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So today I was convinced by some colleagues of mine to visit the West Coast Coffee Cafe located in the High-Tech Zone.

I've always said that a nice coffee joint would do very well in a location beside the main IT companies in Dalian. Dell, Hi-Think, Hi-Soft, Livedoor (perhaps to close soon?) are to name a few of them that it�s snugly nestled in between.

Today was the official opening day of this establishment and I was quite surprised by its decor, its kind of a cross between a sports bar and a caf�/restaurant. After arriving at 12 o�clock things were looking up. People were starting to flood in the door from all of the companies in the region. It�s a bit up market for the average Chinese person with main dishes costing upwards of 40 RMB but a large crowd was there for the lunch rush.

Anyhow, long story short, after waiting over 1.5 hours three dishes were brought out for 3 people. Two people never got their food (myself included). We were only told that they had run out when we enquired about it. How long does it take to do a chicken curry for Christ sake? When we were ordering we were assured that this would be one of the quickest dishes to cook. Thank Christ I didn�t order a pizza; I�d have starved to death by the time I got it. Anyhow, I was already late for returning to work so I just got out of there.

A word of advice to the management, most people only have 1 hour maximum for their lunch break. You�re going to be out of business fairly quickly if you don�t deliver the product that people want within the expected amount of time. To the manager, start bloody managing the place, kick the shit out of the chef and start getting your waitresses to hustle. Your job is to take care of the caf� and not go around with a video camera to every table saying �West Coast Caf� is number one in Dalian.� From the performance I got today and an empty stomach you guys have a serious long way to go before I�ll even think of returning there. On a more positive note the manager did come to our table and assure us that next time we were here the meal would be free. Unfortunately it seemed to be only the foreigners that he approached; the local Chinese did not seem to get the same treatment or assurances.

Points to note: Modern style caf� / bar joint.
Food: Japanese/Chinese/Korean dishes
Coffee: Nice selection of coffee and deserts
Cost: Main dishes upwards of 40RMB each, coffee upwards of 20RMB each
Service: Terrible � Wait for at least 2-3 months for their procedures and service to improve. In the meantime allocate an afternoon to visit the place, you might just be there the entire day awaiting your order.

Address: No.1 Huoju Street, Qixianling Industrial Base, Dalian Hi-Tech Zone. (Out the Lushun Road, past the maritime university.)

Makes you wonder doesn't it Valehru what the mentality is. Is it the owner not wanting to waste money by pre-cooking or is it a total lack of understanding on the managers part. Having been involved in many openings in my working life the golden rule was " once you get them through the door make em happy quickly even if you lose money the first week or so" The reason is you don't know what your best sellers ( stars) are going to be or your worst ( dogs ) but you need to find out your steady sellers ( plowhorses) After this first period the chef knows what to prepare/cook off and at what time and you have retained your customers and can now make money. Sadly the mentality they had has set them back to ground zero, let's hope they learn quickly as it sounds like the type of place you've been waiting for.

Sadly it happened on a day when I had no breakfast. Im approaching 20 + hours without having eaten any food. I'm quite hungry right now as you can imagine.

Its the small things that people notice in a place like that, I can forgive them for late service on the first day of opening, however no service at all is pretty much unforgivable. They should fire that chef, as he obviously was not prepared for such an onslought of customers or orders, perhaps its down to lack of experience in the Kitchen team, or maybe it was down to the manager just not managing his staff efficiently. Either way, I'm starving right now.

Hello, I was the other person that didn�t get food that day BUT I went back again and met the owner while waiting for a take away and he gave me my pizza and beer for free. He also explained that he cant speak Chinese so he couldn�t go round to all the Chinese there and say sorry about the delay. I though that was sound of him but the pizza I got �Drunken Duck� was 49RMB for a 9�. It was nice but a little expensive.