Mainland China — Restaurant in Tamil Nadu

This is the first time I am trying this restaurant in my 15+ years journey in Chennai. We visited this restaurant during the weekend lunch time. It was a bit of a surprise for me to see such a space inside the restaurant and it was almost filled at the time of ~1.30 pm. We went as a family of 7 members including 2 kids. We were struggled to read the dishes name and confused which to order and almost all our family members don't like too much of sauces and worried a lot which dishes are such kind of category. We took 10 mins to choose our dishes and finally ordered food, including the soup. Soups, Starters and main courses were ordered and they served completely in a different way. Instead of serving the dishes from Soups, they served randomly. It's better they can make this as a practice to start with Soups, starters, main course etc which is commonly followed by most of the restaurants unless it is requested by the customer in a different order.

Overall food quality was good.

I booked the table through one famous app which mentioned a 10% offer to the overall billing. When we enquired about this, initially they told "no such discounts" and later when I mentioned the app name - they agreed and generated the discounted bill. When we received the bill, we were surprised to see the "SERVICE CHARGE - 10%" to the overall cost. We requested for the clarification and it went to argument due to their response. We argued with the supervisor to remove that service charge. They told that ""it was mentioned in the front desk and also in the menu card, but again "it's an optional". If the customer doesn't want to pay the "SERVICE CHARGE" we won't charge them."" But usually they don't request/mention such cost to the customer, they themself need to address to revert back. HOW IS IT? After a long conversation, finally they removed the service charge and collected the rest of the amount.

The most irritating part is "how they treated the customers". They are not showing any interest to politely convince us, rather they stick to their stand which made us to argue further. I hope we are not their expected customers it seems :(.

I would like to highlight Some conversations from them

"This is not an Indian restaurant to serve Onion Raita". "Service cost is quite common in such big restaurants"

The overall approach...

Rating is ZERO star

Situated within Phoenix mall in Chennai, my family of 4 decided to go into Mainland china restaurant that puts up an image of fine dining.

The restaurant was not busy when we entered. However, what we noticed was that that staff had their priorities all mixed up. We got little attention in almost everything.

Some of what I'd like to share .....not the slightest smile by the waiting staff (they were all that way. Go figure!! ) Non working ordering tablet, no water served, no desire to answer our questions when asked to clarify some menu items. My 10year old accidentally dropped her fork and spoon. The waiter who noticed that gave a stare at my kid and walked away. We had to call someone else to get the spoon replaced.

Ordered food with specific instructions to make the food mild, as both my kids can't handle hot-spicy food. We were assured & not to worry. It took nearly 40min for food to get delivered, both the starters and the main course arrived together. Dishes were very spicy. We were all quite hungry and somehow managed to get half way thru, when something caught our eye.......

We spotted a cockroach right next to our food, crawling on the table Called the waiter to bring to his attention. He looks at it and walks away. Not the slightest reaction. We couldn't eat any longer.

Asked for the bill. After 10min,didn't get the bill. We then got up and tried to draw attention. Manager noticed and came over. We explained. He was apologetic, however we had enough of the place by then. We left the place, still hungry

Paid and left, swearing never to return to this place again. Overall a really bad experience for a fine dining place. Wonder how their kitchen...

I had an incredibly disappointing experience at Mainland China that I feel compelled to share. From the moment I walked in, I encountered a blatant violation of privacy that left me both shocked and appalled.

When I arrived, there was no one at the reception to greet or assist customers. Trying to be proactive, I scanned the QR code available to view the menu. To my utter dismay, instead of simply displaying the menu, the system demanded my mobile number along with an OTP verification just to proceed. This is a flagrant breach of privacy and borders on illegal activity. Why on earth would anyone need to provide their personal mobile number merely to view a restaurant's menu? This is not only invasive but highly suspicious.

Such a practice is completely unacceptable. It's 2024, and customer privacy should be respected, not exploited. Forcing patrons to hand over personal information for something as basic as viewing a menu is absurd and raises serious concerns about data security and misuse.

Eventually, a receptionist arrived and provided a physical menu, but by then, the damage was done. The entire experience left a bad taste in my mouth, and I was no longer interested in dining there. I chose to leave without ordering, deeply disappointed by the whole ordeal.

Mainland China needs to seriously reconsider their policies and show more respect for customer privacy. Until they make significant changes, I would not recommend this place to anyone who values their personal information. This kind of practice is not just unpleasant—it's downright...