imperial palace disappointment
Went to Imperial Palace for the first time today and while the food was good(though not as good as I had expected), I had a disappointment of another kind. My wife and I got there at about 12:15 and were given menus. The restaurant was fairly empty at that time. We ordered two dishes for a combined price of about thirty dollars. As more and more asian diners came in and sat nearby, we noticed that they all were given a different menu from the one we were given- it was a lunch menu, written in both Chinese and English, but where the prices were about one third of what they were on the dinner menu. When i tried to cancel my order and order off of the lunch menu, I was told it was too late, my food was already being prepared. We were the only non asians there and felt like we had been taken advantage of. Despite the food, it leaves a bad taste in one's mouth
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Pynchoff, I empathize and am so sorry you experienced this. It would royally piss me off, too.
To clarify: Were the dishes that you'd ordered not listed on the lunch menu at all? Or were they listed as a "lunch-sized" portion?
I've had similar things happen to me in the southern US, where I was the only Asian American dining in a restaurant, and abroad, where wait staff tagged me as a gullible foreigner, even when I spoke the local language fluently. It's frustrating and it's not fair. If I felt as though I'd been given the more expensive menu deliberately, I wouldn't be likely to go back, either, no matter how good the food.
Discrimination feels like sh*t in any form. I'm sorry you experienced it. Try not to pass it on.
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re: cimui
Thanks for your empathy, cimui. The dishes we ordered were on the lunch menu at half the price, but I didn't want to argue about the bill at that point. As a Jewish American who grew up in a working class Italian neighborhood, and as someone who has lived in many countries around the world, I too have experience my share of discrimination and yes, it does feel like sh*t. That's why I feel it's important to talk about it wherever it occurs.
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sorry you had that experience...thats too bad although now you know about the other menu
i find that alot of times chinese restaurants expect non-asian clientele to not want "authentic" food, so they'll have two menus or a menu of specials etc...its unfortunate, but its sort of the way alot of places work
i hope you'll give the place a second try for dinner as it is my favorite chinese restaurant in NY, i've documented some of my trips in this link: http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/5436...
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Miss Needle
Mar 29, 2009 12:05 PM
Sorry you had to experience that. I haven't been to Imperial Palace but have only heard good things about the food. The same exact thing has happened to me before at Amazing 66 (except that I didn't ask them to cancel my order), and I'm Asian. So I don't think it was necessarily a race thing. I just think you need to specify as soon as you walk in that you want the lunch menu. I just chalked it up to a lesson learned, and specifically asked for the lunch menu the next time I was at Amazing 66. But it's good to know that there's a separate lunch menu at Imperial Palace so I know for future reference.
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re: Miss Needle
I brought some friends to Imperial Palace after they found the Golden Mall a bit much (their loss and an eye opener for me) and I had to take a lunch menu from another table. It was an insanely busy friday which might have accounted for it. The lunch menu is very much cheaper and has many of the great casseroles.
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re: pynchoff
Miss Needle
Mar 29, 2009 03:49 PM
Well, one would think a restaurant would do that. But based on my experience at Amazing 66, not all of them apparently do. So from my perspective, there are two options. First one is to never go back because you're pissed off that they didn't give you a lunch menu. Second is to go and ask for the lunch menu next time you're there. I enjoyed the food at Amazing 66 during that lunch and several previous dinners enough to the point that I wasn't going to write it off from my initial lunch experience.
I, for one, am grateful that you posted about your experience. So for future IP lunch patrons (Asian and non-Asian): just ask for the lunch menu!
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