Poor service and disappointing dishes: Rùn in Wan Chai needs to up its game
- A meal at a five-star hotel should be memorable, but at Rùn in the St. Regis some dishes were too salty, and one was so underseasoned as to be almost tasteless
- A starter of Sichuan-style marinated shredded fish maw was light, refreshing and seasoned correctly, and there was one dish we all liked: fried bean curd
We’re well aware when visiting a new restaurant that we have to make allowances. The service team will not be familiar with their new working space so there might be some minor mistakes; the kitchen will not know what dishes will be popular so might run out of something.
So when we visited Rùn, the Chinese restaurant at the new St. Regis hotel, in Wan Chai, we ignored the big crash we heard in the dining room. It was surprising to hear a second large crash about 30 minutes later, but we looked on the bright side and were happy for the staff that whatever it was, it wasn’t ceramics and was therefore only noisy and clangy, but not breakable.
When we saw a waiter do a U-turn as he neared our table with a tray of gin and tonics, we thought that another group of diners must have ordered the same drinks.
But we did not expect to see him sniffing the contents of the glasses – in the dining room, in full sight of us and all the other diners – in an effort to figure out which glass held the Tanqueray and which held the Sipsmith, before he carried them back to our table and served them.
So when the waiter at Rùn informed us that they were sold out of the Peking duck and Iberico char siu – at 8pm – we were disappointed, but figured they must be good to be sold out so early.
