ARLINGTON, Va., May 10 (UPI) — Diners at a Chinese restaurant in Virginia said they were shocked to find a pair of lewd insults printed on their bill.
One of the Richmond-area diners, who asked to be identified only as Matt, said the female server at Peter Chang in Arlington appeared to become annoyed Saturday when another member of the party questioned whether the rice that had been served to them in a large bowl should have been brought out in individual bowls.
The diner, who used to live in Beijing, was told the large bowl was policy for a party of three or more at the restaurant. The men declined the server’s offer to bring them individual bowls.
“He said, ‘No, no, don’t worry about it. It’s fine. Just wanted to let you know that’s the way it’s done in China. It’s not a big deal.’ … It just got really awkward,” Matt told The Washington Post.
The situation got even more awkward when the men asked the server to split the check.
“That’s totally how they do it in China,” Matt quoted the server as saying sarcastically.
The server then brought out the bill and the men quickly noticed a pair of odd lines identifying two of the customers with the phrases “im a plad [expletive]” — a misspelled reference to the man’s plaid shirt — and “i have a small penis.”
The men spoke to the manager, who told them the servers had been having fun with the point of sale, or POS, system and forgot to delete their jokes before printing the receipt.
The manager offered the men a $20 gift card and an apology from the server that the customers said did not seem genuine.
“I would say they seemed slightly embarrassed,” Matt said. “It wasn’t like, ‘We’re so sorry. This is unprofessional. We mean to treat our customers better.’ It was more like, sorry-this-is-embarrassing-it-was-a-joke sorry.”
The manager, Qian Cheng, said Monday the incident Saturday was not the first offense by the servers.
“They always do that. I’ve told them so many times,” Cheng said. “And they did it again.”
Cheng said he hasn’t yet decided whether the servers involved will be fired, but he has reduced their hours.
“I know it’s not comfortable,” Cheng said. “If somebody had given me the check, I [wouldn’t] be comfortable.”
