Chinese Takeout Suck

[Jay 2K Winger]

So, my family and I routinely order Chinese takeout from a place in Fairfax. We've been getting food there for YEARS. To the point where the owner knows us pretty well and will sometimes chat up my Mom when she calls in for food, ask me how I'm doing when I go to pick it up, etc.

We've settled onto a particular selection of items when we order from them. Steamed dumplings for my dad and I to start off our dinner, a beef dish for my dad, some soup for mom, another entree, and two large servings of sesame chicken for me and my dad to split over the course of dinner and lunches.

Twice now in the last few months, however, we've called in and gotten this woman, whom I assume to be one of their new managers, who will, when we ask for the sesame chicken, ask "Crispy sesame chicken?" or something similar. Then, when I get the food home, we don't have our usual sesame chicken.

The sesame chicken we order is good-sized chunks of chicken coated in a sauce/batter with sesame seeds on it, no veggies. It's a nice simple, not-too-spicy dish that I like and enjoy. The sesame chicken that we get when this woman takes our order is thin strips of chicken with sesame seeds and veggies in it.

The first time we got this, we called back and complained, and were told that was the sesame chicken. We explained, no, it's not, we've been getting your sesame chicken for years, this is not the same dish. They explained that they no longer offered the sesame chicken, they offered this new crispy sesame chicken. When we stuck to our guns and insisted we were misled-- since the take-home menus we received from them every time we ordered from them showed the old sesame chicken next to the menu item and was labeled "sesame chicken"-- they offered us a credit on our next order.

Well, we went back to this same place despite that experience, and got the old sesame chicken when we placed our orders for the next few months.

Until tonight.

Same woman. Same problem. Not the correct sesame chicken, the crispy sesame chicken. We call in to complain, and are told again that they no longer offer the old sesame chicken.

We were offered two credits on future orders, and while my mother is contemplating getting our Chinese food from another place, I've suggested that instead, when we call in next time, ask to speak to someone else if we get this woman, since she seems to be the problem.

[poofy_puff]

Sounds like it's worth a try; you've got very little to lose.

I feel you pain though.

I hate it when I have a problem getting a favorite dish that I've been ordering from the same place forever and it's a particular PERSON whose problem becomes MY problem.

[rageaholic]

Mmm Chinese takeout...

I haven't had that happen to me, but it would frusturate me. It sounds like they changed the dish, which sucks.

[LillFilly]

It sounds like they changed the dish, which sucks.

They just said that the menu showed both the sesame chicken dish & the crispy sesame chicken dish. I'm betting when they get that woman that's a time they happen to be out of the regular dish, and instead of having the kitchen make more the woman just subsitutes the other dish.

[ShadowTiger]

Maybe get the name of the old Sesame Chicken dish for comparison with this new woman. Maybe she's calling it something else and doesn't know that's what you're asking for. (Kinda like this.)

I feel for you though. Sesame Chicken. There is nothing Sesame Chicken cannot do.

Sorry for the huge image, but Good god that looks delicious.

EDIT: This is my 100th post. A far cry from the total achieved elsewhere on this great wide boat that is the internets.

[jedimaster91]

I'm not complaining about a pic of delicious Chinese goodness. Though, I prefer General Tso's Chicken myself.

Dangit, now I want Chinese and I haz no monies.

[fma_fanatic]

I feel for you. When SO and I moved, we were far away from a great takeout/delivery Chinese place. Really good food and the delivery was fast. Once we moved, I'd call an order in on my way over and it would be ready for pick up usually within 20 minutes.

I stopped going when I walked in a few years ago and was screamed at by the woman who managed taking the orders. I mean screamed at. She was usually friendly, but for whatever reason every single customer she interacted with got her wrath. So I walked out while my food that I knew was ready was sitting there.

On my way home, she calls my cell (the number I gave to place my order) demanding to know why I hadn't gotten my food yet. I told her I didn't appreciate being screamed at and hung up. Sucky yes, but seeing as we were regular customers, ordering 2-3 times a month, that was not the way to keep me as a customer.

We found a way better place. The food is good, and the people are pleasant. They've also been around for a long time. I think they're latest flyer said 20 years.

[Emrld]

side note - Just because a menu says the place has been in business 20 years - it only means that business under that name has been around that long. It does not mean same owners, management, recipes. (We have a place here claiming over 30 years in the same location - they don't mention the 5 different owners during that time with constant changes in quality and taste)

[rageaholic]

Wow, that's wierd. SHe's usually friendly, but then starts randomly screaming at customers? Either she was having a bad day (which is no excuse) or she is two faced.

[rageaholic]

They just said that the menu showed both the sesame chicken dish & the crispy sesame chicken dish. I'm betting when they get that woman that's a time they happen to be out of the regular dish, and instead of having the kitchen make more the woman just subsitutes the other dish.

Ah, I see. It sounds like she got them mixed up. This happens to me at chinese restaurants too. The servers are usually exceptionally nice, but I'm pretty sure I've gotten "slighly hot" when I only wanted mild. I would ask for mild and they'd respond "slighly hot?", and I'd say mild, then it would come and I'd swear it was spicier than normal. I don't think they do mild anymore because it's either "slightly hot" or "not hot", but other times I say mild and this isn't an issue.

[fma_fanatic]

side note - Just because a menu says the place has been in business 20 years - it only means that business under that name has been around that long. It does not mean same owners, management, recipes. (We have a place here claiming over 30 years in the same location - they don't mention the 5 different owners during that time with constant changes in quality and taste)

Granted. Having met the owners, I am more than willing to believe that they have been in business for that long. Their daughter runs the front of house while they take care of the behind the scenes work - cooking and prepping food. It never fails that one or the other is taking a break when I go in to place or pick up an order. They're incredibly friendly and have told me how things have changed over the years since they first opened.

[draco664]

Wow, that's wierd. SHe's usually friendly, but then starts randomly screaming at customers? Either she was having a bad day (which is no excuse) or she is two faced.

Or she's pregnant...

[fma_fanatic]

I honestly have no idea why, but I don't like being screamed at in general, especially by a person who is handling my food. I can deal with the customers because I know it's their own stupidity that led them down the path of screaming at people who are trying to help them (i.e., forgetting to order supplies until they're out, then suddenly it's my fault they didn't plan ahead).

[EricKei]

We used to go to a little hole-in-the-wall Chinese place around here -- literally since the mid-1980's. Only one major management/owner change in that time until this year. Great food, great, polite service -- I was enough of a regular that I could place a complete order by calling them and saying "Hey, this is EricKei" -- they would respond with "OK, it'll be ready in 15 minutes" (so I'm predictable. I know what I like )

Unfortunately, they got bought out earlier this year, added a sushi bar run by a really good sushi chef, and, of course, did what many "completely new management types" love to do -- take a formula (or here, recipe) that has worked pretty damn well for twenty+ years and change it. Their soup went from "tasty if a bit bland" to "meh and bland" (keep in mind where I live -- our "mild" is most other places' "moderately spicy"). They reduced portion sizes and raised prices (gotta pay for that slick new sushi bar somehow) as well. It was their grand opening week then, so I may give them one more shot (I'm willing to allow them that much credit) before I write them off for good, but I've since found several other places which are just as good or better. The fact that I have a friend who immigrated here FROM China to do business helps, she has been scouting places and tells me which ones have "real" Chinese food and which are actually run by Chinese people (quite rare here -- only found 2 of them so far in a town with a restaurant on every corner).