-
59-63 Brighton Road
-
59-63 Brighton Road
The "New Kam Tong" Chinese restaurant is closing down in Kingston. Undeniably the best dim sum in Kingston and decent portions of the rest.
So, the bad news is the best Chinese restaurant in Kingston is closing down. The good news is - the notice on their windows say they are moving to Surbiton!
Anyone know where? I tought it might be the vacated Mobin/Dolphin shopfront, but I learned today that the off-license "Excellar" (next to the staion) is moving in there in 4 approx weeks.
Maybe New Kam Tong is moving into the spot Excellar will vacate? Now that would be neat!
Any offers anyone?
Thanks
S
Comments
I was not a bit sorry that New Kam Tong has closed down, I had bad experience with that restaurant, nothing wrong with the food which is ok, but once I found a wire inside my fried noodle, I didn't even get an apology from anyone, the waitress just shrugged her shoulder and said it was the kitchen staff who left it in the food, she offered no apology. The service was appalling. When they changed wers hip, I tried it again, only this time even worse, they advertised lobster under false pretences. When I ordered lobster as it has the promotion leader in every tabe, only to be told it was for the Chinese new year only, ( it was Chibese new year when we went there) , we were told in china, new year was the day before as we are oe day behind, so the promotion has finished, I asked why they still got the promotion leaflet on every table, I didn't get an answer. To me the best dimsum place in in Teddington called The Imperial China. If the new Chinese restaurant in Surbiton is infant the old ( New Kam Tong ) I am afraid I won't visit for sure
Just had an excellent dim sum lunch,very well prepared and very good selection.
I have used New Kam Tong for deliveries for years and recently noticed that their address had changed from the Kingston one to 159 Surbiton Hill Park, Surbiton, KT5 8EJ, so it looks as though this will become a Berrylands take-away only rather than a full restaurant.
The last I heard was that the Ex-Cellar shop will become a Tesco Express. I'd love to see it become a decent restaurant instead.
Oh no, please, not a Tesco Express! Do we really need another rip-off-the-yuppy-commuters expensive supermarket in Surbiton?
Do we really want Subiton High St turning into another steriotyped bland Surrey-village high street full of predictable chains?
I agreee it would be great to have a *decent* restaurant there. Something like a great family-run (ie. non-chain) real Spanish restaurant.
Please!
I wouldn't say that Tesco is expensive, in fact I think their stores tend to have a cheap and scruffy appearance (look at the new one in Kingston for example).
Either way, you are correct. We already have Waitrose and M&S Food to cater for the higher end of the market and Sainsbury's to cater for the lower end so I can't see how we could possibly need another supermarket.
The other problem with running a high volume outlet like Tesco in that position is that it is tiny and there is no stockroom area. The store will need to be replenished daily and that will no doubt mean bringing a truck or van into the already over-crowded station car park.
I would expect that this Tesco will attempt to become a 24 hour outlet as well, and as we have seen with McDonalds, this tends to bring just as many disadvantages as advantages.
Tesco would be totally unsuitable for this site, and I echo your views that a new restaurant is what is required.
I don't like Tesco either, but in fairness Sainsbury isn't low end at all.
Waitrose like for like competitor in the market is M&S, yes, but on an aspirational level (market share wise), their biggest competition is Sainsbury as they offer the closest comparison. Hence why the Waitrose price match campaign covered Tesco and Sainsbury - one cheap low end/ the other they compete with to take market share from directly.
Tesco, Asda, Lidl, Aldi, Morrisons, these are low end supermarkets.
Anon,
I would hardly refer to Tesco as an expensive supermarket but I wholeheartedly agree with your sentiment that we've got enough places to buy packaged food and we'd benefit from someone else taking the station premises.
I believe Surbiton station is a listed building. Does anyone know if there are restrictions that prevent having a restaurant in a listed building? Or in a station for that matter? If not a unique restaurant, I hope this location is taken over by something else that adds value to our town!
Anon,
P
NO NO NO NO to Tesco Express
Please, no to Tescos. They are a blight on any hight street.
Possibly where Yumcha was, opposite the Black Lion at the traffic lights in Brighton Road ? They are doing it up for a new Chinese restaurant apparently....
The restaurant that used to be Yumcha opened this week. It is called Naturally Chinese. No idea if it is the same management as the New Kam Tong but went last night and it was great. Excellent Gyoza - freshly handmade rather than reheated. And not a hint of MSG or the accompanying dry mouth. Would highly recommend based on first impressions.
We went to Naturally Chinese last night and we were a tad disappointed.
We strongly suspect, based on various bits of evidence, that it could well be the same folk that were Yumcha, but have just re-branded themselves. The waitress didn't know an awful lot about some of the food & drink that they were selling, in fact none of the staff could tell me if the Reisling was a dry Reisling. I know some of you will think I'm being snobby or picky, but eating out is not cheap and if you're selling/serving something then you should have a good idea about your produce. The chicken on the satay skewers were overcooked and therefore chewy and rubbery, the rest of the meal was pretty average. Would we recommend a friend to go there? Unlikely, unless Naturally Chinese up their game a bit. It's a competitive market out there and there are lots of other places to 'eat out' in Surbiton.
Thank you for your honest review.
We are sorry that you were disappointed with your visit to us last night. Just to address a few points in your post. We are not associated with the previous owners of Yum Cha nor are we part of New Kam Tong.
We also apologise that our member of staff was not able to help you with your wine selection and that you were disappointed with the chicken satay dish. We will be addressing this as part of our training programme for all new and current staff.
As part of our training programme, all staff are inducted in our menu and wine list, including staff tasting sessions. This is part of our philosophy of continuous improvement. With regard to the chicken satay, if you raised this during your visit, we would have been able to investigate this for you and discuss possible solutions.
We are open to all feedback from our customers and would appreciate issues to be raised at the time of the visit so that we can immediately rectify the situation.
Thanks again for your comments. We hope that you will return so that we have the opportunity to demonstrate that your initial impression was a one-off
Sincerely
Amie
Naturally Chinese
hello@naturallychineserestaurant.co.uk
@NatChinese
We went to Naturally Chinese Restaurant in Surbiton today. Excellent dim sum. Moist and fresh. The deep fried squid wasn't rubbery or overcooked, but just right. Also gave my son a large slice of chocolate cake with candle which was a surprise. They remembered that I said he had birthday earlier in the week. We didn't order the cake and it was nice friendly touch. We will return in few months with in-laws from Malaysia & Singapore. And being Chinese they are, as all Chinese are, experts in food. I'm certain Naturally Chinese will rise to the challenge LOL.
Well I have never been to Yumcha as it just never appealed and was always three quarters empty . But I do applaud Amie at Naturally Chinese for giving her comment, at least she has the guts to reply to negative feedback on the restaurant. Perhaps everything can now be improved, including the staff, and maybe I will give it a try one day. I will keep looking in the window and when it looks full every weekend that will be my recommendation as well as tripadvisor!
Yeah, fair play to Aime & thanks. Due to the response and the fact that I do honestly wish them all the best in their venture, I'd be happy to remove my initial 'review', so Aime, if that would help you out please let me know.
We visited Naturally Chinese recently and it was terrible the food was very dry and tasteless apart from it being expensive. There are lots of better Chinese restaurants about and a lot of competition on the Brighton Road to eat out. We complained to the owner Amie and she did nothing about it and did not even remove it from the bill even though we left the whole dish at the side of our table, I asked if she had any sauce to help it not being so dry and all she could offer was soya sauce even though it was already salty and dry.
Not impressed at all with the way the owner handled it and we also told other staff members who asked how our meal was and they also did nothing to make us feel better about the appalling experience we had. The owner does not care they are just after money from customers and hides behind this food philosophy which is rubbish as if she cared she would have done something about as well as not charging us for the dish that was terrible.
We went back for a second visit last week and were similarly impressed as the first time we went. Similar to bloodaxelite in a recent post, we had dim sum (among several other things) which were simply excellent. Amie stopped by our table to ensure everything was up to scratch and even ensured we were content with how many soft shell crab we got for our money. I'm surprised to hear that service can be so variable - we've been twice with excellent food both times.
Anon - what did you order that disappointed you so?
It's a shame that it doesn't look authentic anymore... I personally see the new signage and colours as a bit of an eye-sore. I've eaten there a few times when it was yum cha and thought it was a good little place to go (even if the service was a bit naff) I thought naturally Chinese was a supermarket when the signage first went up.