Salt & Pepper
35 Brunel Road, Unit 4
Mississauga, Ontario L4Z 3E8
Tel: 905-568-9900
Fax: 905-568-9905
E-mail: [email protected]
Website: Salt & Pepper Hakka Style Chinese Restaurant & Pary Hall @ Salt & Pepper Restaurant & Party Hall
Excerpt form their website:
Salt & Pepper is a luxury Chinese restaurant where you can experience the best chefs in town inspired by the opportunity to use the finest and freshest ingredients available. Come and try our delicious speciality dishes such as Crispy Chilli Chicken, Manchurian Shrimp and Chicken Sizzlers and horde of other dishes. Our Chicken Pakoras and Veggie Manchurian are also great. We pride ourselves of having the largest variety of Hakka style Chinese dishes in town.
Review:
On Saturday, March 1, 2014 along with a group of 8 friends we decided to pay a return visit to this popular hakka-chinese establishment. It had been a few years since we last dined there and we knew that while the service would not be the best, the food would be pretty good.
Sadly we were really disappointed.
The place was an abysmal mess. The decor was dated and the paint on the walls made you wonder if someone had consciously selected the hue or if they had just become dirty from lack of cleaning. The once red patterned carpet was completely blackened in the heavy traffic areas. So much so that I felt relieved stepping in the freshly fallen snow to clean the bottoms of my boots when we finally left two and a half hours later.
We had made reservations and despite advising them which party we were with, we were seated in an area that eventually would not accommodate our full group necessitating a move. When we were presented with 5 menus to share amongst 10 people, we were understanding of the shortage, but what was totally unacceptable and rude was when I had my menu taken from my hands rather than requested. I wouldn’t have minded if he had asked me politely but to simply grab the menu and pull on it until I let go was just ridiculous behaviour. No apology was offered.
About 15 minutes after the orders were placed the food began to trickle in. One or two dishes at a time. Someone’s main dish would arrive at the same time that another’s appetizer did. One person was served their steamed rice and waited 15 additional minutes before the chilly chicken with gravy showed up so he placed the rice on his plate and stared at it while it cooled to a lukewarm state. Another person got her soup several minutes after her main dish and probably only because she asked where it was. Most people didn’t receive their drinks at all and ended up cancelling them. My mango shake arrived just in time to be consumed as a dessert.
We had ordered chicken corn soup which was not bad. But then again, how much can you screw up soup, and that too something as simple as chicken corn? Next to arrive for us was Hakka Veggie Chow Mein and Crispy Fried Beef. About 10 minutes later the Hot Garlic Fish with gravy and Chilly Chicken with gravy arrived. The only item out of all of these that did not have a bland taste was the Crispy Beef…but that’s because it was too salty and tart as well as being burnt (I had no idea when I asked for the house speciality that the “crispiness” was achieved by burning the meat.)
The restaurant was busy and very obviously short-staffed for a Saturday night. I don’t think that there was an empty booth or table so we were quite forgiving when it came to delays, mistakes and forgotten orders. What we couldn’t overlook was when dishes were so badly fumbled as the Hakka Veggie Chow Mein that was prepared with what was very obviously a mix of frozen peas and carrots with some frozen broccoli thrown in for good measure. None of the standard vegetables that one would expect in chow mein (i.e. bean sprouts, spring onions, shredded carrot, green peppers, cabbage and/or mushrooms) were anywhere to be found.
Although the server had been told repeatedly that the tabs were to be individual, paying them was a nightmare. Each couple had to correct their bills and double-check to make sure that they were being charged for what they consumed rather than those items that were ordered but never arrived like drinks.
Much of the food from the evening was left over and we left knowing that none of us would be returning any time soon.
Buck up Salt & Pepper. Word gets around.