Yi-Ban

The chicken satay starter didnt look like chicken, it was very spongey and looked like hand cut chips. The seaweed had too much sugar and the vegetable spring rolls were overcooked and not fresh- i.e. not prepared to order and maybe hanging around in the kitchen. The main course arrived very quickly – I think the Square Meal review must be old – as the service was very fast. My cocktail wasnt cold enough, but tasted nice. They did serve large portions but it was more quantity over quality.

Yi Ban is the restaurant nearest our work so we have been there a couple of times. The food (dim sum) is ok if a little greasy but the service is always slow and a bit rude. Today we went with a vegetarian and someone who had a nut allergy. We ordered veggie dim sum (turnip cakes, prawn stuff as she eats fish) and while we were tucking in, one of our party suddenly got a weird look on her face and said there was meat in the Turnip Cakes.

We queried this and they told us yes, there was meat in the Turnip Cakes, despite there being no mention of this on the menu, and even the prawn dim sum had pork in it. My veggie friend was disgusted, and we were more alarmed when one of the prawn dumplings turned out to have peanuts in it despite no nuts warning on the menu either! Anyone with a severe nut allergy could have had a serious attack if they'd eaten that – thankfully our friend with a nut allergy hadn't touched it.

They were very rude when we pointed this out and told us it was usual in dim sum – but I have never seen it before at any dim sum place in London. They gave us a 10% discount but we didn't want to pay the service charge. They argued with us and told us we couldn't have both. I'm afraid they got four women strongly arguing back as service charge is always discretionary. They finally took three dishes off the bill and we paid, but we won't be going back.