Boredworkers.com

Last weekend I was in Genting Highlands for work. Happy Valley Restaurant used to be a favourite haunt of my ex-manager but it has been a while since we last ate there (nearly a year now since his resignation). For want of a better choice, we decided to head over to Theme Park Hotel where the restaurant was located. Boy did we regret it.

When we arrived, we found the restaurant nearly deserted. This is in contrast to a time when they used to refuse us entry because we were staff and they didn’t have enough space to cater to their customers. What had happened to the place? Was the food so bad that no one frequented it anymore, not even the staff?! Putting on a brave face, we walked in hoping for the best. Little did we know that we were about to find out first hand how bad it had become.

For the sake of completeness, here’s what we ordered:

• Sea cucumber (small) = RM31.05
• Brocolli with scallops (small) = RM31.05
• Buttered prawns (small) = RM31.05
• Black pepper ostrich (small) = RM21.85
• Steamed beancurd with soya sauce (small) = RM9.20
• Herbal chicken soup (large) = RM37.95
• Salmon Yee Sang (small) = RM37.95
• 2 x Plain water = RM2.30
• Chinese tea (small pot?) = 4.60
• 5 x plain rice = RM8.75
• Steam red talapia (0.85kg at RM26.45/kg) = RM22.48
• 5 x Kuai Lin Kou (Chinese herb pudding) = RM31.65
• Total = RM252.63

Note that the price is after tax and staff discounts. I’m not sure how much a discount staff gets but last time I checked, it was 25%. So assuming that it is 25%, the actual cost would be RM336.84! That is overpriced for the quality of food that we got. Read on if you want to see me bitch about it.

First things first, when we were placing our orders, they told us that they were out of ginger. Can you imagine a chinese restaurant that serves chinese dishes and has a majority chinese patronage not stocking up on ginger? The fact that most chinese dishes are cooked with ginger is enough for them to keep loads and loads of that ingredient on hand. Not that I’m complaining since I don’t particularly like ginger to begin with. But this tiny hindsight tells alot about the restaurant management and the chef. Is their business so bad that they just decided not to place the order? But fair enough, they don’t have ginger. So we made our order based on that fact and worked around it.

Did they make up for it by giving us better food with quality ingredients? Definitely not! The old chef that was serving the place must have retired or something. The food tasted nothing like what I had come to expect. No wonder the place was devoid of guests. The salmon in the Yee Sang was starting to turn colour. It was no longer a bright fresh orange, but rather a dull brown of salmon that has been kept too long. The edges were grey meaning that hey gave us the bits that were closest to the skin instead of the juicy centre of salmon steak. From then on out, it was dish after bad dish.

The steamed fish was bland and a little overcooked, the prawns were dry with too much sugar, the sea cucumber was nearly non-existent and overpowered by the condiments that came with it, the brocolli was yellow with age, the ostrich tasted like chicken without in black soya sauce instead of black pepper, and the herbal soup tasted watered down and bitter with flavouring (never liked that type of soup to begin with). Did I get everything? Oh yeah, the beancurd was cold and overly salty!

At the end of the meal, we thought we would try some of the desert. Another mistake. Kuai Lin Kou is usually bitter and served with syrup (sugared water. haha). Happy Valley’s Kuai Lin Kou is slightly sweet and they chose to serve it with honey instead. Do you know what happens to honey when it comes in contact with something cold? It congeals! That means you have a blob of gooey stuff on a block of black jelly that just looks gross. Think people! Put brain in gear before going ahead and doing something silly like this.

So. All in, it was a bad experience. Yes, I came out of the restaurant full, but it wasn’t very satisfying. Overpriced, lousy quality, so so service. Would I recommend it? Only to someone I dislike. Don’t go there if you know what’s good for you.

Happy Valley Restaurant
Lobby Floor, Theme Park Hote, Genting Highlands.

Opening hours:
Breakfast (Daily) 6.00am - 10.45am
Lunch (Daily) 12.00noon - 2.30pm
Dinner (Daily) 6.00pm - 9.30pm