Situated on The High Street – Wimbledon Village this smaller than it used to be Chinese Restaurant serves up some of the most delectable chinese food this side of the Thames. Well it used to anyway. Maybe it was today was a bad day for the over crowded and under staffed Bayee Village however as they have been around long enough to know people who pay a price expect a certain service. Now do not mistake me when I say a ‘certain price’ by thinking the food is over priced as it is perfectly reasonable however if I wanted semi heated noodles and bland rice I could have just picked up the phone and order from my local takeaway.

As I mentioned above this may well have been an off day for this usually admirable customer service skills. Seriously though in the current financial climate restaurants of this size cannot afford to have off days. It is the little things that count and when you have to ask four different people for a straw before you have to get up and ask to speak to a manager to request a straw times really must be hard in finding staff these days. Maybe it is easy to find staff but staff that are willing to work and provide a good service in order to maintain the good name of a company that they really do not give two whistles about is a different thing.

With a lovely chilled glass of Sancerre things began to look a little better until the food was delivered. As mentioned before a bowl of semi-heated noodles, bland ‘special fried’ (in water with no seasoning??) rice we thought it was all over. Five minutes later the sizzling part of the course could be heard from the kitchen which was a good time – however by this time we had luckily managed to collar the nearest waiter (the manager!) and inform him of our misfortune with the noodles. Both dishes were promptly taken back as were our dishes confiscated for replenishment of new utensils. Good right?

Not so much – after another 10 minutes when the sizzling on our table stopped the plates and bowls were placed back on the table and warm noodles. There comes a point where you just have to stop moaning and take what is given to you. After chowing down and chugging the delicious wine like we were thieves in the night we called over the manager and explained away our woes.

Many apologies were given and a small percentage taken off the bill. This is very nice – HOWEVER instead of having to apologise and lose money for your business hire good staff, hire enough staff and this goes for the chef also. After speaking to a friend about the meal we both came to the same conclusion that places like this are still around because people like to go to them because of the quality of food and service. They have been around so long due to a lot of word of mouth as the internet and other social networking tools were not available way back when. As the saying says: ‘If it aint broke don’t fix it‘ well to that my response would be ‘DAMN RIGHT!‘

I will be returning again but maybe not so soon and definitely for any special occasions until I can see that service has improved vastly.

There are many offers available if you would like to try Bayee Village and see for yourself – they are having a Valentine’s Special

Much respect goes to the management as they were as always polite and respectful.

Oh and thank you for my lovely take home chopsticks – my mother who finds it difficult to use Chopsticks will appreciate these immensely – AND the fortune cookie!

Have a great day