Zero Beakers Archives

Jojocake, KoreanGirl and I were searching for food since Jojocake’s parents left her to fend for herself. How can she fend for herself if she does not even have essentials like milk? She called up KoreanGirl and I to go eat dinner.

Our first stop was supposed to be Pho 101, but when we walked into the restaurant…everyone looked at us funny as we sat down at a booth. We didn’t understand why there were mass amounts of spring rolls everywhere, nor all the awkward looks towards us. Apparently it closed 5 mins earlier … but no one told us they were closed until after many many awkward minutes. We felt embarrassed so we decided to drive west.

What was on Hastings that would be open after 8pm? We drove to Bo Laska King’s Bubble and Bits since I know for sure they are open till midnight. When we arrive, they were closed but the sign said they were open 7 days a week till midnight.

Another fail…. so what is the one place we know that for sure will not close early. E. Tea on Rupert and 22nd.

I got one of their dinner combos – crispy chicken + meat sauce on rice ($9.50).

I really did not take a liking to this meal. The crispy chicken pieces had a lot of cartilage and tendon still in the meat. So, I was constantly picking stuff out of my mouth.

The meat sauce on rice was not very hot. The sauce and the meat were room temperature and the rice was a bit hot.

KoreanGirl ordered the Crispy chicken with noodle ($6.95).

The meal was quite simple, crispy chicken and a bowl of noodles. There was a lot of noodles.

JojoCake ordered the Baked Curry Pork Cutlet on Rice ($7.50). As you can probably tell, the images above are NOT anything resembling curry.

When JojoCake’s order arrived, it looked more like a baked seafood. She is allergic to seafood, so for them to bring the wrong dish to a person with allergies is a no no. Good thing she figured out it was not the right order and asked the waitress about it.

The waitress brought back a menu to confirm which was the right item she wanted. She quickly confirmed the order and sent it back to the kitchen.

At this point, KoreanGirl and I were almost done eating our own dishes.

Next, the waitress brings another dish to the table, this time it could have been mistaken for the curry pork cutlet, but when Jojocake began poking around, it was mostly cheesy meat sauce and seaweed on top of rice.

At this point, she just really wanted her curry pork chop cutlet since she was STARVING! We talked to the waitress and she believed it was the Curry Porkchop cutlet, so she goes to the back to talk to the kitchen. Turns out, this was not the curry porkchop cutlet.

When KoreanGirl and I finished our meal, the correct dish for JojoCake arrived.

The appearance of the Curry Porkchop cutlet was not the best. The curry sauce was very watery and was not baked very well. As she stirred the sauce onto the rice, it started to become more of a congee type thing rather than rice.

She was very outraged.

As we were very disheartened about the visit to E. Tea, we expected E. Tea to be more respectful of their customers and at least offer some sort of compensation for the trouble. As we asked for the bill, the waitress said nothing as she handed us our bill. Not even a sorry for the trouble.

We just paid $27.33 and just left. No tips, just exactly $27.33. We felt slightly guilty for not tipping, but on the other hand it was a horrible experience. We jumped into my car and drove away.

I’ve been a customer for many years and I did notice a decline in their service and food. It is safe to say, we will never return to E. Tea.

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