Papaspicy — Restaurant in Ottawa

I paid cash and got a 10% discount. I ordered in English and they accommodated my allergies although they accidentally left the allergen in my food and replaced the dish. I came here on a Saturday around dinner time and it filled up quickly. The servers kept waking up and down to see if patrons needed anything and also replaced my spouse’s napkin when he had used it up! I normally do not enjoy servers checkin in on me but they were so pleasant :)

The service here is so friendly. I walked in and gesture for two people and they pointed me to a table set with cutlery and plates then brought over some water.

I filled out my menu using their erasable marker. Since the staff was busy eight other people at the cash I brought my menu over and told them my allergies (peanuts) and the server said they would make it without peanuts.

When the food came one of the dishes had peanuts (the cold dish ox tongue and beef slices in chilli). So I told the server and they apologized and were so nice about it. They offered to make a new dish and it came out so quickly.

I ordered the following dishes:

the ox tongue and beef slices in chili oil under appetizers (cold dish called fu qi for pian) that comes with peanuts and tripe Pork belly with green pepper lamb stir fry two bowls of rice (small bowls)

I would recommend all three, especially the ox tongue and beef slices in chili. The taste is amazing. The lamb stir fry dish was so tender and the best version of this dish I’ve had in Ottawa. The pork belly and peppers was a bit spicy since the peppers are jalapeños or something similar but the taste is very good.

I will return and try their hot pot or dry pot next time.

After my meal I walked into Shu Yi to get bubble tea (there is a doorway that connects the two...

TLDR: all food finally served after 80 minutes. Poor communication and lack of sympathy by servers. Was never checked up on. Offered no additional discount or items to make up for poor experience. Dine-in is not prioritized over takeout/delivery orders.

Our first time was good in terms of food and service, so we decided to go again.

Service was just so bad the 2nd time. We waited 30 minutes for the first 2 dishes. We asked the waiter what was going on and he said sorry and that there is only one chef in the kitchen. Alright, that’s fine. But why were we not warned beforehand that there would be delays because of that? We asked if our food could be made before the takeout/delivery orders and the waiter responded that they’re not doing takeout right now. That was clearly a lie because we could see customers and Uber drivers coming to pickup their orders. We also asked specifically for our fried rice because we wanted to eat rice with our already served food. We were told it’s almost ready. Well, the fish took another 30 minutes and the fried rice took another 40 minutes. So in total, the fish took 60 minutes and fried rice took 70 minutes. Our sweet rice cake came after 80 minutes since ordering.

A table that came after us did not need to wait so long for their food.

The servers never communicated the situation with us. They never even offered more water or napkins. They never asked if we needed anything else. In short, the servers here can bring food to the tables but they don’t really know customer service.

It’s 10% off if you pay cash. We were offered no additional discount or anything for the poor and frustrating experience. Every time we asked, we were told the food will be out...

Dishes here are pretty decent and original instead of being modified to please local patrons. In fact most of the dishes are spicy, rich of flavours and very tasty. The prices are reasonable as well. I’ve tried a lot of their dishes and most of them didn’t let me down. The most recommended would be their appetizers and fish dishes.

By very contrast, their service can use some work. We’ve been here for three times, and their service were always bad, especially the service we received from one of their waitresses who looks at guests funny. Once after waiting for 20 mins, she didn’t intend to come take our order but chatting at the cashier with someone, and we had to go to her and drop our menu; another time without asking for our permissions, she kept our changes as her tips; in our last visit, we received two same dishes from her by mistake. It’s quit confusing for us how she was hired for this job. The other waiters were not very helpful neither. It would be lucky if we got checked once during our entire stay there. If we need more water or napkins, we normally had to go the cashier and asked for it. In general, this place feels more like a buffet where patrons help themselves.

It’s quite a bummer given it’s a place with good food. It definitely shrinks our wishes to go frequently. Too bad it was supposed to be a 5 stars place to dine. Probably only go when you are in a great mood and couldn’t care less for the...