Shen's Szechuan & Sushi — Restaurant in Vandalia

TL;DR dead bugs in the food, piles of eaten food on tables. Service mediocre.

I have to have a REALLY bad experience to leave a bad review, so understand this is absolutely warranted. We had visited Shen's for the first time at the recommendation of my brother about a month ago. My fiance was so impressed he had already taken his friend who was in town from the Navy and then a few days ago he took his sister who was in from out of town. She had accidentally left an item there, so we figured we would go ahead and eat there again while picking it up since we aren't in Huber very often.

Service was slow, which wasn't that big of a deal. However, when our appetizer arrived (vegetarian pot stickers), my fiance and his sister ate one or two. However, upon further inspection, there was a dead insect laying directly on top of one of the pot stickers. It was not a "fresh" insect that had possibly just flown onto the food and died. It was a crunchy, winged bug of some sort that fell onto the food already deceased from a shelf or something in the kitchen. It really should have been apparent when looked at from an aerial view to kitchen staff or the server when he brought the plate.

When it was brought to the server's (Mike) attention, he just kind of had a blasé attitude about it. I think he probably apologized, but I'm honestly not sure.

My fiance and his sister were obviously grossed out but continued eating their entrees and soups. I, however, was no longer the slightest bit hungry as I felt like the possibility of other dead insects hidden in the soup and noodles was very high. So, my expensive dish was pretty much a total loss.

So, unfortunately, we thought we had found a new, nicer Chinese restaurant to frequent but I don't plan on going back, especially to take people from out of town. It was embarrassing. I also just don't feel like the staff cared all that much what kind of experience we had, as we weren't offered a sincere apology or anything to leave us with a feeling of good will aside from them rightfully taking the pot stickers off our $150+ check.

There was also a table directly in front of us that stayed dirty during the entire meal. Not just some plates or glasses, but full blown huge piles of half eaten rice and food just dumped directly on the table. It was like that when we arrived and stayed that way for well over an hour while we were there. So that was a beautiful view to have during my dead insect meal. No wonder you have bugs if unattended old food is just strewn about on the tables for hours.

Overall, a disappointing and disgusting, but expensive, second impression for me and a bad 5th experience (in a little over a month...)...

I’ve had multiple experiences at this establishment some great and some not so good. However the last was the worst dining experience I’ve ever had and why I’m writing a review. So, we had a table of 4. Ordered a couple sushi rolls, an appetizer, a round of drinks and 3 entrees.

First, the server didn’t ring in our food so we only received part of our order overall. The sushi was great but when he sat it down, he asked if we’d like chop sticks and soy sauce, to which we replied “yes please, thank you” he said okay and walked off. Normal stuff, no biggie. Until we didn’t see him again for AN HOUR. No joke. We waited and waited and even refilled our own water. Coming from the customer service industry we all understand patience when it’s busy but this was taken to the next level and really tested us. We finally saw the server again and he apologized. We are the sushi before receiving the soy or chop sticks so we were like okay no problem and we ordered another round of drinks. We thought okay cool, this is turning around -WRONG. He literally tried taking our drinks to another table 15 mins later. Then they told him it wasn’t theirs and he looked like oh yeah, I forgot them again. We ordered the exact same drinks except upon arrival the glass itself was literally 1/2 the size of the first. Next our food came out disgusting. Our entree was clearly sitting in the window forever as we were the forgotten table. You know when it’s crusty, super hot and like chewy chicken. Not to mention, we didn’t get our rice that was suppose to come with it.

To wrap this up, our dining experience took us 3 hours+ when it should have only been an hour-ish. When we complained (because enough was enough) The owner did NOTHING. In fact he took zero accountability and refused to be accommodating in the least. We simply asked for him to adjust our bill for the items we didn’t receive and adjust the price for the smaller drinks- no dice. Look we are good tippers, polite, and generally understanding. We were not looking for a hand out but do expect to not pay for something we didn’t receive. Clearly the owner cares more about his profit than customer service. We will not be back for a long time and if ever, likely carry out only. Sad because I used to love this...

This message is for the owner himself— And to those reading this review. First of all- our waiter was very nice. Good taste non sushi Food. Second of all— THE SUSHI(MEXICAN ROLL), and VOLCANO ROLL- WAS INDEED DISGUSTING. I ATE A PIECE OF THE MEXICAN ROLL, HALF OF A ROLL PIECE OF THE VOLCANO ROLL, AND B/C MY HUSBAND ATE ONE PIECE OFF OF THE MEXICAN ROLL TO CONFIRM THAT ROLL TASTED GROSS and ROTTEN FISH; THE OWNER CAME TO OUR TABLE TO TALK TO US AND LET US KNOW THAT HE WOULD BE CHARGING OUR WAITER FOR HAVING TO REQUEST SOMETHING ELSE INSTEAD, B/C THE ROLLS DID NOT TASTE GOOD. THE OWNER PUT US THROUGH A GUILT TRIP AND INSULTED OUR INTELLIGENCE BY ASKING US IF WE HAD EATEN SUSHI BEFORE AND WE HAVE ATE THERE BEFORE— UMMMMM YES WE HAVE! WE KNOW HOW- A WELL MADE SUSHI- IS SUPPOSED TO TASTE SPECIALLY WHEN THE MEXICAN ROLL ISNT SUPPOSED TO HAVE ANY FISH AND IS ONLY COMPOSED OF JALAPEÑOS, AND CREAM CHEESE. THIS TYPE OF ATTITUDE AND HORRIBLE CUSTOMER SERVICE FROM THE OWNER HIMSELF IS ABSOLUTELY DISRESPECTFUL, EMBARRASSING, OFFENSIVE. (OWNER- when do you stop and think, maybe the sushi is really bad and just have to accept the fact that YOUR sushi sucks and provide better service instead of blaming YOUR staff), NO WONDER YOUR STAFF CAN NOT STAND YOU AND MORE THAN ONE WAITER CAN NOT WORK WITH YOU. MOCK MY WORDS, THIS TYPE OF BEHAVIOR WILL NOT BE TOLERATED AND SHOULDN’T BE BY OTHER CUSTOMERS. YES THE NON SUSHI FOOD MIGHT BE GOOD, BUT THE OWNER HAS GOT TO CHANGE HIS ATTITUDE TO THE CUSTOMERS AND SPECIALLY TOWARDS HIS STAFF. IN TODAYS WORLD, PATRONIZING BUSINESSES LIKE THESE, ONLY MAKE THIS WORLD A WORSE PLACE TO LIVE IN. FOR THIS I COMPENSATED OUR WAITER WELL ENOUGH SO HE WOULDNT HAVE TO ENDURE ANY HARDSHIP ON HIS PAYCHECK B/C WE GOT OUR FOOD REPLACED DUE TO THE LACK OF SERVICE AND RESPECT THE OWNER HAS TOWARDS FOOD HE PUTS OUT TO CUSTOMER’S TABLES. FUTURE CUSTOMERS— PLEASE AVOID SUPPORTING THIS BUSINESS AND TAKE YOUR...