ARLINGTON, Va. -- Diners at renowned Chinese food chef Peter Chang's Arlington restaurant were shocked when they got their bill Saturday night.
It was not the price that made them do a double take, rather it was the words their server used to describe them. Words that were printed at the bottom of their $114 bill.
The men, who hail from the Richmond-area and asked that their names not be used in the story, were described in the bill as "im a plad [sic] a**hole" and "i have a small penis."
One man at the table told the Washington Post their dining experience got awkward when one of the men at the table questioned their server about the authenticity of the rice they were served.
One of the diners, who had lived in Beijing for much in the 2000s, was surprised by the rice presentation and made a comment to the server, saying "'Oh, you guys don't serve them in individual rice bowls?'," related another diner in the party, who asked to go by his first name, Matt.
The server told the group that when rice is served to three or more diners at Peter Chang, it comes in a large bowl. The former Beijing resident thought that was odd, considering the family-sized portion ran counter to the personalized bowls he encountered in China. The server then asked if the foursome would like individual rice bowls instead. They declined.
When the men later noticed the descriptive terms on their bill, they first spoke with the server and then the manager.
The men were eventually told the server entered that information into the system with the intent of deleting it before printing it out and giving it to them. That, of course, did not happen.
The men said they got the feeling the staff believed it was all a big joke. After some back and forth, the restaurant's manager eventually offered the men a $20 gift certificate to the restaurant.
An email sent to Peter Chang's Arlington has not yet been returned, however the restaurant's manager did respond to a Washington Post reporter.
If manager Qian Cheng wasn't deeply apologetic on Saturday, he was on Monday morning when reached for comment. He said that the servers had previously been warned before about leaving offensive comments in the system.
"They always do that. I've told them so many times," Cheng said. "And they did it again."
He's weighing whether someone needs to be fired over the incident, but in the meantime, Cheng said he has cut back the servers' hours. They will not work prime weekend shifts in the near future.
"I know it's not comfortable," Cheng said about the incident. "If somebody had given me the check, I [wouldn't] be comfortable."
