(1) Very poor script and worse still the deliverance of bad writing and directing
(2) Ghastly make-up - looks like morgue make-up especially for the actresses
(3) Zero chemistry between the leads
(4) No main plot-the story jumps from here to everywhere as if the writers didn't know whether to concentrate on the leads' romance/story, palace food during the Ming dynasty, palace machinations or historical presentation, and at the end shows a bit of everything.
(5) Poor acting from the lead actress (Wu Jinyan). Her acting is crude even in Story of Yanxi Palace and in Royal Feast, she's like a moving stone. She looks as if she was forced to be there, never "belonging" to any scenes or parts of the story". I even find there are lots of scene of her looking arrogant and "higher than thou" although the scenes are totally unrelated to her expressions.
(6) It's about "Royal Feast" but the drama doesn't dwell too much on that - shows mainly the aesthetically pleasing food, the cutting and a bit of cooking but no more about the nature of the ingredients, the food itself, etc. It's like watching "A Bite of China". The production also skimmed on ingredients (never seen such a bare kitchen, what more a royal kitchen!)
(7) The good things - the props and designs are gorgeous. The costumes look stunning although there are (being a Yu Zheng's production) a few irregularities. Xu Kai looks very good in Ming costume.