Joy Wok — Restaurant in Kansas City

I'm actually disappointed that I have to give this establishment, and more importantly their staff, even 1 star in order to leave this comment. As a tradition, our family and friends meet in Excelsior Springs on Christmas Eve and go out to dinner together. We've had that dinner at this Joy Wok before without any problems. Id like to point out that we also visit the Joy Wok in Overland Park frequently and love that place. However, this trip to this Joy Wok was horrible and we'll never be returning.

We were a party of 12, and the hostess attempted to seat us at a combination of a booth and two tables pushed together with one long side next to a wall. We offered to turn the tables to have them perpendicular to the booths explaining that the configuration she suggested wouldn't allow the people on the wall side to get up and out to go to the buffet. She got immediately upset and said that she had other customers to seat and stomped back to the hostess counter. A waiter came to help us and we presented our suggestion to him, which he accommodated. The hostess saw this and immediately and loudly went to a man behind the sushi counter and complained that she had told us not to be seated that way. This guy, allegedly the owner, comes over and tells us to move the tables to the configuration the hostess had suggested. The unfortunate waiter was caught in the middle but in way held responsible by the owner or hostess. We explained again that the 6 people on the wall side wouldn't be able to get up and out to go to and from the buffet. It's a buffet and people have to be able to get to and from their seats, right? He said that we were free to wait for alternate seating or leave but we would not be able to have the tables the way we suggested. Be mindful that everyone in our party was very calm and soft but this man and the hostess were aggressive, loud and rude immediately upon being challenged. We tried to explain that their behavior was uncalled for, which prompted the owner to "kick us out". This too was aggressive, loud and rude in front of other customers and completely unwarranted.

This is one of the most ridiculous interactions I've ever been involved in or seen from any service industry staff. I was shocked that the "owner" would act this way to customers and so publicly in front of other customers as well. Potential customers walking in while this was happening ended up leaving when they saw how the staff was treating us.

Don't waste your time or money on this establishment or their owner/staff. Give your business to a restaurant who actually wants it and not these...

This place has really gone down hill since covid. Prior to covid I used to go there every weekend for the crab legs; post I go infrequently for some Chinese food. After today's visit, I won’t be returning and I wont be recommending them to my employer for our Christmas dinner either. Claire has absolutely horrible customer service skills. She doesn’t seem to be aware that her job function is to serve customers, solve their problems, and make sure they have a GOOD experience. When a customer has an issue like over cooked shrimp, and ask a question, or makes a complaint she takes this as a personal attack and becomes combative, rude, and disrespectful; rather than seeking to solve the problem to the customers satisfaction in a manner that leaves them with a good feeling about the experience.

This was a to go order and what I thought was that, they gave me lo mein off the bar topped with meat off the bar because all the mean was really hard, especially the shrimp, like it had been sitting on that heated tray for a long time, which isn’t the way it has been in the past.

So I called her to report the problem. I asked if it came from off the bar. She said no and I told her what the issue was. She immediately took offense. She said something about me bringing it back and I said, Id rather you just take my name and replace it at another time as I didn't want to come back out. She began talking about just reimbursing me for the shrimp? Like really? How's that supposed work? Im supposed to partially enjoy the meal that I paid for? And how would the refund be carried out? Most vendor understand that your meal is not up to par and offer to replace it at another time.

I am the sort of person that will complain when I have paid money and there is problem, so this not first restaurant have had to deal with in this manner. What usually happens is the restaurant offers to replace the meal at another time free of charge and then I forget all about it because it's not like I'm taking notes - but I feel better about my hard earned dollars that I wasted even if I never go back for the replacement because I made my concerns known and they were properly addressed. Problem solved no beef between me and the vendor.

But not Claire - she argued until I finally just hung up hopped in the car and went back up there. Where she was anything but what you would expect from someone working in face to face customer service. She was rude, disrespectful, and her last words were basically something along the lines of if you dont like it dont...

My niece and myself went on 8/25/2020. I am handicapped and use a cane. The guy behind the register deliberately seated us the fartherest away from the buffett as possible to begin with. It was not busy and there were plenty of places closer that would still of provided the 6ft proximity allowance due to Covid (actually was seated within 3 ft of another customer). Then when we got the food 1. The crawfish (which I have eaten for 51 yrs now) were so hard you could not bite through it and have an extremely nasty taste. (There was absolutely no water in the pan they were in) I inquired to the same guy who seated us when they were going to put out some fresh ones and explained to him the issues with ones out now. He became extremely rude and yelled at me that they were fresh. 2. The butterfly shrimp were also hard so all you could eat of them was the very middle 3. The steamed dumpling was so hard on the outside that it literally sounded like a rock hitting my plate when I dropped it on it at the table. I attempted to eat the just the meat inside which I soon found out was a big mistake. Those were the only 3 thing I tried because of the "limited" buffett selections they have at the moment. Less than 45 minutes later both my niece and myself can down with food poison that I am just starting to recover from. If I could give Joy Wok a zero I would but it makes me give them 1 star. Also, there is no way to contact the corporate headquarters to...