Jinli Chinese Restaurant Exeter — Restaurant in Exeter

I recently had the unfortunate opportunity to dine at Jinli, and I must say it was quite possibly the worst restaurant experience I have ever encountered. Our 19:00 booking for a party of two turned into a nightmarish ordeal from the moment we stepped through the door.

The first red flag was the excruciatingly long wait for a waitress to take our order, which took an agonizing 15 to 20 minutes. When our starters finally arrived at 20:00, it was evident that the prawn toast and vegetable springs were nothing more than store-bought, lacking any semblance of freshness or originality.

To add insult to injury, the egg fried rice intended to accompany the prawn black bean sauce was served with chicken and sweetcorn soup, which turned out to be a viscous, flavourless concoction. Attempting to salvage the dish, I requested soy sauce, only to discover a deceased fly swimming in the shallow pool of the condiment. Naturally, both the soy sauce and the abysmal sweetcorn soup were promptly removed from our table.

The main course, featuring prawn black bean sauce, did little to redeem the evening. The prawns were adequately cooked, but the undercooked vegetables and the sickly, artificial taste of the black bean sauce left much to be desired. With over two-thirds of the uneaten food still on the table, I decided to cut our losses and requested the bill.

To my disbelief, a 10% service charge was included, despite the glaring absence of attentive service throughout the evening. Furthermore, the sweetcorn soup, which we had explicitly rejected due to its subpar quality, was still factored into the total bill. In light of the numerous issues faced during our dining experience, the lack of any discount or acknowledgment of the chaotic service was astounding.

In summary, Jinli delivered an appalling and unsanitary dining experience. The quality of the food was abysmal, the service staff was noticeably absent, and the overall atmosphere was marred by a lack of communication regarding the extensive delays in food preparation. It's safe to say I will not be returning, and I caution others to think twice before subjecting themselves to such a...

The food was great, no complaints about that. But that younger waitress with horrible fake eyelashes, has the worst attitude I ever seen in this world. I do not know if she is dumb ( lost ability to speak, if that was the case, I am so sorry about that.) No wonder you got fewer customers ever since the opening, really feel sorry...

i heard about this restaurant from my friend because they said the restaurant had good food and amazing service. so i travelled to eat here and must i say it was better than i expected. the portions were enough to fill us up and the food was to my taste. the service was amazing and my experience here was just great. highly...