What's the expectation when an expensive Asian restaurant doesn't have rice?

[Bundooman]

18 hours ago, Jingthing said:

Then you're not that seriously into food. 

I doubt if anyone else on this forum is as 'into food' as you appear to be Jingthing - and possibly no-one else even knows the meaning of 'maven'. I don't and I have certainly been around a long time and well travelled, probably like you, yet this word has never entered my vocabulary, so we can see you are extremely upset by this major setback to your eating experience. We understand.

 

But I also note that you have been here a long time, me too, and your posts number 99,500+ - so you are also very familiar with the way Thailand works. You know Thais don't like to deliver bad news - and possibly they had just used, unexpectedly, the last of their freshly cooked available rice and someone had screwed up in cooking more in time for you to eat your meal - maybe a new employee or something. It's happened to me on numerous occasions and even in the more expensive restaurants that I and my family go to occasionally - so it's not an uncommon occurrence and you know that.

 

That said, there are one or two good expensive Chinese restaurants here in Chiangmai - but I tend not to revisit them as they are nice, but way overpriced and prefer to eat Thai or western food. Me? I would brush it off as a one-off bad experience and maybe try one more time. If good - continue returning and only stop if something similar happened again.

 

Everybody cocks-up at least once - they are no different so benefit of doubt. Happy eating...….

[Jingthing]

I don't think being served Asian dishes to the table and then being told sorry we can't do rice for 20 minutes is at all common. Well not in my experience anyway. I have had the experience where the entire order is held while waiting for the rice to finish. 

 

As far as this particular restaurant I never had any intention of stopping going there but if the same thing happens again I will probably not accept it in the same easy way. 

 

Maven out. 

[DannyCarlton]

1 minute ago, Jingthing said:

I don't think being served Asian dishes to the table and then being told sorry we can't do rice for 20 minutes is at all common. Well not in my experience anyway. I have had the experience where the entire order is held while waiting for the rice to finish. 

So why didn't you ask for your meal to be returned to the kitchen and re served when everything was ready?

[1FinickyOne]

comp-ing meals do not seem to be a custom here... if you really like the food there, I would guess something like this is a one-off and not cut my nose to spite their face or yours... 

 

I tend to be more accepting than demanding... w/kitchen workers anything might happen, including an oversight... let it go. 

[Curt1591]

The staff should have informed you, when you ordered, they were out of rice. Their bad.

What you should do about it is up to you. If rice was a makeor break issue, what's the question?

[1FinickyOne]

9 minutes ago, DannyCarlton said:

So why didn't you ask for your meal to be returned to the kitchen and re served when everything was ready?

maybe time of year when too many people have head colds? 

[1FinickyOne]

21 hours ago, CharlieH said:

You should have been informed at order placement regarding the rice situation

I would guess that it took them by surprise as well... someone just wasn't doing their job... I would doubt this is a regular occurrence... 

[transam]

21 hours ago, Jingthing said:

The food is really good. It's not anywhere near the most expensive Chinese places here. I consider it good value and also they have quite unusual to find dishes here.

Strange they ain't got a few rice cookers on the go at an EXPENSIVE joint...????

 

I reckon they just didn't like you..........????...............????

[petermik]

7 hours ago, transam said:

Strange they ain't got a few rice cookers on the go at an EXPENSIVE joint...????

 

I reckon they just didn't like you..........????...............????

You could well be right trans the owner was songthaew driver before.......

[Foghorn]

If you think they would reheat your food why not tell them you not want that and order something else ,also if it is your favorite expensive restaurant and service like that ,who’s the mug

[Jingthing]

17 minutes ago, Foghorn said:

If you think they would reheat your food why not tell them you not want that and order something else ,also if it is your favorite expensive restaurant and service like that ,who’s the mug

According to you I'm the mug as if I care. I don't think your suggestion to demand that they change the dishes to a different order is realistic or reasonable. But you have given me an idea. Between the experience I had and warmed up dishes the latter would probably have been preferable. It can also depend on the specific dishes as to much they would be degraded by that. So that's an option. Yes I think it would be very rare for any restaurant here to recook the dishes. Not never but rare and really shouldn't be expected here. 

[Jingthing]

22 minutes ago, petermik said:

You could well be right trans the owner was songthaew driver before.......

Not likely as my understanding is that the owners moved here from China to open the restaurant. 

[kingofthemountain]

3 hours ago, Jingthing said:

I have had the experience where the entire order is held while waiting for the rice to finish. 

You have been lucky

usualy the first dish ready come first

i remember a day in a well know restaurant in a mall with international choice

(Average menu 200\300 bahts)

i order a salad, a grilled salmon and an ice cream, all on the menu.

The ice cream was the faster to prepare, so i have it first  

20 minutes later it was the salad and the grilled salmon coming together

TIT

[Jingthing]

I have had the experience in the U.S. at what I would consider more casual "cheaper" Chinese restaurants where they say there will be a delay for the rice but then they rush it and even serve it undercooked. Obviously that isn't good either! As I implied in the OP (in the context of Thailand) if the Asian food dishes were low priced such as in the under 100 baht range and the place was a shophouse dive, I would have lower expectations in such matters. 

[Jingthing]

10 minutes ago, kingofthemountain said:

You have been lucky

usualy the first dish ready come first

i remember a day in a well know restaurant in a mall with international choice

(Average menu 200\300 bahts)

i order a salad, a grilled salmon and an ice cream, all on the menu.

The ice cream was the faster to prepare, so i have it first  

20 minutes later it was the salad and the grilled salmon coming together

TIT

Yes the custom here in Thai restaurants is to serve dishes as they become ready. Western restaurants usually but not always serve in more standard courses here. But the OP was about a FANCY Chinese restaurant run by Chinese people mostly for Chinese people that happens to be in Thailand. Their head chef is from China. Rice is expected to be served with the food! If you ordered a sandwich and they brought out hot fillings and said, sorry we are baking the bread, pretty much the same kind of thing!

[Thian]

One day at sizzlers chaengwattana mall....we went in, ordered food, walked to the salad bar, came back and started eating salad...the waiter came to tell there were no french fries....so we stood up and left...never came back.

[spidermike007]

The real question is, how does a high end restaurant run out of rice? Do they really have only one rice cooker in the kitchen? And if so, why is it not blasting out rice all day long? There is just no excuse for this. It is beyond lame. More than likely, everyone who comes in is going to order rice with their meal, and they simply have to be prepared for that. 

 

I think it could be referred to as extreme culinary incompetence. Write a very nasty review online, and avoid them in the future. Does not sound like they are that special anyway.

 

My next question is, why are there so few great Chinese restaurants in Thailand? And why are the good ones so over priced? 

[transam]

1 minute ago, spidermike007 said:

The real question is, how does a high end restaurant run out of rice? Do they really have only one rice cooker in the kitchen? And if so, why is it not blasting out rice all day long? There is just no excuse for this. It is beyond lame. More than likely, everyone who comes in is going to order rice with their meal, and they simply have to be prepared for that. 

 

I think it could be referred to as extreme culinary incompetence. Write a very nasty review online, and avoid them in the future. Does not sound like they are that special anyway.

 

My next question is, why are there so few great Chinese restaurants in Thailand? And why are the good ones so over priced? 

Or a dodgy thread......????.........????

[Isaanbiker]

OP, next time ask them when you come in if they've got fresh cooked rice ready for you.

 

   It can't be a good restaurant when they ran out of rice, don't you think?

 

   Expensive isn't always the best. Just saying. 

[Jingthing]

9 minutes ago, spidermike007 said:

The real question is, how does a high end restaurant run out of rice? Do they really have only one rice cooker in the kitchen? And if so, why is it not blasting out rice all day long? There is just no excuse for this. It is beyond lame. More than likely, everyone who comes in is going to order rice with their meal, and they simply have to be prepared for that. 

 

I think it could be referred to as extreme culinary incompetence. Write a very nasty review online, and avoid them in the future. Does not sound like they are that special anyway.

 

My next question is, why are there so few great Chinese restaurants in Thailand? And why are the good ones so over priced? 

Well, I can't speak for Thailand as a whole but in the last few years because of the explosion in INDEPENDENT Chinese tourists (bus tours go to the buffets where regular people are usually not welcome even if they wanted to go) Pattaya has become much better in that regard. They mostly are not marketing to westerners. You need to use google translate to deal with menus and staff A LOT. But believe it or not there is now much much more decent authentic Chinese food here available for more reasonable prices. Of course there are still the overpriced places that often don't even have very good food. Also sadly there is an issue in some (not all) of the Chinese restaurants where they make it clear that they really don't want (and certainly don't need) western customers. 

[Jingthing]

1 minute ago, Isaanbiker said:

OP, next time ask them when you come in if they've got fresh cooked rice ready for you.

 

   It can't be a good restaurant when they ran out of rice, don't you think?

 

   Expensive isn't always the best. Just saying. 

I mentioned that as a tactic but it's a little complex of a question to ask in Chinese via google translate. 

[atyclb]

18 hours ago, kingofthemountain said:

18 hours ago, Jingthing said:

Yes I agree that visit was a poor experience. But it's not that cut and dry in this case. 

 

Because 

 

Its the first time that it was bad.

 

The dishes themselves were still good. 

 

They have some unique food that I like that I can't get elsewhere. 

 

The location is very convenient for me. 

 

The prices seem fair to me for the quality offered though I don't like to pay for the fancy decor and high rent but it is what it is. 

 

So I'll be back! 

It's up to you of course and you have some good reasons here

BUT

now you need to ask before if all the plates of your order ar available

AND

you have now an excellent reason to not let a tip at the end

 

(If you was used to let something other than the metalic ones

 personaly i don't tip as it's not in the Thai culture

for one time try to respect the Thai culture is at my advantage hehe)

 

it is quite common for servers to mess up on orders even if you speak clear native accent thai or even when thais order. ate in sizzler (a nice place) ordered salad bar for 2 people, a bottle of water and an iced tea. iced tea never came and i had to tell cashier 2 people ate as the server wrote 1 salad bar on check. very common in thailand guess the attention span/focus is not fully in place. 

occasionally restaurants do run out of rice especially if way more rice is ordered than usual.  i would have asked for noodles instead of rice likely rice noodles anyway.

[DoktorC]

3 hours ago, Jingthing said:

Not likely as my understanding is that the owners moved here from China to open the restaurant. 

So they aren't thai?   Do you think they would dare serve a chinese customer without the rice?  How lucky are you?   555

 

I am surprised they didn't just pop over to the local 7 and buy a couple packs of rice for you their very special customer.... but since when does a chinese restaurant not have rice..... never heard that before.... 

 

 

[Jingthing]

6 minutes ago, DoktorC said:

So they aren't thai?   Do you think they would dare serve a chinese customer without the rice?  How lucky are you?   555

 

I am surprised they didn't just pop over to the local 7 and buy a couple packs of rice for you their very special customer.... but since when does a chinese restaurant not have rice..... never heard that before.... 

 

 

Yeah as I said in the O.P. it an expectation that a Chinese restaurant will have rice and that it will be available when the main dishes are served. Obviously all restaurants have glitches and bad days. On that note at another local Chinese restaurant I thought my order without rice would work (because one dish was soybean based noodles no not noodles with bean curd the noodles were made of soy) but they brought rice anyway without asking and it turned out I really did need it! Now that's service. Of course they would have been OK if I had sent it back. 

[BritManToo]

1 hour ago, Jingthing said:

But believe it or not there is now much much more decent authentic Chinese food here available for more reasonable prices. Of course there are still the overpriced places that often don't even have very good food. Also sadly there is an issue in some (not all) of the Chinese restaurants where they make it clear that they really don't want (and certainly don't need) western customers. 

Authentic Chinese food is awful, I've been in China and eaten in authentic Chinese restaurants.

If they were aiming at the Chinese market, you wouldn't want to eat there.

Western people eat Chinese fusion, specially adapted for the western palate.

[Jingthing]

8 minutes ago, BritManToo said:

Authentic Chinese food is awful, I've been in China and eaten in authentic Chinese restaurants.

If they were aiming at the Chinese market, you wouldn't want to eat there.

Western people eat Chinese fusion, specially adapted for the western palate.

Speak for yourself. The places I go in Pattaya have almost all Chinese customers. I don't even see Thai Chinese people there. They're not going for fusion food or westernized Chinese food. I do agree that there is a lot of authentic Chinese food that is challenging for western palates, including me. I happen to not like offal for example and if you're not careful it's easy to order offal dishes by accident as google translate doesn't work that well. 

[anterian]

This type of problem is common, not just rice but other items as well. It simply boils down to the typical inability to forward plan. 

[Jingthing]

4 minutes ago, anterian said:

This type of problem is common, not just rice but other items as well. It simply boils down to the typical inability to forward plan. 

Yeah sure but back to my sandwich comparison. A sandwich shop serving hot meatball sandwiches would stop serving them entirely if they ran out of bread.

[ballpoint]

I think you should go back and thank them.  For allowing you to inch your post tally ever closer to the 100,000 mark.

[Jingthing]

5 minutes ago, ballpoint said:

I think you should go back and thank them.  For allowing you to inch your post tally ever closer to the 100,000 mark.

The software doesn't support that. It resets.