Hot Wok Village

10/17/08

Worst customer service!

by sparks456 at Citysearch

The food was nice, hot n spicy! But the customer service is really bad. First off, they are understaffed, there was only one waitress on duty. I ordered my drink along w/ my dinner entrees, and it didn't come until after i was done eating my dinner (and that happened after i had to remind them about it)!! Employees don't know how to behave with customers. The menus mention that 15% gratuity fee will be added to party of 4 or more (which of course includes the tip), yet the waitress had to ruin our evening by confronting us with the whole "us not giving her a tip" issue and making us feel cheap or something! I always tip, actually i have a problem of tipping over!, but they already included that in my bill so i saw no point of tipping extra after already having such a bad experience. And when asked for the manager to talk to, there was none on duty. That was my first and last time there! I wouldn't want to go to a place where I'm made feel like a criminal for something it's the resturant's fault!

04/15/08

Not the best chinese

by savy13 at Citysearch

My wife is a big fan of Chinese, which led us to visit this place on Saturday 11th March 2008 at about 9 PM. I was highly recommended by my friend (Indian friend obviously) for this place. So the expectations were high. After reading experience of ppl with the timings, I did call them up to confirm that they were open.

The experience with staff was good. From guiding to a table to taking orders, they were very courteous & friendly (would rate that much above the normal courteousness one can expect in Indian restaurants here in US)

Disaster stuck when food arrived. We had ordered Veg Fried Rice, American Choupsey, & Chilli Chicken with gravy. The rice was too hard, probably the cheap variant which was not at all fresh. Choupesy was undoubtedly the worst I ever had, and the chilli chicken was almost floating in not so pleasant looking oil bath. 

I am a big fan of Chinese, both the American as well as the Indian variant. When they claim that this place is owned by an Indian born and raised Chinese who was a chef in China Garden, I don't doubt it even for a moment, after all he definitely has done a tasteful interior & has done his best in training the people and creating a good ambience. But they surely don't publicize about their cooks. The choupesy can be compared to something made in very Gujarati mix Italian style, with almost raw tomato puree with lot of sugar & probably a lot of butter (ghee) in it. Makes you wonder if the cook in fact is a Gujju...(I am myself a gujurati so no disrespect meant there, just that people & I would rather have Chinese styled Chinese rather than gujju style Chinese). I would rate this place above average in ambience, staff courteousness & service. It has the potential to be a good joint if they seriously get some better cooks and fresh food.

The best experience at this place ? my Corona beer (after all it was bottled :))

• Pros: Better service
• Cons: Food, food & food

10/02/07

A niche restaurant

by vik_granger at Citysearch

This restaurant serves a specialized cuisine - "Indian Chinese" food. That is, Chinese food of the variety you would find in India and suited to the tastes of people who are from there. The owner is supposed to be Chinese and raised in India though I've never seen him. Hot Wok has found a niche that serves itself well, for the place is usually pretty busy. Of course, being a niche restaurant, it is also obvious that it has a very narrow appeal. In the many times I've dined there, I think I've only seen one non-Indian person in the dining room, ever. I like the food, but my wife really likes it. Perhaps that's because she was raised in India and I was not. If you are non-Indian, don't let my observation dissuade you from giving this place a try. If you're in the mood for something adventuresome and want a change of pace, give this place a shot at least once. If you don't like it, dinner won't be too hard on the wallet. The Haka noodles are quite good, and can be very spicy hot unless you tell them to moderate the taste. The fish dishes aren't bad either. Atmosphere is comfortable and resembles a Polynesian or Pacific Island village. Whenever I've been there, the service has ranged from mildly helpful to indifferent, but never rude. The only thing I don't care for at Hot Wok is the mandatory 15% gratuity they tack on...the service would probably be better yet if the servers had an incentive to work for.

• Pros: Unique food, Haka noodles, ambiance
• Cons: Automatic gratuity added on