After the pleasant experience I had from my last visit, i chose this place out of all the restaurants in Novena to celebrate my friend's birthday only to leave with extreme regret. We went there at the time they just open for dinner. We were the ONLY ONES in the entire restaurants. As we both had pretty large bags, we asked the waitress if we could sit at a larger table. She said "No!" cos it will be very crowded later. She already said LATER, NOW there was no one around. ONLY US. It was not as if this was a buffet and we will be sitting for a couples of hours. I wanted to walk out due to the waitress's INFLEXIBILITY but my friend felt embarrassed to walk out so i gave in and sat down at the TINY TABLE FOR TWO with my bag placed behind me on the chair.

Since it was my friend's birthday, we decided to order more food. We ordered a Large Chicken Hotpot (they have three sizes) and a small Beef Hotpot. On top of that we ordered a glass of cold green tea each. When they placed the hotpot holder on the table, it was already very cramp. I again asked the same waitress if it would be too CRAMP since we ordered the food enough for at least 3 to 4 people but she STUBBORNLY insisted that it was fine and continued to want us to remain at this tiny table.

When both the Large Pot and Small Pots came, true enough it was SO CRAMP. We barely had place to put our drinks in fear we might knock it over. the movement to take the food from the pots was also limited as it was just too cramp. We were three quarter finishing our food and there was nobody coming. the restaurant was empty with all the larger tables EMPTY and here we were like cramp in the tiny space. only when we were finishing up our last bit of food, an elderly couple came in and they too were cramp into the same tiny table as us. the lady asked the same INFLEXIBLE waitress if they could get a larger table and she continued her stubborn ways of rejecting them. CANT THIS WAITRESS SEE IT, US CUSTOMERS JUST WANT TO EAT MORE COMFORTABLY. not to mention this restaurant serves hot pot which means the pot in front of you is lighted and hot and if it is too cramp, it would be dangerous and we could burn ourselves accidentally.

The food is undeniably good, the gravy was thick for both the chicken and the beef and the broth they add to the hotpot when the gravy dries up is also nice. the beef was tender and you hardly need to chew. the beef ball was very springy too. I appreciate such good food, but for such uncomfortable environment and poor service from the stubborn waitress, it is kind of turn off. Price wise, it was not very cheap either, our bill came up to around $50 to $60 plus. this price can get you a much more comfortable environment.

I decided to give the pineapple rice a try when i happened to dine at Novena's Velocity Food Court. I must say I was utterly disappointed with their Pineapple Rice. Firstly, the rice is so hard, i suspect they did not cook it long enough. Then the frozen vegetables are very hard and raw. When I bit into the frozen peas, it was hard and bitter. Then there were prawns fried together with the fried rice, the prawns were not fresh at all, when i chewed it, it was mushy. so disappointing!

This is by far one of the worst xiao long bao I have ever eaten. I waited pretty long for them to steam it but I would be ok with the wait if the xiao long bao was good. It was not say very cheap too, six pieces for $5.50. When I got the xiao long bao, I was already disappointed by the way it appeared. Then when I put it into my mouth, I almost fainted. The skin was so THICK! Normally skilled xiao long bao chef makes the skin very thin yet it would not break when you clip it with your chopstick. For this one, you do not need to worry that it will break cos the skin is thick enough to prevent that. But something amazing happened, two of my xiao long bao did break, the reason was not the skin too thin but because of the thick skin, these two xiao long bao were stuck together when being steamed so when I used my chopstick to clip one, the thick skin stuck firmly to the other and finally broke. It was just so disappointing. I will not buy their xiao long bao again!

I wanted to order a cup of pear juice at this food court but the lady weirdly told me there was no more pear so I had to order another drink. Why I said weirdly told me is because I saw in their fruits display, there were quite a number of freshly cut pears. Since she did not want to sell me pear, I had no choice but to pick another fruit so I went with kiwi. And the funniest thing is she took the kiwi from the fruit display and blended it. I dun understand why she can take the kiwi from the fruit display to make my juice and not the pear. Anyway I paid $2.50 for the cup of kiwi juice which is much more than other fruit juices kiosk. Disappointed max!

i bought the honey green tea from zen q and boy was I disappointed. Despite being called honey green tea, I could not taste any honey at all. Green tea are naturally not sweet and have some bitter taste, so I thought by ordering the honey green tea, the honey would musk away the bitterness of the green tea. initially I thought I had not stirred well , but as I drink to the end of the cup, there was not at all any hint of honey and I had to endure the bitterness of the green tea. I was so painful for me to finish the drink even though it was the normal small cup. i should think the store keeper forgot to add the honey. will try to buy again when she is not working.