Spice Spirit Chinese Cuisine and Bar 麻辣诱惑 — Restaurant in Mesa

The food is delicious, very nice flavors! However, one of the most unpleasant, frustrating, and humiliating dining experience I have ever gone through along with my family! This was our place to eat. We loved the food the atmosphere. The owner/manager was always very nice and cool to us. It's been about 5 years since we were treated poorly, and eversince we haven't set foot in the restaurant just out of sheer principle. It took me this long to write about this. On Lunar New Year evening, we wanted to celebrate here at the perfect spot, so we thought at least. The waitress showed up after 30+ minutes to take the orders. But that was only the beginning. We waited close to 2 hours for food to be brought out. Tables who arrived well after us got their food way before we did. After all that wait, they also got the wrong dish for my daughter. At some point, while we were still waiting on our food, a manager(not the one we knew) came to the table because previously, I walked up to someone to ask about our order. He was "informing" us that today is Chinese New Year...he said it with a tone/expression that we should have come on a regular day instead. He had a shocked/surprised face when I told him we came here precisely because it is the New Year and wanted to celebrate it. After all this and getting a wrong dish as well, we asked for more white rice because the pot they brought wasn't enough. Later, I saw they added that to our bill... well...seriously? After ALL we went through?? Anyway it is not about the rice but still... Im not sure if this makes a difference, however, I would like to provide some context, I'm gonna put it in here that we are not Chinese or even Asian. You can draw your own conclusions. Written down, it might not sound like a big deal for an outsider reading my story, but going through it was not something I would wish to happen to anyone. We came here to celebrate, have fun, eat good food we love, and have an experience. But what happened instead was a very messed up and humiliating treatment we have received. I'm sad that I will never taste their food again, but i have made my choice and sticking to...

As a chinese american, I must say: Don't be fooled by the cozy and well-furnished exterior. It is made out to look very high-class but the food is not what it seems. When we got in, the menus, seats, and atmosphere was great. It seemed like it was going to be pretty good. But, the four dishes we ordered all came in periodically. This meant that we were forced to wait about 8 minutes in between each dish was frustrating. *That's not even the worst part, there were two dishes that we ordered that was supposed to be chicken and pork. The bottom of both dishes were filled with peppers and made to seem a larger portion than it was. There was also no meat, pretty much just some hard, crusty breading on the outside. The title of the dish was literally: Zhi Ran Pork Loin - yet it had no pork, not even an ounce of it in the measley amount that they placed on top of the large amount of inedible peppers placed on the bottom. It was clear that they were trying to scam the most they could, and they were going to the extremes. Some places may put a lot of breading, but they still at least put a little bit of meat in it, this place HAD NONE.

When we asked the manager, he made many wild excuses about this being a fluke and instantly took the dish and its peppers back after removing the pork dish from our bill.

I am fairly certain that he took it back in so that he could reuse the peppers to cut back on the losses just by the way he was talking. You can tell the man was a sneaky and sly businessman.

AVOID this place if you can, there are much better authentic Chinese food restaurants that are much more honest...

The first time my gf and I went here, we experienced both phenomenal food and service. Upon returning last night, our experience was the polar opposite. Perhaps it was simply a busy night, but the wait staff was somewhat dismissive, and almost forgetful, of our table. Meanwhile, other diners received far more visits from wait staff, despite arriving at the restaurant after us. This second time around, the portions were less generous, the flavors were not as rich, and the chicken used in the Black Pepper Chicken Dish was incredibly small and tough. My gf ordered a merlot, but the taste was off/watery. On a redeeming note, the egg drop soup was delicious.

I am not usually one to leave a review, but frankly, I am appalled by the service, or lack-thereof, my gf and I received last night.

Maybe we just had a bad experience the second time around. As I previously mentioned, our first experience at this restaurant was highly different than the second, so I don't want to totally discredit this restaurant. Your experiences may be different than our...