Five Star Chinese Restaurant in Raleigh: Terrible Experience!

On Friday, September 23rd, 2005, I, along with seven of my friends, had the worst experience with restaurant management of my entire life.

Our reservation for 10 people at 8:45 pm was made with no difficulty. We arrived right at 8:45 with a party of eight, and were seated immediately...no waiting required.

Service was acceptable, food was decent...nothing great, but nothing that I would generally complain about. The issue arose with the way a manager reacted to a comment regarding the restaurant's policies.

After ordering, a member of our party noticed that the menu stated that checks will not be split up. Not a huge deal, but we did look at it as a minor inconvenience that would be dealt with at the end of our evening. Little did we know, but not only will they not split up the check, they won't even identify the meals on the bill! Our printout looked a little like this:

Food $10.95
Food $10.95
Food $12.75
Food $ 4.95
Liquor $12.00
Liquor $12.00
Beer $ 4.00

You get the picture...just expand it to include eight entrees, all of our appetizers, and more than one drink per person. When we were forced to ask our server for a menu in order to identify each couple's charges, the server confided to us that he understood what an inconvenience the policy is, and asked if we would like to speak with a manager to express our displeasure. I personally took him up on the offer.

When the manager finally approached the table, I made it very clear to him that our party was not asking him to change any policy for us that night. We were not asking him to split our bill into four checks, or to take any immediate action on our behalf. All I wanted was to voice my opinion of the no-split-checks policy, and ask him to pass this opinion on to the ownership for a future reconsideration of the policy. I wanted the management to know that we would not have chosen their restaurant with such a large group if we would have known about the policy in advance, and that as long as that policy is in place I would not return to the restaurant with more than one other person in the future.

This is the response that the young, male, Asian, spiky-haired manager gave me:

"I don't care if you ever come back. We had a two-hour wait tonight of other people who are willing to spend money here." (See note above regarding no waiting.)

"Sullivan's wouldn't have split your check." (Sorry, son, but Five Star is most certainly not Sullivan's. Not even close. Not to mention that the staff at Sullivan's are extremely professional and know how to treat their customers.)

"When I go out to eat with my friends, either one person picks up the tab or we would have split it evenly by eight." (Well, excuse me, Mr. High Roller, but 1. We were a group of young professionals trying to enjoy an evening out. I hope that someday I won't bat an eye at picking up a $300 check, but not this weekend...and 2. I am not going to ask my friends to split a bill evenly with me when my drinks cost $8 more than theirs.)

Again, I wasn't asking for anything. No, I am obviously not easy to please, but the standard "I understand your frustration, and will pass your opinion on to the powers that be" would have shut me up and put my butt back in a seat at Five Star someday. This manager has ensured that I will never step foot through that door again...and I will also make sure that all of my friends are aware of the situation.

Ironically, on our way to the car that night, we ran into three acquaintances who were actually on their way in to Five Star for dinner. We filled them in on the experience, and they kept walking...chose not to give them their business. Way to burn a bridge, Five Star.