Tai Shan Express — Restaurant in Ontario

Absolute rubbish.

TL;dr: Mediocre at best when on thier a-game. Do NOT order sweet & sour ribs.

We've ordered here twice in the past; once many years ago and were heavily underwhelmed, so we'd avoided them for years. We tried again last weekend, and had a so-so experience. Thinking perhaps the dishes we ordered were just not to our taste and perhaps they have others on the menu that would be better.

Oh God, was I wrong.

Today we ordered two dinner combo plates. (Both with a Spring roll & Cantonese noodles. One with chop suey and soo guy w/ almonds & another with sweet & sour spareribs with chicken vegetable almond.) • Springrolls were greasy as could be, and had small odd-flavored specs of what I think was Meat? (Pork, ground shrimp? I honestly could not say) • The noodles were dry and tasteless, no sauce or seasonings to be found. • veggie almond was passable, but is clearly the "Combo plate version" as the full dish version id tried the week before was far fresher and had less of the B cuts and onion filler • chop suey was underseasoned but seemed fresh enough • soo guy was soggy and overbreaded, cut into four uneven chunks with only one having almond slivers on it.

Which brings me to the cherry on top of our, until this point simply lackluster, meal. The sweet & sour spareribs. I use the word spareribs loosely. They looked like chicken balls, covered in a THICK layer of beerbatter. All had nearly no meat under the batter, and those that appeared to have meat were truly just riddled with bone shrapnel. Now, being spareribs I'd expect bone. Seeing as these were so breaded you cannot tell what you're looking at, i'd wager that they should be boneless or have ONE or TWO bones that could be easily seen and eaten around. These were batter with bone chunks throughout and a spatyering of pork. Ribs should never be breaded, its a safety issue.

My husband went back to the restaurant after we'd given up on eating to ask for a partial refund or % off a order in the future should we try them again. The owner said this dish was served as intended and that the bones are 'cooked' and safe for consumption. (Tried cutting one with a steak knife, they very much aren't) They offered 10% back... we'd given a 10% tip when paying. This was the 'entre' portion of half the meal, in which I ate none of because who in thier right mind would eat beerbatterd bone shrapnel covered in s&s sauce?

0/10 on customer service 4/10 on food (if I'm kind and ignore the existence of the sweet and sour breaded...

Ordered dinner this evening..one of the dishes was SHRIMP kungpo...what I received was VEGGIE shrimp kungpo....there were only 9 PIECES of shrimp in the dish...I spoke with the Ozng lady who was quite gracious, albeit indifferent...I then spoke with the proprietor, who is Asian...this lady advised that this restaurant was the cheapest in the area, and the number of shrimp was reflective of her food cost....I advised her that thr cost of the dish and what I received was not fairly reflective of the cost of the dish....the conco went on...she hung up. I then went to the restaurant and requested a refund...to my surprise, thr dish cost $17.25...a dish that was 95% veggies and 5% shrimp.

There is something wrong in Canada where you cannot express dissatisfaction and outrage and thr exorbitant cost of dishes where one is receiving sub-par quality with the expectation that one is to smile and accept sub-par food for ever increasing prices. That in its essence is robbery and thr customer is being stolen from. I essentially expresses that I did not want to be robbed but to receive fair compensation of what I am.paying for...this woman's response was tp tell.me.not to order from the restaurant and hung up on me..

This is customer service in Canada...not express your dissatisfaction....just go along, and smile while receiving mediocre, at best, of food that is ever i creasing, while the ingredients continue to be laden with pesticides, etc..at these prices one should expect dishes made up of quality ingredients, yet, I am to be satisfied with 9 pcs of shrimp....these people are indifferent and only want $$$$...the Canadian way is to smile while being stolen from by companies and corporations and thst is what is considered nice...this is a cou.try suffering from very low standard of expectstion, societal Stockholm Syndrome, hence this restaurant conduct....pshaw!!!!!.....if there was a negative 1 star...that is what I'd give....I .not a walking source of monies to be pillage and plundered and then expected to accept less than what I paid for and then not to defend my.own boundaries and expectstions....until everyone start leveling up their own standard of expectations, then restaurants will continue to steal and rob you, while you...

In response to the reply which I got via email notification, but which reply i am u able to read in full when I access the reviews...

Here is the thing...I settled on kung po SHRIMP and veggies...not VEGGIES and shrimp....this dish is worth $17.25...what i received was not fairly exchange for you are charging...that is corporate theft...a crime...I k ow u don't.like tp hear you are robbing and stealing but that is in essence what you are doing when u serve a dish with 9 pcs of SHRIMP...while I can appreciate that you.have to make up your cost...there is something thst is even more invaluable and priceless and that is integrity and fairness....and let's talk about customer service...the Asian woman is rude....outright...i guess one's behavior is only "nice" when you receivd a compliment...but when called out about fair compensation for what u are serving and asking to be paid you are devoid of being fair...guess ur life revolves around the fiat currency....trust me...you are not thr BEST Asian cuisine....only mediocre at best, since there are not alot of options in simcoe...despite your self-proclaimed "being thr cheapest in simcoe"...i am not for sale...goods and services obtained via thr currency is used ARE to reflect to reflect that value...this dish did not....the total of dishes I ordered were 4...total of $77+....the kungpo dish was lacking ..it was watery and was 95% veggies....9 SHRIMPS....that was theft at $17.25...mediocrity is not excellence...by the way...are.you using seed oil???...are your ingredients fresh, meat organic and.geassfed and seafood wild caught...for 9 pcs of shrimp at $17.25...you gotta level up...justifying high cost of food while serving less is...