Shanghai Station and their Service Ethics?

How many of you are huge oriental cuisine fan? Well, it’s my comfort food, I could eat delicious Chinese cuisine any time of the day. My husband and I keep looking out for new restaurants to try and relish good food. Recently, not so new but we decided to try an existing restaurant based in the techno hub of Dubai. They seem to be popular there.

Shanghai Station is based at various locations and is quite highly rated in the market. We decided to try them out too. My husband and I visited the restaurant at Dubai Silicon Oasis a few days ago, when we went there they had two service staff at the counter… I believe we visited them at the peak hour hence we had to call out to them multiple times to get attention (there was no other customer at the counter…just the staff on respective calls).

Not being too picky and somehow did not take much time to decide, we gave our order and my husband happened to mention that we would be using the “Zomato pro” which is a membership. Additionally and thankfully we decided to pay before the chef could start preparing the order; however, the amount charged did not match up to the menu prices that we were offered. So, as we enquired the same with the staff at the billing counter who mentioned that the rates on the menu are old and they would be updating them soon. (Is this allowed??). They also had a display screen which had rates mentioned but they were same as the menu. No where were the new rates mentioned. BUT! the billing system (POS) had the new rates updated? When I asked him the same, there was no answer but a blunt reply that we have to pay another rate and not the one on the menu. Was this because we wanted to use an offer (the pro option)? Let me also share with my readers that it wasn’t much of a difference in price and it wasn’t about the money but ETHICS!

Many restaurants go through rate changes and tend to find another way to either share the new rates or mark new rates on the menu with a pen or pencil. However, this experience just did not seem right. I, with no intentions of creating a scene, decided to say thank you and what I got was an “OK”. Thus, the experience, the attitude, the interest in service just made us question the restaurants’ agenda.