Yuan Fu Vegetarian — Restaurant in Rockville

This wasn't our first time going there. This place benefits from not having much competition. I really hope this changes. It was the service that sealed the coffin for me on this place.

On Sunday my brother, our friend and I decided to come here to eat. We had barely sat down, finished saying our hellos and opened our menus when the waitress came and asked us if we were ready to order. I said, "No, sorry we'll need a few minutes." 5 minutes later we decided what we all wanted and closed our menus as the sign that we were ready. There were a total of three tables at that hour. And we proceed to wait, and wait. Eventually we had to start doing the awkward eye contact thing to get the waitress' attention.

I discovered a fly in my water. It wasn't a big deal I decided to just order tea. The waitress asked me how many people and I was a little confused. As many Chinese places they serve pots of tea so I said one. And so I got a pot of tea and one cup. It made no sense to me since I was ordering the pot of tea not how many cups. This was probably the first Chinese place I've been to in this area that was too stingy to just set up cups for each person.

Our food arrived to the repeated question of, "Where do you want it?" I kept just saying, "Anywhere on the table". It seemed obvious; they're shared entrees so just put it on the table and stop cutting off our conversation every time you deliver a dish. But it was fine i just went with it. They were determined to keep as few dishes out as possible. We had a dish with one portion left, the waiter picked it up, said ,"One piece left take it." And we had to just snag it before the dish was taken. They wanted to get us in and out as fast as possible and they made no effort to hide it.

We didn't ask for the check. About 20 minutes after food arrived the waitress came and gave us the check. By gave I meant she handed it directly to my friend though I had insisted repeatedly I was going to pay. It was supposed to be my treat since he would be leaving the area soon. But since she handed it to him he wasn't going to give it up. So my brother and I heckled him the whole time while he paid it.

Then the waitress comes back and says to my friend, "The total was 58 dollars." We were, again, confused about her point. He said, "Yes?" She then added ,"On your receipt you wrote 64." We were all just glancing at each other to see if any of us could see what her point was. We couldn't. I said, "What?" And she then clarified, "Usually our customers tip at least 15%."

I was appalled. It was genuinely not intentional that it wasn't 15% and it didn't help that my brother and I were interrupting my friend while he was trying to write the total. But that isn't the issue. The issue is this waitress' utter lack of etiquette and hospitality that seems to have justified her coming back and pointing out her displeasure with the tip to my friend in front of HIS friends as well as the rest of the restaurant. He felt awful long after we left. This was the first time in all of my years of dining out that I have ever, ever experienced this. It was an honest error, but after that, the rest of the mediocre service issues just welled up inside me and it was everything I could do to not snap back and say ,"That's because your service isn't 15%." Instead, I fished out three dollars, put it on the table and we left. I have no intention of going back there ever again.

If you expect a specific tip percentage, put it in the check. The fact is the food here is already quite expensive. If they put the expected 15% on top, the price tag would probably deter people and so they don't want to do that. But if you don't want to just charge people upfront for your service then you have no right to humiliate your customers about it afterwards. Pick one. Bite the bullet and write out the tip percentages and amounts you encourage, or include it in the total, or deal with it. But if you want to be petty over a few dollars, there are a hundred other places out there...

Edited: I realize they had our food ready in 20 minutes on such a busy night because they weren't cooking anything to order. They were just putting food in boxes as orders came in. And not much at that. Photo 1: Peking Duck comparison. Photo 2: 1 piece of the G.T. Chicken on 10 1/2" plate. Love that it's vegan, don't love all of the food. So I'm vegetarian and love restaurants that have vegetarian and vegan options - especially all options. And the reviews here were amazing. So, we decided to try it. First it was me and my husband. Takeout. Very fast having the order ready, I'll say. (20 min, no lie). We had as appetizers the Roast Duck and the Crispy Black Mushrooms. The Mushrooms are literally amazing. One of the best appetizers I've had. I'll probably order just that in the future, have with rice at home. Or on a sandwich. Delicious. The Roast Duck was okay, but not as good as other tofu skin dishes I've had, so maybe I'd give that a 4. A good deal for the price, though, for sure. For entrees we had orange chicken and veggie duck with chinese broccoli. The orange chicken was okay, but really soft when it seemed it should have been crispy fried. The veggie duck was also okay, but not great. I liked it enough to try it again Christmas Eve. To be fair, they were packed - packed. I had to call like 15 times to get through for takeout. So that might affect this. The Taro Balls were okay, crispy-ish on the outside, kind of sweet, and like mashed potatoes on the inside. Not terrible, not my favorite. The Fried Black Mushrooms, again, were excellent. (Smaller portions this time though, so maybe due to the holiday?) We ordered as entrees: Peking Duck - on the website, in the picture, there is a side bowl of (spring onion?) - we got that in a side container. There is also a layout of bacony-looking thing (on lettuce), something sliced and yellow in the middle, and something else sliced and fanned out like a lotus flower. Our container contained: the "duck", and pancakes, with a side of sauce and a side of ?green onions? So two things in the photo were blatantly missing from our dish. That to me is a misrepresentation. Huge points off for that. What we got was good, but it definitely felt incomplete - duck piece, bit of onion, sauce, wrapped up ... if there's more, I don't know, I can't recommend what we had. Moo Shi Pork - this came in a cardboard container with sauce, and rolled-up (not folded) pancakes. The pancakes had all stuck together, so two tore and were useless on eating. But the flavor of this entree was the best by far, and I'd recommend this if you go. Maybe ask for the pancakes folded like they were with the Peking Duck? Kung Pao Chicken - Okay. Not very flavorful, the chicken was odd (I love me some fake meat, this was not great soy-based meat texture), and not very many vegetables. Again, maybe shorted due to the holiday rush? I don't know. Not recommended. General Tso's Chicken - This was the biggest disappointment. I've had a vegetarian GTC at a place in Chinatown in DC that is amazing. Like, fried, crispy "chicken", delicious sauce, broccoli, ... soo good I dream of it. This was 6 huge (HUGE) chunks of "chicken" - no crispyness at all. It was like it was coated in a wet cornstarch goo ... and it was 10 minutes drive home, so 10 minutes between picking up and opening. And the pieces were giant, unlike the small crispy bits you normally get (with chicken or tofu). It was, quite, frankly, gross (even though it was the one I had highest expectations for, being my fave). Also I asked for extra spicy and it wasn't spicy at all. Lastly, twice now, the rice (white first time, brown this time in case that was the issue) was overcooked. Mushy, not individual grains of rice at all. If all the other food had been awesome, I'd have given 5 stars and said just cook rice at home, it's worth it. But, unfortunately, totally not. Sadly, we won't be back, but I feel I gave it my best shot. I really really wanted to love this place like the reviews made me...

AVOID THIS RESTAURANT! Had lunch here and wasn’t impressed. The food was mediocre at best. It was too greasy and the mock meat wasn’t good. I’m vegan and I’ve had mock meat that’s cooked really nicely and you can’t even tell the difference. This place, not the case, not even close. One of the dishes had an unusual taste, the other consisted of huge blocks of soy presumably which were slathered in sauce. The meal wasn’t cheap, about $46 for two for lunch. Despite the mediocrity of the meal, I still left a tip, although not as much as I normally would because the food wasn’t good. The waitress (believe she was the owner or owner’s wife), kept hovering over the table until I signed the receipt. When I did, she picked it up, started walking away and then stopped and started closely examining the receipt like there was a mistake. She shook her head back and forth in wide motions until she reached the counter in the back where she started talking with another worker. She pointed at the receipt, shook her head in disgust, and spoke loudly about her apparent misfortune. I walked up and asked if something was wrong. She told me I didn’t leave a big enough tip. What I wish I had done was crossed out the tip and wrote zero, but I didn’t. I was shocked so I just turned away and walked out in disgust. Terrible service even after tipping on a mediocre meal. What type of place does that? AVOID...