And so, another October golden week comes to an end, my regular dining partner, an expert in all things Cantonese, suggested we try Imperial Treasure, what a letdown this purported Two Star Michelin restaurant it turned out to be.

Despite having a confirmed reservation for 12h30, we had to wait some 15 minutes for the table, the restaurant was busy though on this Sunday lunchtime.

A bugbear which I have is the table to seat ratio in restaurants, I felt like Steve Martin in Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, the seat was much lower than the table, one had to lean forward, the dining chair had no lumbar support.

We opted for the Dim Sum tick the box menu, which my dining partner breezed through, whilst I looked through the main menu,

Wow so many grammatical errors on the menu

e.g.

Braised Sliced Australia Abalone

Canada Geoduck Clam

Sri Lanka Crab

To name but a few

We were served Pu Er tea, and the Dim Sum dishes started to arrive

"Xiajiao" shrimp dumpling

XO-Sauce turnip cake

Salt and Pepper fried tentacles

Fried Phoenix-Tail fish

Rose goose and BBQ pork

BBQ Pork Puff

Salted egg custard buns

Red bean paste pancake

The worst dish of the meal was the Salt and Pepper fried tentacles, extremely oily, and looked like the scrapings from the deep fat fryer at the end of service.

I have had far better Dim Sum at less pretentious restaurants in Shanghai.

Normally, and I say normally in Chinese restaurants of this calibre one is given a damp towel, along with a cloth napkin, not at Imperial Treasure you don’t, you are given cocktail napkins?

The service was generally efficient, somewhat robotic I felt.

The toilet facilities were clean, as one would expect.

Damages were 567RMB including service charge.

I looked up the criteria as to how “The Michelin Guide” awards their stars, which is as follows:

Two stars: A restaurant worth a detour, indicating excellent cuisine and skilfully and carefully crafted dishes of outstanding quality. 

Frankly, I would not want to detour back to Imperial Treasure any time soon.

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