Yen's Cafe — Restaurant in Ashburn

I'll start by saying, the food was really good, and if the review were only on food, I'd give them a 5 star (but I admittedly very rarely review anything). However, due to the extremely poor service, I'm finally reviewing to hope to provide some useful constructive criticism to fix the service issues to the business owner. Situation: We ordered online, and when I got to the store, my order was switched with someone else and I didn't realize it until I got back home. I called back to ask let them know and expected a resolution response to calm my frustration down. I would recommend for the owner to confirm the mistake (eg ask what order I I got and what I ordered, so you know I'm not scamming) and to completely refund the order/allow you to keep the food, in order to reduce my frustration. However, instead I was asked to drive back to the restaurant to return the food and I was asked "what I wanted to make it right". Keep in mind, I've already spent 1 hours between driving and waiting for my food already. Stemming from that, I asked for the food to be re-prepared, as I didn't really have another plan for dinner. Tack on another 30-40 minutes for that wait. When the food was ready, I still fully expect a refund, as I've now spent 2 hours waiting, and about 40 minutes of driving/gas and I'm already frustrated. Instead I am asked what I wanted in return. Overall, to let you know, I left extremely frustrated and wont likely come back even though I found the food VERY good. But overall, I highly recommend to take a look at how to better serve when you make mistakes. It happens, I wouldnt leave a negative comment even if you had a mistake as long as YOU made the action to make it right. By putting me, the customer in the situation to tell you how angry I am, an already extremely angry customer, It just makes me more frustrated. I really want your restaurant to succeed. Your food speaks for itself and justifies good reviews. However, please do fix your service problems (FYI the amount of time to wait is very annoying as well), and I hope it does make you...

Thanksgiving Eve 2024, placed a pickup order with GRUBHUB. The website said delivery time would be between 7:18 and 7:25 PM. I actually arrived a bit late at 7:40 PM, and while in transit I got a SMS from GRUBHUB—the order would now be ready between 7:40 and 7:50 PM. Perfect timing!

Well, no, not so perfect. When I walked in the door the gray-haired male manager was talking to someone on the phone, telling them their order would not be ready for an hour. Apparently the conversation did not go well; he cut off whoever he was speaking to mid-sentence.

Meanwhile, I had been scanning the handful of to-go orders on the table, and my order for four was not there. I asked the manager if they had an order for me yet, and was brusquely informed that my order was not ready. Understandable, after all it’s Thanksgiving Eve.

I said OK, do you know when it will be ready? This got me an angry retort: “I do not know when it will be ready! I cannot predict the future! We don’t have enough cooks to fill all these orders! You can wait for your order or cancel it!” He then grabs a bag on the pickup orders table and stalks outside to deliver it to somebody waiting in their car.

So I punch up the GRUBHUB app on my phone and check to see whether I can cancel the order. The website says I cannot cancel the order because it is already in progress. By this time, the manager has stomped back into the restaurant and glares at me because I’m standing by the bar waiting for my order. “You need to wait outside!” he barks. It is 43 degrees outside right now, and almost as cold in the vestibule where he demands that I wait. He opens the door and shouts at me again that I need to wait outside. In the cold.

So that is where I am sitting right now, waiting for my $99 pickup order. We have been coming here almost since the restaurant opened. We stuck with them after they lost their liquor license because their food was great and their service was always attentive and friendly. Well, not anymore. They will need to have a serious attitude adjustment before I ever darken their...

We have been loyal customers of this restaurant sinc e moving to the area, up until tonight when trying to place our usual order. Although the food is respectable, the service is terrible. Clearly from reading other reviews, this establishment has a pattern of not really caring about its patrons. Upon making a simple request to to the manager to modify our order due to a food allergy, we were told that it wasn’t possible to substitute, only to remove the ingredient. After asking if the price of the dish would be less (since we were asking for pork instead of shrimp, which is cheaper), the manager said “Sir, we are very busy right now and I don’t have time for this.” I couldn’t believe that the manager of a restaurant would talk to a customer like that! It’s a shame that a restaurant would be willing to lose a loyal customer over something like this. There are plenty of other restaurants that treat its patrons right and actually care about their customers. This business clearly values the bottom line more than making its customers happy. From now on, we’ll make the trip to Sterling for food that is just as good, but from a business that cares about...