Xiang Yuan Qiao Yunnan Cross Bridge Rice Noodle(RMD) — Restaurant in Richmond

The food is pretty decent here, no complaints on that front, but wow I have never felt so uncomfortable and unwelcome in a place that accepted our money.

Even while taking our order, the server gave off unfriendly and unwelcoming vibes, immediately letting us know that last call was at 9:30 (we made it in a few minutes before that.) About 10 minutes after ordering, our food arrived (which I do not feel is an unreasonable time to wait) but at some point the perturbingly eerie atmosphere grew great enough to peel me away from the comforts of eating, as I looked around for the source of unease….

One of the servers stood squared off directly across from our table staring us down, not discretely waiting for us to hurry up and leave.

Our party had only been served our large, hot, bowl of soup not long before this, and we were still clearly working on the contents. We continued on, trying to enjoy the meal despite the palpable hostility in the air.

At some point after our cups emptied, I asked for a refill of tea, and the server looked at me like I had grown two heads.

Shortly after, I found myself increasingly unnerved realizing they had somehow made the inhospital environment even more adverse by turning off the background music, and now not only one but two servers just staring straight at us, mostly wordlessly but at times in between their own exchanges amongst one another.

I couldn’t take it anymore and addressed the elephant in the room asking one of them if they are closing. They gave a vague answer and reiterated that last call was 9:30 so they close around 10 something.

I checked my phone, it was only a few minutes past 10 at that point. But the damage was done, our party hastened to go, leaving yet a good 1/3 of the soup 🍜.

TL;DR - food is good but don’t expect a thing in terms of service.

Feedback for Owner/Management:

No-frills service doesn’t bother me. But this was not no-frills, this was plain rudeness. The particular server waiting our table was completely hostile, unwelcoming, and outright unreasonable. Yes, it is unreasonable to expect diners to finish piping hot meals in 20 minutes upon receiving their orders, unless you are a McDonalds and you are serving fast food.

If you are going to be upset that people are coming into to patron your restaurant, then maybe don’t operate a restaurant or at least adjust your cut-off time for last call. Usually, an establishment’s closing time will be minimum 1 hour after their last call. To not-so-subtly indicate to paying customers that you will take their money and then want them to hurry up and GTFO immediately after receiving their food by all means of hostility, unfriendliness, and borderline intimidation is not among the restaurant industry’s best practices.

Lastly, I wish to add that how we were treated is the opposite of Yunnan...

After coming to this restaurant for the first time, I can appropriately say that I will NOT be returning. I came into the restaurant and ordered my food. My order had come fairly fast, due to the low amount of costumers in the restaurant at the time. However, being in a larger party, I paid SEPARATELY and returned back to my table. However, a few minutes later, the female waitress that helped me pay, came back and TOLD me that I had to PAY a tip. After I understood what she was trying to say, she FORCED me to get up from my table, and pay a tip. Alongside having to pay for a tip, the costumer service was quite awful! One of the others at my table had an empty cup of water for over 40 MINUTES. Even after that, the others at my table paid for their own meals, leaving NO tip. Due to the frustration that I had experienced from our waitress. After a couple minutes, she came back asking the others from my table to pay a tip as well. After speaking to the rest of my group, they said “no” and how they were allowed to choose whether or not they’d like to tip. The waitress was very unpleased and sent a backlash towards them, even attempting to guilt them into giving a tip out of pure sorrow and sadness. But in attempts of guilt-tripping them, resulted in no tip from any of them. Having a great first impression with fast food, quickly turned into a sour evening with the later...

My family recently had cross bridge noodles in Richmond Hill, Ontario. It was a few dollars cheaper with portions smaller than Xiang Yuan Qiao (XYQ).

I went with a friend this weekend, and I had the traditional spicy lamb cross bridge rice noodle, and my friend had the dry braised beef rice pot noodle. Both were quite good, very flavourful (to the point of my dish being too salty, especially when the soup cools down and you can really taste the salt) and used fresh enough ingredients. I find this location has more little dishes of ingredients, and the soup definitely was hotter such that even by meal end, everything was still warm to the mouth.

What we both thought was off-putting was the service. We asked in English then Mandarin, and our female server looked like she was impatient and didn't really want to even work. Another colleague came by and poured hot water twice for us which was great. But her initial service was near rude and it wasn't even at the peak lunch hours of the restaurant (we went at 11:30 am).

I would return for the family-style, shared pot noodle. My feedback is to make the cross bridge noodle dish less...