I had a wisdom tooth pulled a couple of days ago at Smile Dental Clinic by Dawn, the dentist. Had been living with constant toothache for the last 2 weeks, and couldn't take it anymore.
I was very impressed with the quality of service. She did struggle a bit to get the bugger (the tooth), out, but that was no fault of hers. It had a crooked root, and it was quite a big tooth.
I experienced very little pain througout the whole procedure, as she anaesthetised me very effectively.
The clinic is very clean, and has the look of what I'm use to with dental care in my home country. Everything is done in a separate room, with modern equipment. No 'onlookers' like I once experienced in Shanghai at a public hospital. The (chair)room has a window on street level, but it has blinds that can close completely, which was closed when I was being worked on. (Was early morning, so the sun was at an awkward angle through the windows). Granted, I was there very early on a Sunday morning, with no other patients yet, but I'm sure privacy can be guaranteed even during busier times of the day.
Even her chair assistent was very cordial and professional. Dawn, (the dentist's English name), speaks very good English, so communication is not a problem, and she also knows the English medical terms of her trade. If there is no language barrier, it just makes everything so much easier.
She charged me 150RMB for the extraction, but I think there is a 10+20RMB (30RMB) consulting fee, which she waived in my case because I have refered somebody else to her at a previous occasion.
I think she is available everyday of the week, bar Saturdays. But do call ahead to make an appointment. As a last, final (nice), touch, she actually called me later during the day to check if I was okay. That was really a first for me... no dentist has ever done that before.
Her mobile nr is: 0411-81768658, and the nrs at the clinic are: 84357722 and 84339899.
All in all... a very good experience, and I can definitely recommend Dawn if you need work done on your teeth.
Went for a bite at Leone's Coffee shop last night. Overall, not a bad experience. I had a T-bone pepper steak, which comes with a roll, soup, and salad. The soup was very tasty, the bread slightly 'sweetish', but the steak was pretty good. I ordered it medium, but it might have been a bit overdone by the kitchen. The quality of the meat was quite tender and succulent. The salad was mostly apple cut into pieces with a pinkish salad dressing of some sort on top of it. Not too great, (the salad), but certainly edible. The cost was 48 RMB, but I wasn't quite full after finishing the meal. For a big eater, the above might not be enough, and those individual might want to look at the set menus, which are quite a bit more expensive... in the range of 148 RMB and upwards. They have a separate menu for the Angus steaks, which also starts at about that range, and goes up quite a bit price wise. Not sure what comes with the Angus steaks though. As an aside, the do have good quality, sharp, steak knifes.
The service staff is reasonably clued-up, with the waiting periods not too long, but their English ability is certainly lacking. It's a bit of a struggle to communicate with them, (if you have limited Chinese ability), with a lot of sign language being needed.
A definite plus for the place is the ambience. It has a 'cozy' look from the outside, and the decorations are very nice, but not over done. There is an outside veranda with furniture and umbrellas, with the indoor part of the restaurant well air-conditioned. They have some English reading material at the entrance, although I could only see one English newspaper (The South China Morning Post). There are some paperbacks at the back of the establishment, but it was all in Chinese, as far as I could tell.
Overall, not a bad experience, and they are certainly trying their utmost to create an eatery with a western slant to it. The restaurant was quite busy, but not overly so, being a Monday evening.
Busqueen
jim
