Taste of ChengDu — Restaurant in Town of Hempstead

Massive Bait and Switch Operation

Restaurant should be avoided at all cost and extreme caution! This place have come up very creative new way of increasing average check without raising the cost of basic dishes. Been there for dinner in the middle of the week with family. Restaurant was empty. Food is ok but the waitress deceived us. We asked for water and brought to the table two bottles of VOSS. After taking the order both bottles miraculously have disappeared from table. Then after a while a man brings them out for us. We told chef that one bottle would be enough then waitress comes out saying" the bottles are open and I cant take it back as she cant sell it to someone else an open bottle " Then we said- we didn't open, who opened it? She said "it was hard to open that she had to take it to chef". Seriously?? WTH? First of all, she didnt even try to open in front of us. Secondly, it was not like a bottle of champaign or a bottle wine that she had to struggle or needed man power? She simply showed us the bottle then brought back tap water filled in VOSS charging $9 each bottle. She made $18 just from two water! After we were done with dinner we asked for a check we were billed for $100 for 3 dishes and two water!!!!!!! Maybe we were the only customers of the day so she decided to rip us off. She was young enough to open this simple water bottles. Even young child can open these bottles! We ordered Shrimp Low Main $12.93, House Rice Noodles $13.95 and she upgraded hot and sour soup into fish filet in peppercorn soup $26.95 which we couldn't eat as it was extremely salty. After she tipped herself all of these 3 dishes and 2 waters cost us $100. Also, after we paid one of our family members wanted to have an eggroll so we asked for two eggrolls ($6.50) to go. So, after just spent $100 this waitress would not yield $.50 a courtesy discount and made us break a large bill. I don’t normally do reviews at all but I wanted to look out for other families or the general public on the scam that is going on at this restaurant. No one goes to a Chinese restaurant with 3 dishes and 2 bottles of water for $100. I feel that we were targeted and the customer service was extremely poor because of this experience I can’t in good faith recommend eating at this establishment and further more I would hope that the Better Business Bureau investigate on behalf of the consumer for intentional price gouging and bait and switch scams. If you choose to eat here with your family, please protect yourself and witness your drinks opened in front of you as well as understanding the cost on the...

By far the worst restaurant experience I have ever had. Entering the restaurant we noticed there was a few people sitting as well as a party of 6 and entering was another group of maybe 10-15 people. We were seated and 10-15 mins later approached with a menu, shortly after we were given a cup of water and a drink. About 15 mins later the waitress took our order. We were then given another 2 cups of water despite us already having as well as a kettle with tea. But no empty cups for the tea. We kindly asked for cups in order to drink the tea. 20 mins later we got the Crab Ragoon, it was good but not worth the headache. Our Shrimp dumpling was okay but they must’ve forgotten the fried duck dumpings because it came long after the shrimp dumplings and it was COLD. It was served in the bamboo basket and even the basket was cold. At this point we haven’t ordered our main dishes; and frankly we weren’t even hungry anymore. We were full just of disappointment and frustration. We waited until we could get the attention from either the waitress or the 2 owners or managers and this took about an additional 20 mins. Within this time, the large party that came shortly after us got up and left. Someone from another table had to walk and find 1 of the 3 people to refill their water container which they directed him to the bar to wait for someone else to fill it. We watched them mix up the orders because they were serving them to the wrong tables. All this was so frustrating and honestly shocking to witness that by the time the waitress came back to check on us after taking our appetizer order, we declined for them to remake the fried duck dumplings and asked for the check. Even still, they were taking too long that we had to get up and go to her ourselves and pay. I do have sympathy for the waitress frankly she was the only person working other than the owners/managers. The owners/ managers to me seemed like they didn’t know what was going on, how to rectify any issues or even recognize issues before hand to make sure their customers have a decent experience. We debated taking the drive to queens to eat great food or to try this location and we should’ve taken that drive and I would recommend to anyone to do the same.

$30 later and we still got...

Worst service EVER. This was my mother’s first meal after being in the hospital for two weeks. We went to celebrate her first round of physical therapy next door and remembered how great this place was when we took family members years ago before the current owners. My how things have changed. We were pushed to pay cash before we ordered and offered free ice cream or peanuts if we did. We ordered egg drop soup and asked for crackers. She brought the soup and told us they were “frying the crackers”. After half way done with our room temperature soup she brings one bowl of cold clearly NOT RECENTLY fried crackers and duck sauce. She brings my mother a can of soda with no glass of ice. We get the shrimp fried rice and have to ask for the vegetable dish. We asked for Curry sauce and she said that’s not authentic and they no longer serve it. I asked about the size of the shrimp in the rice and she had an attitude explaining how we get 6 jumbo or 8 small. There was zero friendliness just a push to eat pay and LEAVE. When my mother asked about the problem she said they were busy but we got full attention when the bill came and we were attempting to pay online. It’s sad I read the nasty responses and zero accountability from management and even more sad because I ALWAYS tip 20% having been a server myself. Not this time. But they won’t have to worry about any of this if they don’t start acting nicer. Definitely felt race was a factor as we watched her dote and laugh with the white customers. Here’s a tip we heard the rude waitress mention she was in school for medicine. She was serving an experienced RN of 35 years. That could have been such a nice exchange. Instead of a lost customer and a bad review. You never know who you’re serving. Be nice...