This posting is appearing now but actually reflects on something that happened last Fall….Why did I wait so long to post it? No particular reason, (a) I had written most of the piece, but simply did not get around to publishing; (b) wanted to reflect a bit more on it (at the time) and that moment turn into a couple of quarters 
So here it is now….
I have been accumulating reviews on various hotels in China and Asia Pacific overall. I find it useful to check out other travellers’ view points on hotels as they vary so much…. Here is a link to a listing of hotel reviews already published on this blog
This week I have spent a bunch of time across several China cities and on my last few days I was in Beijing, staying in the Crowne Plaza ZhongGuanCun (at ZhiChun Lu). The hotel itself is very nice – the room I stayed in very spacious, BUT (here it comes — the big surprise) — the service in the hotel coffee shop (the basic dinner place) is less than stellar!
My wife and I went for dinner there (in the Valley Caffee restaurant) and ordered a simple dinner – a couple of beers and two orders of Thai style stir fried noodles. There were only 6-7 customers in the restaurant. The results were very disappointing. After a 30min or so wait my wife got her order of noodles. I thought it was odd — that they brought in only one plate/ one order, but I thought it is just that they are bringing the food one at a time…..I continued waiting, and waiting, and waiting…Another 15-20 minutes later, I asked the waitress “What is happening with my food?” She quickly went to the kitchen and came back to announce proudly “it is almost ready…” — Translation = They had forgotten about my order and will cook it now….
Proof that I was right in my assessment was visible when the singaporean noodles I had ordered arrived at the table. The dish was supposed to be identical to the one my wife was eating. Well, it was not! It had very different ingredients — might as well been a different dish.
So when I pointed this out to the waitress she continued with a convincing tone that it was exactly the same. My point to her was — “the chef used whatever were the left overs at this time at night and made me a noodle dish ” Long story short I returned the dish and told them that I am out of time and want to talk with the restaurant manager. That created its own set of panic and commotion…. At the end I told the manager on duty that this was unacceptable and that I would have expected more from the hotel. In the morning I had big apologies from the hotel food and beverage manager and lots of explanations. Got also a discount on my hotel stay and promises to be paid attention next time I come to the hotel.
All in all, I find a lot of strange contradictions in Chinese hotels — most of them are top notch — very luxurious, but every so often you have small things that really irritate and a strong attempt by the staff to brush complaints aside. Strange approach…..but oh, well, just stay your ground when you need to.
