Yi-Ban — Restaurant in London

I recently dined at a restaurant that I had high hopes for, but unfortunately, my experience turned out to be nothing short of a nightmare. As someone with severe allergies, I always make sure to inform restaurants about my dietary restrictions, trusting that they will prioritize my safety and well-being. Regrettably, this particular establishment completely disregarded my allergen warnings, leading to an allergic reaction.

Upon arrival, I informed the server about my specific allergens, stressing the importance of avoiding any cross-contamination or direct contact with those ingredients. The waiter assured me that they would take all necessary precautions to ensure my meal would be safe. However, despite their seemingly attentive response, it became clear that they had failed to communicate my allergen requirements to the kitchen staff.

Once the food arrived I began to eat but within minutes of consuming the dish, I started experiencing the telltale signs of an allergic reaction. My throat and face began to swell, and breathing became difficult. I immediately tried to leave but the staff had no sense of urgency to let us pay, and continuously avoided eye contact when we tried to wave them down. This ordeal not only ruined my dining experience but also endangered my health.

I strongly advise anyone with food allergies or dietary restrictions to steer clear of this restaurant. They not only failed to fulfill their duty to provide a safe dining experience but also demonstrated a lack of understanding and empathy towards their customers' well-being. It is disheartening to see such negligence and disregard for allergen warnings, and I sincerely hope that the restaurant takes immediate steps to rectify their practices and prevent...

We had a terrible experience at Yiban last night. It's not just the ridiculous increase in prices, it's the poor quality of food!

We used to love going to Yiban for either lunch or dinner. We were so disappointed last night - the first time we've visited since before the pandemic. I'm not sure if all the staff have changed but they're clueless and have no manners. They stand and chat to one another right next to you... At least look busy, or top up teas/drinks! We were too tired to, otherwise we would have asked for the service charge to be removed. There was no service whatsoever.

How can they charge £1pp for boiled water?! That's just poor service in itself! Charging for their car park has always been something that got on my nerves too...

The food was terrible, partly due to the lack of knowledge from their staff. We wanted a silky tofu veggie dish (we're Chinese but can't read the writing) and asked whether the one in the picture was the same as the one on our phone. The waitress said yes it's pretty smooth. However, their version of the dish was not smooth in any way! It was a completely different tofu. The Chinese mushrooms in the dish tasted off/a little sour and the broccoli was yellow/off-colour (not clear in the photo I took unfortunately - my camera must be too good)! Finally, the rice - how can rice go wrong?! The rice was in balls of hard clumps, as if they had served us old rice. You'd think that there would be fresh rice for £3pp (2 of us)!

Safe to say that for an extremely disappointing dinner that came to £50, we won't...

It was ok, until the bill came and there was a service charge of 12.5% added to the bill. I evidenced that it was not on the menu, but was told it’s used to pay the staff’s wages. First of all it should be stated as a mandatory service charge on the menu, also I didn’t know we were living in America where staff were not paid because last I checked minimum wage is the law in the UK so it’s quite concerning the waitress was telling me this. Next, she told us that if we didn’t pay this charge that was mentioned nowhere on the menu then we wouldn’t be able to come back and eat again. We acknowledged that and then she said she would get her manager to speak to us. The manager rudely came over and said in Cantonese ‘There’s no use wasting your breathe on speaking to them’. Then, they refused to take our payment unless we paid, which felt very much like a scam, but at this point they clearly had no shame. After realising this establishment is so desperate for money we just paid it and left. If you want to pay to be verbally abused then I would recommend this place! I personally am very concerned that this restaurant does not comply with the law in paying their staff. The very rude woman who scammed us wore glasses and attached a photo of the food to prove I did eat here, I’m annoyed I didn’t get a photo of the bill. I know a service charge is quite common in London but it’s always optional even if it’s ‘mandatory’ and you didn’t like the service which we certainly didn’t. I would report this...