Well let's see I'll start off by saying that this is a regular place I come to eat therefore I understand and know that the young man at the register is not very friendly or approachable, very dry and wants to do the bare minimum which is okay just bring me my food, my beverage and I'll enjoy a quiet time and I'll get out of there.
As I said I am OK with this type of service not having an actual waiter or waitress especially because I order the same thing each and every time I go there. I am a foodie by heart so therefore I go to so many restaurants and definitely have never minded tipping for good service and even at this restaurant, I have tipped every time before, just to be courteous even though there is no real wait staff. As a said I have been a regular since they opened up.
As usual on yesterday 7-19-23 I stopped in right before 6 PM and I ordered my regular which is the vermicelli bowl with the shrimp eggroll and my Thai tea. As usual the young man at the register is not very friendly but I'm already used to his service. This time I noticed there was an older friendly apparent looking gentleman, very humble. A surprisingly friendly face for a change. I had never seen him before in the restaurant. I actually thought he was the owner. Usually the owners of any place are the ones who truly care about the customers and are more friendly to their customers.
I wasn't there very long because I had to go to church so I went to the register to pay, using my phone for Apple Pay and when the tip option came up on the screen I decided to skip it , but I noticed every time I try to skip it it would go back to that same screen and and that happened a couple of times I was wondering what was going on. After a couple of times of this happening I looked at the young man and I told him I'm not sure what's happening. Then the young man at the register kept saying tip, you need to tip and I'm like oh I'm trying to press on the skip option and he said oh so you're not going to tip and he stated this is a family business.
I try to stay calm in demeanor because he was being rude and he kept on going. And I explained well I wasn't aware that I had a waitress or wait staff. I told him ever time before I have
to be courteous but there's no one attending me, you just bring my food out and that's it. He said this is a family business and he pointed to the tip jar and he said that money goes to the cook and everyone else. It's a family business. I ended up tipping out of embarrassment because he was raising his voice and there was one other table and a Gentleman behind me that was picking up. I gave the young man some advice. I explained that I was one of his regular customers and that it would be nice if he was more courteous and smiled with the customers and did not get upset whenever they asked a question of him or to bring something else. This had been his demeanor each time. He answered oh I'm so nice everybody says that I'm so nice I've never had anyone complain. I said yes because most people will not complain to you or about you , they will just not go back to that restaurant.
This experience makes me sad because I did like the dish that I would always get with them but with this type of customer service or lack of it, I will not be going back and maybe that's why every time I've been going there especially lately the Restaurant is so empty because people can love the food but if there's this type of customer service you're not going to be back. We are fortunate to live in a city that it is full of great restaurants of all kinds and therefore the competition is great and I can go eat anywhere. I feel for the owners of this restaurant because the food is great and the restaurant could be booming but I think the young man's attitude is affecting the restaurant from growing and becoming prosperous. Sadly I will not be going back. read more