Shan Shui — Restaurant in Cherwell District

Do remember to CHECK THE PRICE ON YOUR BILL! 注意复核账单！Food is also over-priced (£4.5 for a small bowl of rice), small portions yet not authentic at all

Long story short, the items on our bill had higher price than the menu. When we raised this issue, we were provided with multiple “explanations” - from “you probably remembered the wrong price”, to “we updated the menu”, then finally “it was a system mistake”. Also, when I shared this experience on RED (a popular Chinese social media), within 7hrs many people left comments saying same “system error” happened to them before. Now it’s difficult to believe it really was just a careless mistake/system error rather than a scam.

Here’s what happened- When we got the bill, I noticed that the price of some items didn’t seem right and I checked this with the photo of their menu in my phone (I took it for my friend to order his food as he was queuing to pay at a shop). Once confirmed, I raised this to the staff and was told that maybe my memory’s a bit off cuz the system had the prices listed as such. I then showed him the menu picture I had on my phone along with the timestamp. Then I got a new excuse: “The menu has recently been updated, and you probably got an old version." We were sure that the menus we all had were the same and there was no chance of only me receiving the wrong menu due to a careless mistake (we had complained about the price of the bubble tea before ordering 😂). We also felt that it wasn’t reasonable to be charged extra after ordering based on the menu prices. The staff went to talk to someone at the till then apologised to us that was a system error, and that they would correct the prices for us. At this point, we asked if they could also remove the service charge. Shockingly, his response was, "I’ll ask." (While this was a discretionary charge anyway, and it’s not hard to understand why we wouldn’t want to pay it). Finally, we received an updated bill, but oddly, some item prices were still incorrect. However, they gave us a 10% discount overall and removed the service charge, so we didn’t dig deeper and just paid and left.

Apparently they got to do this multiple times knowing people wouldn’t want to make a big scene on a shopping day. Not sure if this really was just a simple error, or a planned scam, just hope this review can help anyone avoid such kind of...

Very disappointing experience for me and my family, as we were looking forward to have dinner together, celebrate, and spend some quality time. We mentioned we are a group of six people from the moment we made the booking, however, as soon as we came in, we were seated at a table of six, which had a massive plastic screen longitudinally in the middle. Because it was so massive, we were unable to hear anything through it, we couldn't share food and couldn't communicate at all with the other half of the group during the evening.

We were appalled and couldn't believe that this is happening to us, so we asked if the plastic screen could be possibly removed to accommodate larger groups, (as it is still permitted to dine in a group of maximum six people), but we were told that the screen is strongly glued on the table and there's nothing they could do about it. We understand that this is a difficult time with the pandemic going on, but as long as there is a maximum of guests allowed to dine together, they should be able to meet this criteria, and maybe use some sort of adjustable dividers when needed, for larger groups.

If it wasn't for the peak hour on a Saturday night, we would have left somewhere else, but it was already too late to make another booking on the spot, so we decided to stay and at least try to enjoy the food. The staff was prompt and food came quick, but it was lukewarm and generally pricey for its average quality. There was a poor selection of drinks and all the cocktails were removed from the menu.

If you are going in a group of more than 4 people, think twice and maybe go somewhere else. Not going...

Whilst this place is probably trying to be adventurous and trying something different with tastes and flavours, it just isn't for me or my friends or my young daughter who was with me. Food took over 40 mins to bring a starter and then when our plates were taken away another 40 mins. This was a waste of time after we already gave our details in the virtual queue. We went on a Sunday after 2pm The only good thing was portion sizes The calamari had green paste over it and was extremely bland to the point of being unedible The mains didnt have a lot of choice, after people came after us and left before our main came the tastes only added to the disappointment If you like normal and standard tastes, I dont recommend this The sea bass had dried noodles with it which were unedible, I ordered a side I'd rice which added to the cost. The sauce under the sea bass made it difficult to eat. My daughter couldn't eat her veg noodles however I found that better to eat and my friends found the king prawn rice to be good to eat. The tables in the centre of the restaurant are large and when there is not a large party of people we were mixed with other people on the table, it was fine but unusual in a small space I've heard people rave about this place and I left disappointed and annoyed for waiting for food I didn't enjoy Please judge for yourself and sorry...