First on the banned list - Crystal Jade La Mian and Xiao Long Bao @ Suntec

I have decided to put this on the first of my banned list, given its poor food quality and poor service and very expensive price.

The first time I tried Crystal Jade was probably around 4 years ago. I vaguely remember that the xiao long bao was nice and the la mian was not bad too. Once in a while I do go back for revisits and so far they haven't failed me, until I visited the one at Suntec.

I'm not sure if it's because of that branch only or all their restaurants' quality have drastically deteriorated. When I stepped in, no water was served. Why do I bring this up? Isn't it quite common for some restaurants to not serve water at the beginning? No, I'm comparing this with Ding Tai Fung. They served me hot tea at the moment I was there. Okay Ding Tai Fung aside, back to Crystal Jade.

So I was looking through the menu, nothing really great actually. I eyed upon this chicken soup (I don't really care what's its real name on the menu), and wanted to try it out with plain la mian, since the soup was about $7 (I think) and I didn't want to order another bowl of la mian. I asked the waiter how much it would cost if I order a plain bowl of noodle. He came back to me with a price I totally could not accept - $7. WTH? Plain la mian costs $7? So their chicken/pork/beef are almost equal to nothing because a bowl of chicken la mian costs around the same? Anyway, so I decided not to order that plain la mian anymore.

Eventually, my friends and I decided to order the chicken soup, still, with beef soup, so that we can try a variety (actually there's a few). Then we ordered some spring onion la mian (I can't be bothered with its name either), which supposedly looks quite good from the picture.

To our surprise! It was all too disappointing. The soups were not hot, they were just lurk warm. The taste? I really don't want to talk about the taste. I think Myojo instant noodle's soup can do better. I really felt like I was drinking some lurk warm water seasoned with AJINOMOTO and colouring and a few chunks of meat. DISAPPOINTING. I don't even want to talk about the la mian. It was just a simple la mian fried with spring onion and some oil. Oh I remembered, it was supposed to be topped with shrimps. And it was just a few bits of dried shrimps.

I swear I'm not ever going back to that place again. And I publicize this among my friends and warn them not to go near this place. This is the first restaurant which has disappointed me with expensive price but food that cannot even be compared with those in hawker centre. Even my school's canteen sells tastier and healthier soups.

Friends, if you are sane, don't go to that place. And not that their xiao long bao was really great. I can go elsewhere for that, and I will find that place soon. Please ban Crystal Jade! At least the Suntec branch was lousy.

Disgrace to the restaurants. Tsk Tsk Tsk.

Don't visit them at Suntec City.