• Added: 19th of August 2008
• Area: Reading
• Category: Restaurants

Reading RG1 1JX
0118 950 8888

mengting said
The worst Chinese restaurant in the world
After living in several countries of Europe and Asia for couples of years and travelling around across the globe, I would say my experience tonight at shanpan is the worst of the worst.

The scenario was pretty traumatic. One of my colleague who were transferred from China to the UK passed away, and I, on behalf of my employer, a global financial services firm, took her family members and some other colleagues there for a dinner to show them some nice gesture. Anyway first of all, the reservation did not work at all, even I booked 1.5 hours in advance.

The waiter is a Brit student from Cambridge, and he was nice and spoke limited Chinese. It was all sort of okay even when my colleague's poor little daughter who had no idea that her mum had left her forever broke a glass.

However, the restaurant manager - a Cantonese-original lady - had been very rude from the first beginning of this dinner. When we were helping her to move aside the other plates on the table so that she could place the new dish, she was asking us: Could you stop moving the plate?!!! - in a very aggressive manner.

We then asked for a straw - she responded that a proper restaurant did not offer any straw! WTF, as a Public Relation manager working at a global firm of 140,000 people, I hosted numerous events at different 5-star hotels across the globe, and it was the first time that I heard "we do not serve straws in a restaurant!" (She must be thinking that you poor Chinese haven't been to a proper restaurant yet!")

We then talked about the details of how my colleague died within three weeks after a mistakenly diagnosis of a cancer. Her husband and her family members all burst into tears. Okay...the innocent little gal (3 years old) was running across the floor as we were too sad with talking through the story of grief and the girl was then told off by the young waiter that "you should stop walking around and sit back to your seat"...

The girl's auntie, a doctor working in the US, was furious and asked the waiter for an apology. Then this extremely horrible woman came up to us and asked us whether we had any "Mao Bing" which means psyche problems in a very rude way. The whole family were completely provoked. She then denied all the rudest things she had just done to us, and was asking "Oh, did I do this? did I do that? I completely forgot!" She then said " well, I always had horrible time dealing with Chinese clients and I have a lot of UK and Japanese customers. So can you play down and just pay for the bill and leave?"

I just can't believe this happening in a Chinese restaurant! what is more ridiculous is when we asked her where she is from - she said she was from Reading, and originally from Reading. Oh well, then she said - "I had no choice of the place I was born, as you did not" (like we have to be born in the third-world China - oh well, yes but we all had very decent and high-paid jobs now and residing in the most developed countries instead of serving at a Chinese restaurant)...

What a lovely Reading yellow-skin, black-hair and eyes British restaurant manager, who serve very well the Brit and Japanese clients?!

This is the most horrible and awful experiences in a restaurant I have ever had in my life! I wish that I had enough time to put this complaint into a proper way and make sure this humiliating restaurant close down!

BTW, the food served was of quite low quality, and the size of the dish was half of that of the normal Chinese restaurant. Think three times before you decide to go and ensure you are a white Brit or a Japanese to have your ass be kissed instead of being kicked! For Chinese - just simply boycott this shxt place!