Walking into a typical mid/low scale Asian Venue you are rarely greeted properly. Often times it is a mere eye contact motioning you to sit; while the staff plops a heavily stained sticky laminate menu on your partially wiped table. If you are new to the establishment you may consider it lucky to have pictures that may or may not fairly portray dishes on the menu; mostly to be disappointed that the picture is needed because you can not interact with the staff. Furthermore, communication lacks so much, up selling is non-existence. Suggestions of an appetizer, dessert and or special selection beverages, rarely occur; ironically this narrows the window for fattening the owner’s pockets. Shall we discuss bathrooms? Bathrooms could be a whole new blog…enough said.
It may seem I am simply bashing the Asian Theme Venues and may even sound racially motivated but spare me some more of your time and I hope to shed more light on the matter. You ask why go to Asian Theme restaurants when you find it so disturbing? I love Asian cuisine especially South East Asian ones. For the most part, no matter the venue budget of the restaurant, their dishes are typically very authentic and truly tasty. The motive of this blog lies in the service of these venues. Being South East Asian myself and find it quite disappointing and can not come to terms that service at these restaurants does not at all correlated to how most Asians Americans treat their guests in their homes. Let’s step aside for a bit and venture into the homes of most Asian Americans.
They are often polite, very hospitable and even if they come from the blue collar living on pay check to pay check, working class, they offer you at least a beverage and or fruit/snack. Entering their homes, taking off your shoes is customary, I am not suggesting that we need to do that at restaurant but the ideology of comfort, respect and cleanliness are exemplified. Even with a language barrier they make mild innocent attempts in relaying the message thank you for coming to visit and wish you well on your journey.
I have considered that these venues are often operated by a family that are extremely hard working and just recently made the Land of the Free, their home. The Father and the Mother are the Cooks, the Stockers, the Cleaner the Host and the Book-Keeper and when their children are out of school for the day, they help out. This happens daily from open till close.
I may have less support now after this blog but overall I like to challenge my Asian Restaurant Owners to take a look at their service and fairly scrutinized why they do what they do. Or more so why they choose to neglect the common courtesy they already exude when they are at their own homes. I challenge them to ask themselves, “Did I treat that customer like the person who I just let in my house?” Any business model would conclude; being sincere and receptive when serving your customer would yield most profitable. Given the analogy of residual income; one customer coming in once a week yields more profit than an unhappy large group/family coming in once. Lastly the modern dinning customer dines out for several reasons. I will go on a whim but the two most important ones are; find a dish that pleases their palate and to be kindly served.
My credentials as follows: Laotian born American, 1999-2001 on business trips to over 10 Major U.S. Cities, lasting one week at time, visited at least 2 Asian Theme Venues per visit. Lived in Chicago
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