Yeah Shanghai Deluxe — Restaurant in New York

It's impossible to overstate how horrible my experience here was. A misleading menu, shoddy service, rude management—this place has everything you don't want from a restaurant. And they apparently automatically add gratuity without any notice, which I find unethical. (I imagine they implemented this policy after realizing their customers weren't tipping. It's a shame they refuse to address the real problem(s) and instead opt to squeeze as much money as possible from patrons.)

Posted on the window next to the front door of New Shanghai Deluxe is a menu filled with meal options, a fair number of which are (seemingly) attractive lunch specials. But please, pay no attention to this menu; what you see is not what you get, because what you get depends on what they feel like offering. Specifically, if you're looking for a lunch special—after reading about lunch specials—don't.

To make matters worse, the food was subpar; I could have prepared a meal of higher quality in my kitchen and I generally stay away from making anything more complex than a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. I ordered Chicken Fried Rice—the waitress told me it was good, one of the best items on the menu, which now makes me pity the poor souls who order anything else--and I couldn't help but notice that the pieces of shredded chicken resembled, amazingly, mysteriously, little worms. (To be clear, the chicken was actual chicken--it was just shaped like little worms, which as you can imagine had a mitigating effect on my appetite.) The rice tasted funny, but if I catch some sort of bacteria that induces a violent bout of food poisoning, I'll at least have the comfort of knowing that what passes for decent food at this restaurant is being violently expelled from my body. That said, I'm feeling okay as of the time of this writing, so I'm sure everything met the mandatory health requirements.

But if poor service, subterfuge and a sorry meal aren't your thing, don't worry: New Shanghai Deluxe also serves complementary "tea", which tastes like nothing more than water brought to a near-boil served out of a teapot. If you're not in the mood for tea, you face a bit of a dilemma: you can pay two dollars for a bottle of water, or opt for a small glass of (presumably) tap water in which a few small, black flecks float lazily. An excess of manganese or iron, I imagine--harmless, but unsightly. I must add here though that the servers make it painfully obvious they don't enjoy pouring water for you, and so while you're analyzing the contents of the glass and wondering if it's safe to drink you'll have to ignore their glares.

As for atmosphere: this restaurant manages to pull off the difficult feat of being both too small and not small enough. What I mean here is that when you're sitting at your table, you can't help bumping elbows with nearly everyone else in the room, which seems impossible until you experience it. But at the same time, you can't help but wonder why they don't simply throw out some of the tables and chairs and shrink the size of the dining area to help the servers who can't seem to handle managing more than one or two...

Dined on 6/14/22 around 3:30pm

RUDE WAITRESS! TERRIBLE SERVICE!

My usual tip is 18-20% for good to even mediocre service. However, today was a day where I wanted to put my dignity aside and just be as stingy as I could to this particular female waitress. In the end, the four of us still dropped 12 bucks for a $90 check even though she deserved zero dollars. There was another waiter involved in the service so we tried to be reasonable. The tip came out to be about 13.5%. We originally came from NJ and were eagerly looking to eat at Bo Ky restaurant located across the street. We quickly found out that they were closed for some reason so we decided to try out THIS place. Big mistake! When we arrived, a female waitress begrudgingly led us to a table after a few minutes of waiting. She then threw menus at us like they were frisbees and as if our business was a burden to her. My wife wanted to leave right away but I said: "Let's just try the food...", as we were already there and very hungry. The restaurant was half full at the time and the 2 servers couldn't catch up with their tables as we saw uncleared plates and cups throughout the whole restaurant. The next red flag was when one table left and the waitress chased after them as if they didn't pay. Everybody in the restaurant watched through the big window as it became evident that the confrontation was over a gratuity issue. We waited almost 20mins before they came to take our order and took at least another 20 min for the first dish to come out. The food was not worth it... Also, here's an interaction with the waitress:

Us: Can we get some forks please? Her: Water? Us: No, forks please Her: Ok ok water coming Us: No! no miss! We said forks!!! 3 mins later..... Guess what she comes back with? Water...

After she got the point she angrily suggests, why didn't you just ask in Chinese? While the only Chinese person was on the phone.... But it didn't matter, how could she not have understood the word FORK?

After the unpleasant dine-in experience, we paid by cash and left the 13.5% tip as mentioned. She quickly came to collect the bill and review it before demanding that I had to give her a 15% tip. I told her I didn't have to do anything except pay for the bill and tip her accordingly to what she deserved. She agrily insists that it is mandatory to leave at least 15% for tip. Needless to say, I did no such thing and left with some more unpleasant words exchanged with her while everyone watched. What an embarrassment to the restaurant she was and what an embarrassment to Chinese people. This is why Asians are probably randomly attacked and hated on... Because of people like her that come to this country and give...

EXTREMELY RUDE HOST I stepped in the place to ask if they serve blue crab that day. The host said yes and started to type in an order and ask me to pay up front. I explained that I was going to eat in, not getting a take out. He got very upset and yelled at me, " Why didn't you tell me you are eat in ahead of time?!" I apologized (can you imagine?) and was shown the seat with an attitude from the host. Later, a waiter came over to me and we started to chat about the menu, suddenly the host came to my table and yelled at me again, "You can't order any more! You already ordered the crab up front!!!" OK, this was getting very unpleasant and I was only to have a meal, not being yelled at twice. But I decided it was not worth the fight. So I didn't say anything. Well, apparently, the host was not done with me yet. Couple minutes later, he started to complain to other waiters about me (since I was seated at the least desirable seat in the house, right next to the door, so I could hear everything.) "Can you believe it? She came in and didn't say she was eating in, not getting a taking out!!!" At the point, I lost it. I demanded loudly, "Sir, this is getting ridiculous. I would like speak to your manager!" All the waiters heard me, but everyone gave me a sympathetic look, but didn't say where the manager was. I was thinking of leaving the restaurant that at moment but thought this host might create a scene. So I waited. After 10 mins or so, an old man came out, didn't say a word to me but talked the host in a hushed tone. I asked if he was the manager and if I could tell him what just happened. He wasn't interested in listening to me, kinda of brush me off, saying "I am sorry, but I already spoke to the host. you can have your meal now." Really?! I quickly finished the meal and left. To be honest and not being subjective, the food was even not good. There are so many good Chinese food places in China town. DON'T go...