C4.80 Cash-Only Chinese Restaurants

Cash-only policy at Chinese restaurants in the UK

An international student who was shouted at while dining at a Chinese restaurant in London sent me a private message, saying she was absolutely furious because the waiter was rude and even insulted her. In fact, I’ve eaten at this restaurant too—their service is really terrible. Their bad attitude has even made the news, and they’ve even chased away celebrities.

Why is their attitude so poor? I’ve heard it’s because the waiters’ salaries are very low. Another saying is that they deliberately use bad attitude as a gimmick to attract customers.

This restaurant basically provides no service—you could say the waiters are hostile. I wonder if after this restaurant became popular and turned into an internet-famous spot that many people want to try, the service attitude of many Chinese restaurants in London also started to decline. Taste is subjective, but I really don’t think their food is tasty at all—I find it quite unpalatable. It’s the kind of restaurant you’d never want to visit voluntarily a second time.

The cash-only policy seems to be an unspoken rule for overseas Chinese restaurants around the world. I think many people who have dined at them know this: when eating at a Chinese restaurant run by overseas Chinese, they will inform you (either at the door, the cash register, or verbally) that they only accept cash. What’s more, some Chinese restaurants only require cash from Chinese customers—if foreigners come to eat, they will readily take out the card machine. In terms of attitude, they are generally more friendly and obsequious towards foreigners, but colder and ruder to people with Chinese faces.

Why do they only accept cash? You know exactly what I mean—yes, the reason you’re thinking of. I won’t go into details here.

So if you can accept paying in cash for Chinese food, some Chinese restaurants are still acceptable