We decided to go out and have Christmas Eve at Gong restaurant this year. It could in a tongue in cheek manner be said that I have a love / hate relationship with this restaurant. I love eating the food here, every time we have been the food has been excellent. I hate that there is so much choice plus they keep adding new dishes.
This visit was a prime example, I never even looked at the set menu, instead I opened up the app to check the tapas and other dishes. I had seen 5 different dishes within a couple of minutes that I really liked the sound of and wanted to try. We had seen some good friends in the restaurant who had arrived about an hour before we had and as they were leaving they said the set menu was really good as an option. So this kind of threw my initial plans out of the window.
In the end both Soph and I decided on the set menu and agreed we would have different dishes, plus we’d share a portion of the amazing F Bombs too.
What We Had For Our Christmas Eve At Gong
Drinks
We both just had water with our meal. This is what I often have when eating Thai food, even out in Thailand. I’ll sometimes finish off the meal with a beer or a short, but with this style of food, I prefer to savour the delicate tastes and flavours.
Food
As I mentioned, we both went for the set menu, plus a portion of F Bombs.
Salads
First came out the salads, I had chosen the chicken, coconut and lime salad while Soph went for the oyster mushroom pasta salad, which had a tasty lemon cumin dressing and crunchy onions.
These both packed plenty of flavour and were fresh and tangy, an excellent start to the meal.
Next came the F Bombs.
These are described as; Crunchy Pani Puri , inspired by the flavours of Thailand. Galangal, Coconut and Lime. I think we have had these on every visit since they introduced them onto the menu.
Starters
I’d gone with the mushroom Tom Kar coconut soup in coconut milk, this was a delightful dish, plenty of taste and the mushrooms were excellent.
Soph had gone for the Korean chilli con carne taco, which was tasty. There was a subtle kick to it, which was not too overpowering.
Mains
Beef Massaman Curry for me with egg fried rice. This beef was ever so tender, it almost melted to the touch. It was slow cooked with coconut milk, fragrant spices, cinnamon and potatoes. kaffir creme fraiche, coriander and with the rice, this was a really good sized portion.
Soph decided on the crispy chicken rice bowl, sweet soy and ginger dressing , buttered chilli cabbage. This was fine and the small pot of sauce lifted the flavours of the chicken. She did admit after trying mine, that I had gone with the better option though.
Desserts
Soph went with the Mars Bar Spring Roll while I had the Banana Fritter Balls. I enjoyed mine as the taste of the banana was there, but without being too over powering. Soph enjoyed hers, saying it was rich but without being crazy sweet and sugary.
What Did It Cost
We did not get the receipt to take away, but the final bill was 57.50 €. The set menus are good value at 22.00 € each. The F Bombs are 8.00 € for the portion. The water was 2.50 € and Sophs dessert had a 3.00 € supplement.
Would We Return To Gong
We were planning on going back in January and probably in February too, but we’ll hold off booking for now. The food is always good, the menu has so much on there that is tempting, but the service standards today had slipped, as I’ll outline below.
Final Thoughts
Mixed feelings on this visit today and here’s why. Previously we have always had great food, today was no exception. The let down for us though, was the service, sadly.
We were quickly seated, orders taken and this was as per usual. The drinks and the salads came out quickly. The F Bombs came after the salads, so far so good. Plates quickly cleared away.
My starter of Tom Kar coconut soup came out, so I waited for Sophs to follow. After a couple of minutes, Soph said for me to start, as it was pointless letting mine go cold.
I finished my starter, pushed the dish to one side and a member of staff appeared, asked if the starters were all good. I said, we are still awaiting the taco. Literally as I said this another server was in view and had a taco in their hand. There was no apology about the delay, sadly.
Then the mains were served then cleared, all good in this aspect. The guy asked what we wanted for desserts, we placed our order. He brought a couple of spoons to the table for the dessert with a napkin ( yes this was a singular napkin ). But for some reason he placed these at the end of the table, as there was a little bit of debris ( rice mainly ) on the table. This was the opportune moment to clean down the table, but instead, he walked away.
When the desserts arrived, it was the taller of the female servers who brought them to us, she placed them on the table, she did comment about she’d quickly clean down the table, which was great by her.
When the desserts were cleared we weren’t offered anything further, so we asked for the bill, to the other female server. She brought the bill to us, just as I was standing to go to the bathroom. Soph had produced a €50 and a €10 note, which she put on the bill tray. The server took this away to the till. And that was it, she never came back, didn’t bring any change or anything.
Now to me this is a huge NO, NO. We never said ” keep the change ” or anything like that. I’d said to Soph, while I was still seated at the table, I’d leave the tip on the way out, but obviously now, this didn’t happen.
We tip almost all of the time, probably 95%+ of the times when we go out and we always tip in cash when we do, so that our server gets this. But the choice to tip is ours!
Mr. Pink: “I don’t tip because society says I have to. All right, if someone deserves a tip, if they really put forth an effort, I’ll give them something a little something extra. But this tipping automatically, it’s for the birds” This scene from Reservoir Dogs is both humourous but at times very apt.
Finally ” After dinner drinks are not complimentary unless offered by a member of staff.” which I totally understand and agree with. However on every visit previously we have been offered a complimentary drink, however on this visit we were not and this was despite some people receiving the small shots.
What really highlighted this was seeing other diners being taken a shot glass. Our friends who were there said they did get offered a complimentary shot, which they each accepted.
Again, not a huge issue on the grand scale of things, but just yet another niggle on the evenings visit.
As this is a 30 minute drive to get to Gong, and if we come straight down the AP7, this means 2 lots of tolls each way too, I think it’s fair to say my money is as good as everyone else’s and I’d have to question the logic about who actually does get offered the free shot at the end.
So, as good as the food was, the service was nowhere near as good as usual, which was a pity. There were enough staff on duty, and the place wasn’t too crazily busy, as there were still empty tables, both when we arrived and also when we left.
