Last night I took a group of friends and have never been so embarrassed! The service was so unbelievably rude I was incensed!
We were hassled every minute and a half as to whether we wanted to order a bottle of wine, then interrogated as to why not! As soon as we got back to our conversation they would hassle us again and interrupt, tutting and puffing when we ‘only’ ordered beers and soft drinks! When we had had one sip of our beers we were hassled as to whether we wanted another round of beers! We had to ask them to stop hassling us and leave us alone! – not what you want when trying to have a get together with friends.
But the nadir of the evening was when one of my guests ordered a coca cola! The waiter interrogated him why he wasn't drinking alcohol when the girls were – “What is wrong with you? Are you a ‘Lady Man’?”!!! I was mortified and my table were horrified. He is a muslim and he doesn't drink.
Frankly we shouldn't have left any tip at all, but we left about two thirds of the discretionary amount they added to the bill as it was a busy night. The waiter then angrily complained that we hadn't left the full bill amount, and it had to be pointed out to him that not only had we left the full amount for the food we had also left a tip, although the amount was discretionary. I should have said that he was lucky to get anything at all after the appalling service, but we just left, our night having been considerably ruined.
I am really sad to report this as I have always thought Haozhan was great. But I am seriously thinking that I need to vote with my feet on this one. I'm really disappointed that on the back of all their success, the staff no longer feel that their customers deserve any respect, seeing them only as a cash cow, and who can be bullied into buying things they don't want, and their choices insulted. Appalling.