Hubert Y.
Yelp
Let's start with the good stuff. My son and I are have cravings for Taiwanese food and we've heard lots of good stuff about Cloud 9, a Taiwanese stall located in Empire Centre's Food Court. We ordered the Taiwanese Chicken Nuggets + Rice Combo (#3) and the Deep Fried Chicken Fillet + Rice Combo (#4). Combos come with sides of pickled cucumbers, veg, tofu, and marinated egg--loved all the sides. And both the Chicken Nuggets and DF Chicken (comes with 3 thighs) were really good. The food definitely did not disappoint. For $14 a combo and the amount of food you get, that's really good value considering how much everything cost nowadays. Food rating, definitely a solid 4.
Now, for the experience. There's a small line up, maybe about 4 people ahead of me--and line ups a good thing, you know that this place have good food. So I waited in line just like everyone else. But when it came to me, she stopped taking orders. I'm like, ok, she's taken enough orders and needs to put them all in. She went in to put the orders in and came back out to start prepping side dishes. No worries. But, I continued to wait, right in front of her. Waited, and waited, and waited. Until someone came up from behind me and started ordering, and she was going to take it. I was like, um excuse me, I was next since I've been waiting here. Politely, of course. Put in my order and got a number. Done. Just have to wait for our food.
Here's the second half of the experience. My son and I watched as each person got their food. No biggie. Then, the second wave of people that ordered after us got their food. Ok, they didn't call our number yet. We'll keep waiting. Then, the third wave of people that ordered after us got their food. Ok, patience is a virtue. It shouldn't be long now. Then, the fourth wave of people got their order and finished their food. Alright, patience has its limits when you're hungry and don't want to get it to the hangry phase. It's called prevention. It's been over 30 minutes at this point (yes, I checked based on my YELP check-in time). So, had to go up to her and ask when our order will be ready. She replied, a couple of minutes. And a couple minutes came and we got both our food. Based on our experience, service is 2 star.
I'm going to add the parking experience here, a bit of context, I avoid Empire Centre like I avoid tipping fast food establishments. Please note, this has no weight on this establishment's star rating. Since it's before 11a on a Saturday morning, we went straight up to the parkade. The main lot is already chaotic at this time. The parkade was about 70% full when we go up top. By the time, we left (an hour later), peeps are waiting and circling in the parkade. Leaving the parkade to go to Hazelbridge, good luck. No one's gonna let you go and will block parkade exit. This is my fault as I forgot to turn my Asian on. We would have shaved off a good 8-10 minutes and probably pissed people off on top.