Crystal Jade Jiang Nan
opened in San Francisco late last year. As this is a Singapore chain
that I go to quite often when I am in Singapore, I was naturally curious
about it. After the first few weeks/months of reviews, it became clear
I would not venture there on my own. Overpriced with horrific service
was my takeaway.
Every year, for Chinese New Year, Lingon gets taken out for work to some Chinese restaurant, and I get to tag along. Usually this dinner is at R&G Lounge, but this year they had it at Crystal Jade! Happiness!
So off we went to see the restaurant that cost $14m to build. It looked like it could have cost $2-4 million to build. I did not see the opulence that this $14m should have given. Seriously disappointing.
For dinner, we were served in the high-end Chinese restaurant style, where your dish brought out and displayed, and then served. We got rather high-end looking stuff. Started with hot and sour soup, which I have not had for ages and certainly is not high end but totally hit the spot. Then prawns, abalone (or maybe mushroom?), black pepper beef, scallop, eefu noodles, and for dessert tang yuan and some kind of kueh seeming thing. I really loved the food.
The service was a lot better than I expected, probably coz it was a pre-ordered dinner meal. However, I was really annoyed with service, due to the disgusting amount of waste generated by the restaurant. They pre-poured wine at every single seating, though one whole table of perhaps 20 people were not even there. I had picked my seat already, so I had specifically told them no wine for me, but then another waiter came by and poured wine in my glass anyway. So, 21 glasses of wine, very generous pours, no one drinking. I was very upset and told the service staff that, but they claimed they did were not wasting. I mean, HUH? At least they boxed up the rest of the meal, so I took some home and gave it away. As I reflect on this dinner that took place a few months ago, I'm also annoyed at either the people who RSVP'd and did not show up, or the organizer who did not manage head count properly. I hate waste. Thanks for listening to me rant.
The surprise of the evening came at the end. I was looking for the bathroom, or maybe my phone which was charging at the bar, when I came across the service staff making lots of noise. I went by, and realized they were doing this thing called lo hei or yusheng that I had done during previous Chinese New Years back in Singapore. The dish is made of a bunch of shredded vegetables and sashimi grade salmon. According to Wikipedia, "all diners at the table then stand up and proceed to toss the shredded ingredients into the air with chopsticks while saying various "auspicious wishes" out loud, or simply "lo hei, lo hei" (撈起, 撈起, in Mandarin lāoqǐ, lāoqǐ, meaning "scoop it up, scoop it up"). It is believed that the height of the toss reflects the height of the diners' growth in fortunes, thus diners are expected to toss enthusiastically." I got to practice a custom that I had not done for the past 13 years (wow!), and that was truly special.
In conclusion, I'm not sure I would ever go by myself to Crystal Jade in SF. The dim sum looks way too high-end, and in general the place is too expensive. I believe we had super exceptional service since we were there for an event, but I think any other circumstance would be a let down.
Every year, for Chinese New Year, Lingon gets taken out for work to some Chinese restaurant, and I get to tag along. Usually this dinner is at R&G Lounge, but this year they had it at Crystal Jade! Happiness!
So off we went to see the restaurant that cost $14m to build. It looked like it could have cost $2-4 million to build. I did not see the opulence that this $14m should have given. Seriously disappointing.
For dinner, we were served in the high-end Chinese restaurant style, where your dish brought out and displayed, and then served. We got rather high-end looking stuff. Started with hot and sour soup, which I have not had for ages and certainly is not high end but totally hit the spot. Then prawns, abalone (or maybe mushroom?), black pepper beef, scallop, eefu noodles, and for dessert tang yuan and some kind of kueh seeming thing. I really loved the food.
The service was a lot better than I expected, probably coz it was a pre-ordered dinner meal. However, I was really annoyed with service, due to the disgusting amount of waste generated by the restaurant. They pre-poured wine at every single seating, though one whole table of perhaps 20 people were not even there. I had picked my seat already, so I had specifically told them no wine for me, but then another waiter came by and poured wine in my glass anyway. So, 21 glasses of wine, very generous pours, no one drinking. I was very upset and told the service staff that, but they claimed they did were not wasting. I mean, HUH? At least they boxed up the rest of the meal, so I took some home and gave it away. As I reflect on this dinner that took place a few months ago, I'm also annoyed at either the people who RSVP'd and did not show up, or the organizer who did not manage head count properly. I hate waste. Thanks for listening to me rant.
The surprise of the evening came at the end. I was looking for the bathroom, or maybe my phone which was charging at the bar, when I came across the service staff making lots of noise. I went by, and realized they were doing this thing called lo hei or yusheng that I had done during previous Chinese New Years back in Singapore. The dish is made of a bunch of shredded vegetables and sashimi grade salmon. According to Wikipedia, "all diners at the table then stand up and proceed to toss the shredded ingredients into the air with chopsticks while saying various "auspicious wishes" out loud, or simply "lo hei, lo hei" (撈起, 撈起, in Mandarin lāoqǐ, lāoqǐ, meaning "scoop it up, scoop it up"). It is believed that the height of the toss reflects the height of the diners' growth in fortunes, thus diners are expected to toss enthusiastically." I got to practice a custom that I had not done for the past 13 years (wow!), and that was truly special.
In conclusion, I'm not sure I would ever go by myself to Crystal Jade in SF. The dim sum looks way too high-end, and in general the place is too expensive. I believe we had super exceptional service since we were there for an event, but I think any other circumstance would be a let down.
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