Emperor of China Xmas Meltdown

Called Emperor of China in Holiday Manor for takeout tonight. Was told order would be ready in 40-45 minutes. Arrived to pick up order 47 minutes later. My college daughter went in to pick up order while I waited in car with our 2 dogs. Was told order not ready yet. Paid anyway (big mistake). Finally left with order 50 MINUTES LATER, after she threatened (after 40 minutes late) to take her money back out of the tip jar if her food wasn't ready within 10 more minutes. When my daughter complained after the order was 30 minutes overdue, she was told they were very busy in the restaurant and the dine-in customers get priority over the takeout orders! One poor lady waiting for takeout waited for over an hour beyond her promised ready time, just for an order of wonton soup and rice. Takeout customers were stacking up like cord wood. At least three orders came out which were wrong and had to go back. All these people were promised ready times between 30 and 45 minutes from order, and all were waiting for more than 30-60+ minutes beyond the promised time. I don't mind how long something takes as long as I'm told the truth to start with, but I sure don't like being told my takeout order has a lower priority than the dine-in orders. Taking that approach means it is possible for the takeout order never to be ready if the kitchen isn't staffed or prepared to handle the dine-in business. No offer of anything complimentary while she waited. No offer of anything, other than the "explanation" that the takeout customer isn't as important as the dine-in customer. Horrible treatment. No excuse. Be aware.

I feel your pain....but it is Christmas. Sounds like it was a melt-down, my guess is that this would not have happened any of the other 364 days of the year.

Should they have been prepared---yep. But breakdowns happen to the best of us on occasion.

I drove by a take-out chineese place on Lagrange Rd. about 8:30 and not a soul in the place. I bet they could have filled your order in 10 minutes w/o a wait.

"Merry Christmas and God bless us - everyone."

-Tiny Tim

When I went there one Christmas solo, they would not seat me at all because I was only one person.

I'd never heard that before! Really made me mad, too.

When I went there one Christmas solo, they would not seat me at all because I was only one person.

Hey Ron and/or the other attorneys out there,

Wouldn't that be illegal? I'd think that would be discriminatory (if the reason was that they were black, it certainly would be). Does "Single" qualify under any antidiscrimination statutes? Or does attrocious behavior fall into the category of the owner running their business and making business decisions?

DEb

I'm no expert, but I don't think "single" is a protected class, unlike race, gender, etc. As long as the "no single" policy was applied to all singles on a consistent basis, it is probably OK as a policy. Whether it should be condoned by the clientele is a different matter.

It's perfectly ok from a legal standpoint so long as it doesn't involve a protected class I think. Stupid from a PR perspective....but if you don't want red heads in your restaurant....I think that flys legally.

It's perfectly ok from a legal standpoint so long as it doesn't involve a protected class I think. Stupid from a PR perspective....but if you don't want red heads in your restaurant....I think that flys legally.

but if you don't want red heads in your restaurant....I think that flys legally.

Ah, but if you were to do that to this redhead, I'd not go quietly into the night...

Seriously, from a PR and customer service perspective, this is an incrediblybad policy. Can't believe someone would do that to a customer, much less risk having that customer tell all their single and married friends!

Deb

We went to EoC on Christmas eve and had a very similar situation happen to us, although we did get a table. It took nearly 20 minutes for us to be greeted once we were seated(by 1 of the 4 host/hostesses), the waitress (1 of ONLY TWO working) was less than a pleasure to deal with. We did get our fill of water that evening since they had THREE people exclusively filling water. So that we're straight, thats:

4 hosts
2 servers
3 water boys.

Oh and the servers had to make their own drinks at the bar - just for extra efficiency. The normally overbearing owner was nowhere to be seen which is a first. Every table was very obviously upset and had waited for every aspect of their dining experience way longer than usual.

You can write this up as a busy night or nights, but it is unacceptable that they would split some 35-40 tables between TWO servers and have at least 7 other people on the clock sitting people and filling water.

I also had a somewhat similar experience to the single diner not being welcome at EoC, but my experience was at the new Indigo Joes on the day of the UK/UL game. I stopped by there to grab a quick bite of lunch at about 1:40pm and walked into a lobby full of angry people. The person who appeared to be in charge or own the place was telling people he would not seat them unless their full party was there. I looked around and there were empty booths everywhere in the main dining room. I, being single was told I would have to be seated with a table that had an open seat once all the tables were full. Another guy walked up and said it would be 45 minutes until his friends got there and the person in charge said they wouldn't be able to sit with their friends and that they would be sat with another table if their was room.

This was over 2 hours before tipoff.

Can you imagine ANY other establishment similar to this (Bw3 or even a Hooters) telling people they would be forced to sit with complete strangers 2 hours before the blessed "dream" game even started?


Sounds like the people at Indigo Joe's & Emperor of China have ALOT to learn about service.

Another reason I love this forum: I just added 2 places to my list of places to never spend my money.

I was going to try Indigo Joes some time soon but don't think I'll bother now.

Can you imagine ANY other establishment similar to this (Bw3 or even a Hooters) telling people they would be forced to sit with complete strangers 2 hours before the blessed "dream" game even started?

No, I can't... but it's also a little absurd for patrons to expect to hold tables at a place for any length of time before their friends arrived. While I think Emperor was way off, I don't really think Joe's was wrong for refusing to seat someone who wanted a table to hold for their friends 45 minutes before the friends were to arrive.