Firstly, the food was good. It is not the food that earned the place two stars. It would be zero if not for the food. The service is what was disagreeable.
Last time we were able to dine at China Dragon J was at the old location when they had the buffet. I wasn't sure what the portion size would be so I ordered enough that if the portions were small we'd be fine and if they weren't, we'd have leftovers. Thankfully, the portions were great and the food was delicious. That wasn't the problem. It was after we'd finished.
I went to the woman working the front and asked for 'a couple of take-out containers'. Our table (we are the only ones in view) is literally within 8 feet of her. She can see the leftovers on the table.
*Hubby - about a half cup of fried rice and around 8 pieces of General Tso's chicken
*Me - a chicken terriaki on a stick, a beef terriaki on a stick, a crab rangoon, a large chicken wing, an egg roll, and a jumbo fried shrimp.
*Mom - about 7 pieces of sauce-free sweet & sour shrimp.
On the wall beside her are at least 5 different kinds of containers (the small white and red traditional Chinese take-out size, a small square foam sandwich-sized, a black plastic oval with a clear lid about 7"x3", a larger black plastic container maybe an inch bigger by all dimensions, a pint sized 'soup' container and a quart size 'soup' as well.
She handed me ONE of the sandwich ones and smirked. I went back to my table, thinking maybe she misunderstood and my hubby put his leftovers into the container and I went back a second time. I asked again, as I was paying the bill, (this time having brought the plate of the other leftovers with me to the counter), "May I please have a container for these as well?" and again, she gave me one of the tiny foam containers. The meat is on a 6" skewer so it won't even fit in that foam box. The chicken wing and crab rangoon were enough to fill it by themselves! (Praise for the portions but that's no longer the point). She just sat there grinning to herself as I tried to fit my leftovers into it and in the end had to carry it out opened flat, everything stacked on top of everything else (because there was no way to close it AT ALL).
If we'd ordered take-out rather than eat-in, I can't imagine that our meals would have been delivered in those tiny foam boxes, but... let's give them the benefit of the doubt and say they were somehow out of every other kind. She could have said "I'm sorry, this is the only size we have" and given us enough of them to accommodate all the food we had paid for, food she could easily see would not fit in what she was offering us.
There is no way this was accidental. There is no scenario where she 'misunderstood' or 'didn't know how much food we were needing containers for' or anything similar. She sat behind the counter, snidely smirking the whole time we struggled. She deliberately chose to be unkind.
Maybe she doesn't like fat people, or people who order water instead of soda (even though the water is bottled, so it's not a 'drink for free' situation anyway), or maybe she just enjoys toying with people. Who can say.
We won't return, which is a shame because we'd so looked forward to the new location. read more