my liking, to the point that the speakers were crackling under the pressure.

Can't really comment on service as it was buffet style, however, when we were greeted, seated, served our complimentary cocktails and given the bill (ordered another round of drinks) it was pleasant so no complaints there. The cocktails were also lovely, and upon asking the waiter answered, politely.

However, I progress onto the food, which is obviously our main reason for dining here! Prawns were So Overcooked due to sitting in these bainmaries for I'd say at least 3 hours that the texture was that of a well-done steak. They were beyond rubbery and dry, I actually firmly believe that they were on the point of turning into nothing! None of the bainmaries were labelled so you really didn't know what you were eating, only that it was prawns!

In saying this, The fresh prawns (a little sceptical as to whether or not they were indeed fresh), were at most 'ok'.

The desserts were ok too. Teeny tiny half bite sized cuts of cakes which I am certain were bought from a bakery.

The last point I wish to make is that, I am now laying in bed a few hours later feeling ill. I can definitely tell anyone reading this now that the food is beyond edible, you couldn't feed your cat this food.

Value wise, not so great, even with a coupon! I could only eat one plate of these prawns, then had some sort of fried rice (Dried rice seems a bit more of an appropriate name for the dish) and ended with a few tiny cubes of chocolate cake. I wouldn't have paid $10 for my food in total.

Will never come back here. Would've preferred somewhere else over this.

May 28, 2012 

2.8 Not Recommended

Food  2      Ambience  5      Service  3      Value  1     

This is definitely not a value for money deal even I paid $79 for 8 course menu for 2. I went there last night with my hubby and another couple. The first impression was the theme and decoration of the venue was quite unique.

After the first 2 course, pear salad and dim sum, we were given a plate with 1 oyster, 1 scallop, a few pieces of ox tongue and soft-shell crab which was considered as 4 course, the scallop was nice, not the way it was cooked, just the natural sweetness of itself, nothing worth commenting about the oyster, but the ox tongue was so hard that we had to cut in tiny tiny pieces before we could actually eat it.

The worst was the soft-shell crab, it was all covered with large chunks of deep fried coating, unlike other restaurant, you could eat all of it, there were lots of unable to swallow pieces. The extra $20 to upgrade to 8 course for the dim sum and soft-shell crab is an absolutely waste of money as the dim sum was only warm and of food court quality (the voucher clearly states 6 pieces to share, but we were only given 4 each couple, but due to the quality of it, I didn't even bother to ask for the extra 2 pieces).

The mains were ok but nothing particularly outstanding. The fried cheese cake was nice but not the mango pudding which I could easily make a better pudding at home. When we asked the waitress to order our coffee or tea after finishing our meals (also included), we were told because we had already provided with soft drinks (we opted for 4 soft drinks instead of wine which was even cheaper), we could not have tea or coffee.

Omg, we were so cranky, it shows they had no basic training for their staff at all, the soft drink or wine was to go with your meal while the coffee or tea was for after the meal. We then asked another waitress and this time we were told it was included.

By the time we left, the restaurant was packed, most of the customers were having buffet which was only $29.95 per head. May be we should have the buffet instead of the voucher. When we came out from the restaurant, we saw some paper sticking on the door with the same menu that we just had @38 per head, my question is why they promoted this as a special while it was available for walk-in customers all the time?

I had much better deals at much better restaurants with much better service before. Please take my advise, don't be mislead by the voucher advertisement. Good luck, Kuaizi!

May 27, 2012 

2 Not Recommended

Food  1      Ambience  1      Service  5      Value  1     

My friend buy a $29.80 coupon from chinese language website that state the price was big discount from $81 original price. She is a shanghai native, so she can read all the detail and instruction from the website and assume the coupon was for 2 people to dine in.

When I came to eat with my wife, the waitress said the coupon was for 1 person only. The waitress offer me to order 1 more exactly the same menu for $38. The other option is share the coupon.

Apparently we weren't the only couple to experience this. Two other couples had the same issue, one chinese couple and one caucasian couple.

The coupon website was very deceitful when it said big saving from original price. Actually it only $8 saving.

For the food, it was one of the worst food I ever had at chinese restaurant. It is not worthy for the $29.80 tag price. All the food was salty and too many pepper. The prawn almost rotten. The ox tongue not fresh. The clam taste bitter. Even the mango pudding worse than mango pudding from cheap chinese bakery.

This week until 14 may 2012, groupon offer another coupon. Do not buy this offer. You will regret to come to this restaurant. I am for sure definitely never come back to this restaurant.

May 10, 2012 

2 Not Recommended

Food  1      Ambience  4      Service  2      Value  1     

This is definitely the worse restaurant my partner and I have been to for a very long time! The service was extremely slow and the waitress kept forgetting people's orders. We were told we will have baramundi, and it turns out the dish was salmon. The fish was not de-boned, and the mussels accompanied the dish was extremely overcooked (tasted like it has been boiled for 3 hours!). The T-bone steak was the worse I ever had, despite we asked them to cook it medium rare, it was very bloody, and very tasteless - no sauce, no flavour. The desserts were very unimpressive. The cakes were just a stack of cream - very dried cream that did not taste fresh. Everything lacks love in this restaurant, despite what they call themselves a 'fusion' restaurant, it's perhaps a fusion of 'very bad' and 'extremely bad'! We walked out without finishing our degustation menu, it was not worth a penny!

Apr 28, 2012 

7.5 Recommended

Food  9      Ambience  8      Service  5      Value  8     

Went here on a voucher for 6 courses and a glass of wine each, or actually 3 courses with with 1 course composed of 4 items (salad, scallop, oysters, ox tongue).

Despite previous reviews, this is certainly a fine dining restaurant and if there is a bistro which serves the quality of food here, I would like to know about it!

I do not think the "tasting plate" respresented full servings that they have on their menu as per their website. So in this regard, the stated "value" of the voucher was grossly inflated.

Tacky decorations which remind me of a Hong Kong nightclub in a Bruce Lee film actually bring charm to the restaurant if appreciated. Ox tongue melt-in-your-mouth soft. Scallop pan-fried just right. T-bone steak every bite juicy with a crust on the outside. Barramundi fillet generously sized with crisp skin.

In saying this, for $30 a head with the coupon, for a fine dining experience, with perfectly executed food, certainly good value. Will definitely be going back for their regular menu.

Apr 14, 2012 

1.3 Not Recommended

Food  1      Ambience  2      Service  1      Value  1     

What an abject disaster and disappointment. I wish I had seen these other reviews before I bought the 8 course degustation deal, let alone wasting a Saturday night there. Whilst I'm no food snob, this degustation will be memorable for all the wrong reasons. There was nothing redeeming I'm afraid.

Service - no menu provided to see what the degustation courses were, for an alleged 1 hatted restaurant, not a tablecloth was in sight, elegant truck stop salt and pepper shakers adorned the table, we were blessed with a waitress who couldn't explain to us what any dish comprised of or came with or indeed what was in any given cocktail, plates were not cleared until the next course came, and the senior staff, ah my "friend" the senior staff - I'll give him a paragraph all of his own.

Food - started with a limp rocket salad with 4 cubes of nashi pear joyfully swimming in a warm paremsan dressing, then courses 2-6 were all served together on 1 plate, luke warm - 1 oyster, 1 scallop with something indistinguishable on it, a small pile of braised ox tongue with a creamed mushroom sauce (I think that's what it was anyway), 2 micro-mini spring rolls and 1 embryo dim sum (at best the type you'd get in a supermarket variety pack)and then a clump of oily soft shell crab with bottled sweet chilli sauce delicately slopped over it.

But wait, there's more. As the waitress couldn't describe for us how the barramundi or eggplant was cooked or served, all 4 of us opted for the safety of the "bistecca" for course 6. Ok, being a perpetual optimist I hoped, I really hoped, but alas 'twas not to be, just a mere, sad t-bone imaginatively served with a plop of mixed lettuce with the same hot parmesan butter dressing from course 1 and, bless them for trying, a cheek of lemon (pips intact). Surely the chef is having a lend here.

I was now primed and heading straight to culinary heaven, salivating at the prospect of dessert. Please someone save me. Dessert (described to us a tiramasu, egg pudding (which turned out to be the mango pudding btw) and rubharb. Dessert was as impressive as everything else. What a success and if this place is one hatted, then surely someone paid for it, because Lord knows there is no way they could have earned it.

This brings me to my favourite part of the night, Smiley the senior staff. Dinner included 2 bottles of wine. White thank you. It arrives warm in half a bucket of melted ice and when I question this (to their surprise it seems - I guess I was supposed to be grateful that they included a bottle of wine in the coupon, for which I paid as part of the deal), I am told that they had run out of white wine that goes with the coupon (its only 8pm). "That's not my problem" I say "please just bring me a chilled bottle of something of similar quality".

Bar Manageress tell me they have nothing else set aside for the "coupon people". Smiley then arrives with a bottle of slightly cooler than warm acidic rubbish and wants to debate with me that it is cold enough and that the coupon didn't say what wine we would get. "True, but one can expect a white to be chilled". Apparently as the coupon didn't say that, there's no guarantee. I shared with Smiley my observation that likewise the coupon didn't mention that the food would be cooked either, and that I hoped that detail wouldn't also require a debate with him.

I questioned Smiley whether the smile was because he found this funny. No, apparently its how he needs to be because he's in the hospitality industry. Guess who was sleeping in That class? He won though the acidic, slightly cooled rubbish languished in its water bath the rest of the evening.

If you do nothing else, avoid this place and head straight for Chinatown!

Apr 08, 2012 

2.5 Not Recommended

Food  1      Ambience  2      Service  3      Value  4     

My friend and I bought an all you can eat tiger prawns + a glass of wine each for us + our partners. The picture they have shown in the groupon looked so good and being a fan of tiger prawns we bought the coupons and booked (And I agree with MISO22) the man on the phone while taking the reservation was rude.

After we were seated, the waitress served us a bottle of wine for the table (being 4 at a table you get a whole bottle) and prawns that were kept frozen and they weren't tiger prawns. Half the bowl was full of prawn heads that had been fallen off. They were slimy and when we asked if the prawns were fresh, she replied yes.

My husband ordered half a dozen oysters on top as he didn't want to eat the frozen, broken prawns and I ordered 6 mixed dumplings, they were over fried and meant to get 2 prawns, 2 spring rolls and 2 dim sums instead I got 3 spring rolls and 3 dim sums the size of a 10 cent coin and they were over fried.

We have taken photos and they are on my phone so I can't upload them. We also couldn't figure out the fusion part of the restaurant as their menu did not look like their food has been fusioned with anything else.

Wouldn't recommand and wouldn't go there again.

Mar 31, 2012 

5.8 Average

Food  4      Ambience  8      Service  6      Value  5     

Got a Scoopon Voucher for the 6-course degustation menu for Two for $59 + a glass of wine each. What we got each was a half glass of wine, a small bowl of salad, a tasting plate of 3 items which they counted as 3 courses on the menu (see attached picture), a main and a dessert.

For mains you can choose either T-bone steak or salmon. The steak was big but the salmon was on the small size and it only came with 2 mussels and a bit of vegetable at the bottom. Desserts tasted alright but quite boring, choice of either mango pudding or tiramisu without any presentation whatsoever.

Overall, the ambience was nice and elegant but the food left us unsatisfied, not only because of the small portions but there was nothing stand out about it. We might as well have eaten at home. If we had paid full price for this degustation menu I would've been really upset.

I also agree with another reviewer that the guy who answers the phone and takes bookings is really rude and has no concept of customer service.

Mar 27, 2012 

5.5 Average

Food  3      Ambience  8      Service  7      Value  4     

Great ambience and service. Unfortunately, it ended there. Food was terrible.

Mar 23, 2012 

2.3 Not Recommended

Food  1      Ambience  5      Service  2      Value  1     

Warning! Don't be fooled into thinking this is a fine dining restaurant, it is not, although advertised as such. From beginning to end, my husband and I were thoroughly disappointed with our dining experience. From the pictures and advertisement I was expecting a fine dining degustation meal (which we had paid via a coupon), When I called to make the booking the man on the phone was extremely rude (I assumed it was because they are such high class and popular, so I thought “Wow the food must be good because he is so rude”).

1 hour before our meal I received a call from the restaurant to check if we were still coming, A bit strange I thought, maybe because they were fully booked (little did I know this wasn’t a sign of popular demand but a sign of being totally unprofessional).

Turned up to the restaurant, the decor was very interesting to say the least, a good attempt at a classy modern restaurant but with touches of tackiness (strobe disco ball lighting and shelves cluttered with plates and teapots). The degustation its self was "devastating" to say the least, one would expect a degustation would serve small, opulent and tasty meals that would be a representation of Asian cuisine.

What was served was a three course meal that I could have picked up at my local RSL, 1st course was limp salad and pears, spring rolls then a massive t-bone steak and desert that looked like it came out of the boxed SaraLee cake (it was limp and sloppy).

The staff were confused and jittery and brought the courses out at the wrong time, we were served our desserts before our 2nd entree but when the waitress finally brought out the 2nd course (without cutlery) the look of it was hardly tempting, consisting of two small fish cakes with hairs in it, a tiny oyster that looked slightly green and some ox tongue. I took one look and didn’t dare to try in fear I might get food poisoning.

I think this restaurant was possible the Worst food experience of my life and I can see their intentions are good, but I was so Confused as to what kind of cuisine it actually was! I had to pull the waiter aside and ask “Excuse me, what kind of cuisine does this restaurant serve?” For a Scoopon deal I should have known not to expect much, but you would think they would want to display the best fusion of modern asian, not some weird mix of modern Australian!

By the end of the meal I felt like crying with pity, I can see that they are trying hard to create a classy restaurant but it really is tacky and a rip off that they are serving people food that taste likes it comes from the frozen aisle of the supermarket! Next time Chef Ramsay is in town I think he needs to “do over “ this place. Good luck to them.

Mar 11, 2012