Chai Waii Chinese Food — Restaurant in Santee

I read the reviews- I knew what I was getting into

*Yes, the ladies BIG TIME upsell- worse than a department store slangin Visa Credit Cards during the holidays. *Yes, they scoff at your debit card and ask for Cash. (Honestly, if it's that big of a deal, they should be a cash only business)

Items Ordered: (1) Sampler Appetizer (1) Broccoli Beef Combo (1) Sweet & Sour Chicken Combo (2) Ice Waters

Sampler Appetizer: Cold cream cheese wontons, warm fried shrimp, lava egg rolls & pot stickers. Like way to scalding HOT. Also came with meal, not before. Broccoli Beef: Warm & Salty. Beef and veggies were fresh. The white rice was a few hours old. SS Chicken: Varying temperature. Some pieces were warm and tender, some were cold and tough. The sauce was very good. The white rice was a few hours old. Ice water: Ice Cold water with ice in styrofoam cups. It wet the whistle.

This will be my first and last food rodeo here. I 'might've try their boba tea at another point in time however, Santee does have other options...

I hate to say it because I really wanted some good Chinese food but I took about 3 bites and said no more. I am a huge foodie and in general will eat just about anything put in front of me within reason. And give the benefit of the doubt to places that may not be the absolute best or just had a bad day cooking something up. But this food was dry, flavorless, and had a strange aftertaste that I could not quite pin down that seriously made me question if it was safe to eat. Almost like it was cooked in dishes that had not been thoroughly rinsed. Like faint, musty dishwasher taste. Even without that strange aftertaste I cannot in good conscience recommend this place. I went here based on the 4.2 star rating without reading the reviews thoroughly and after my visit I went back and realised my experience falls in line with the other low star reviews as well. I honestly ended up tossing it in the trash and...

Very disappointing. I really feel cheated. While ordering several dishes, we were casually asked what kind of noodles we wanted for the Pad Thai dish, thick or thin. I said thick, my wife paid, we waited (for 20 minutes). Walking out, I asked, "BTW, what was the overall price?" It turned out we were charged $4 additional. I returned and asked why, she said because of the noodles. I asked why she hadn't mentioned that, she said she had, I said, no you didn't. It kinda went back and forth, and she said she'd reimburse us the full price if we returned the dish, which I did. What really got me that she kept blaming me for not knowing the exact price of some upgraded version of Pad Thai, and stayed unapologetic. Sorry to say, not the way to handle...