Woks & Koi - Not so strongly worded letter

AkanmuAbuja@gmail.om

Rating: 8/10

Woks & Koi – Chinese Restaurant

2^nd floor, Silverbird Entertainment Center

Plot 1161 Memorial Drive

Central Area, Abuja, Nigeria.

Letter to Woks & Koi Management

Dear Woks & Koi Management,

This is a not so strongly worded letter to express my opinions following my experience at your establishment. I should inform you that this letter is being made available to the public through the internet, primarily for the purpose of empowering other consumers.

On principle, I don’t like the idea of an “upscale” Chinese restaurant that doesn’t have exemplary Chinese food. In my book, if a Chinese restaurant is on the pricy side of things and the food is not exemplary, the restaurant should possess characteristics such that a customer’s overall experience at the restaurant is haunting enough to validate the price. That being said, given the price-range, food quality, and overall dining experience provided at Woks & Koi, the restaurant manages to stumble into the realm of ‘definitely worth the price’.

Whenever I walk past your restaurant, let alone dine in it, I imagine that someone had a vision of creating a nice Chinese restaurant in a building with significant traffic and has in my opinion combined great vision with excellent execution. To outline the relevance of my views on your restaurant’s seemingly upscale nature and quality of food, I’ll begin by pointing out that to me Woks & Koi is more of a P.F. Chang’s than a Mr. Chow. This is a relevant categorization because both P.F. Chang’s and Mr. Chow are arguably upscale Chinese restaurants in the United States of America with the former being less expensive and providing lower quality food (especially where authenticity is concerned) but managing to validate its higher than average menu prices (for Chinese food) based on its yummy dish selections and nice décor (nicer than cheap/typical Chinese restaurants). It is also notable that P.F. Chang franchises tend to be conveniently located in places like malls where consumerism is at its most active. In short, similar to P.F. Chang’s, Woks & Koi does not have exemplary Chinese food but provides an overall quality dining experience that validates not being a cheap (as is typical) Chinese restaurant. At the risk of rendering the points made above moot, I should note that the quality of food at Woks & Koi is perfectly acceptable, while I don’t expect any Chinese restaurant in Nigeria to be cheap/averagely priced, and also that Woks & Koi is in fact not in any way notably more expensive than the establishment that has been the signature Chinese restaurant in Abuja for over a decade; Chopsticks.

Upon entering Woks & Koi, one of the things that first impressed me was the good feng shui, exemplary lighting, and astute furnishing that make up a wonderful dining atmosphere. A great dining atmosphere becomes particularly relevant given the location of your restaurant. Upon entering Woks & Koi, I sense the immediate transformation in energy from the brightly lit mall hallway I was previously in to a softly lit room with an overall calming feel to it. Complementing the great atmosphere to create an overall quality dining experience (sans consideration of the food) are nice waiters with great attitudes and fairly elegant mannerisms (at least elegant intentions).

Your menu itself enjoys the type of depth that at first sight tends to bother me in Chinese restaurants because based on my past experiences, such a wide selection on a menu usually results in certain types of food being weaker than others. However, after trying a range of items from your menu, I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised. Although I still refuse to pay you the compliment of calling your food exemplary, I have to acknowledge that the food you provide tastes good, is well-prepared, and is even well-presented. Nonetheless, Woks & Koi is at the end of the day a restaurant and so may do well from having a few menu items that rise to the level of exemplary such that your restaurant itself would rise to a similar plane. In fact, having the types of great menu items I speak of would lead to word spreading such that the hundreds of potential customers who walk by your restaurant weekly and think “that place is probably just filled with overpriced food that won’t change my life” will have cause to reconsider. Thus, can the depth of your menu and quality of your food be improved? Certainly

At the end of the day, the most important issue to consider is whether you were able to provide a restaurant such that given its location (at the heart of a building that is a fine example of Nigeria’s slow journey towards modernized and centralized consumerism of the nature that inevitably results in establishments with overpriced goods and services), the quality of food served, and overall dining experience is worth patronizing. Woks & Koi meets the mark.

Please feel free to contact AkanmuAbuja@gmail.com if you represent Woks & Koi and would like to respond.

Warm Regards,

Akanmu