1 Hour. No Food. What Happened at Royal Seafood Restaurant?

Let's eat some Chinese food...or not? Would you wait 1 hour for dinner and get nothing? Maybe leave? In this food review, I go over what happened at Royal Seafood Restaurant in Richmond B.C. on Blundell Rd. 

We were in the mood to explore the area and went to the restaurant for dinner on a Tuesday weeknight. It seemed like most restaurants in the area were quite busy. We didn't have any reservations but the staff had room and could accommodate us. Or so we thought. 

From the looks of it, dinner and the venue looked promising. The restaurant is spacious, large, and inviting. They even had a fountain at the front and the washrooms were clean. This is the typical type of Chinese seafood restaurants that can seat large groups or banquets. There were also a number of dinner specials to which we ordered across the menu about 3 large dishes (entrees) to share between us (including rice). 

Here's where dinner went downhill. We placed our order and we waited, and waited, and waited. We watched the other tables, checked the time, and wondered if our order got lost. Other tables and people were doing the same. Even people in the private room checked on the service area. The restaurant was decently full for a weekday evening, probably because many went for dinner because there was a special where if you dined for lunch and ate dim sum for a certain amount (I think it was $80), they gifted a free half sized chicken for dinner. 

The five of us noticed something strange...we were watching the kitchen and barely any food was coming out. Maybe a handful of dishes every 10 minutes. There were over 20-30 tables in the restaurant and they were all waiting for food. Given that they were seated ahead of us, we knew we were in for the long haul. 

This is simply an operational issue, not a demand issue. There were clearly enough customers to profit for a weeknight but barely enough chefs to serve the food. Some of the dishes can be prepped in advance, like cut up whole chicken dishes or appetizers like nuts and pickles on the table. Something for people to snack on while they wait. However, once you understaff, especially for a restaurant, customers start to get antsy and the kitchen gets overwhelmed. Quality suffers, dishes get misplaced, and the understaffed chefs are under immense pressure. Cutting corners on a frequent basis will lead to issues in the future.

At the half hour mark, we started to get a bit antsy. None of the waiters or staff had any answers to our questions about when the food would come. Not one dish arrived at our table.

At the one hour mark, we had enough and decided to bolt for a nearby restaurant. Despite pleas from the staff that our food was 'on the way' (despite few other tables getting food), we felt that we could go somewhere with faster service and we wouldn't have to wait as long. At least they could have comped a dish or perhaps given us a free dessert or appetizer, but that's where this review ends. Would you have stayed?

Hits:

• The dining room is large, well-decorated, and spacious
• Free parking and elevator up

Misses:

• Waiting over an hour with no peanuts, vegetables, or food is unacceptable
• Service was so slow, unresponsive, and not problem solving oriented
• Lack of care and sense of urgency; I really wanted to try the food and give an honest review

Rating: 1/5 based on this singular experience. Maybe we came on a bad night? I hope they get their act together so I might come back one day and properly review their food. What's next in our food adventures? Where did we go for dinner? Check out the review for Master Hung's BBQ :O