Paradise Dynasty @ ION

Visited Paradise Dynasty yesterday, the Chinese restaurant with perpetually long queues.

Food was not bad, but not so good that it justified the long queue. 

Chilled assorted eggs loaf in Yang Zhou style, $6. This was pretty good and was surprisingly filling

La mian with sliced pork in signature pork bone soup, $9.80. I love the bowl design!

Foie Gras Xiao Long Bao, $19.80. The foie gras blended in rather well with the pork, and just
 the right amount was used such that I could taste it and yet not overwhelming.

My major gripes came when it was time to settle the bill. I didn't like the way they charged $1.20 based on 'Misc'. When I enquired about it, I was told that it included stuff like tea. (They didn't serve snacks like peanuts or achar, by the way) I said I didn't order any tea, and got a dismissive and impatient reply (with no eye contact) of "Ya, water is also included." 

I wasn't informed about this beforehand, and the reason why I didn't order tea was because I didn't want to pay for it. If it was lumped inside and I had to pay this 'Misc' fee no matter what, I would have went ahead and ordered tea.

Next, I had used a Groupon voucher which I had already paid $7.90 for. It could be redeemed for 10 Xiao Long Bao worth up to $19.80. The bill, however, included this $7.90 in. They only subtracted it from the final bill, but by then they had already earned a 10% service charge and 7% GST on this amount. The total bill for 2 pax came up to $32, and $4.22 consisted of unreasonable charges, in my opinion. (Misc fee of $2.40 x 1.10 x 1.07 and the fictitious amount of $1.40 on the Xiao Long Bao) That's 13.2% of the total bill! 

Verdict - I am not going to visit here again. Food was not bad but queues were ridiculous, service was not satisfactory and billing was unreasonable.