A Chinese restaurant has gone viral for its searingly honest dish descriptions: 'This one is not that good'
- A Chinese restaurant in Montreal has gone viral for its descriptions of dishes on its menu.
- Feigang Fei's comments on Aunt Dai restaurant's menu are searingly honest — and very amusing.
- "Comparing to our General Tao Chicken, this one is not THAT good," Fei wrote of the orange chicken. "Anyway, I am not big fan of North American Chinese food and it's your call."
- Writer Kim Belair tweeted screengrabs of the menu, and it's been retweeted over 71,000 times.
- Fei told Insider he and Belair are "probably going to become best friends."
While many restaurants try and entice diners with overstated descriptions of their food, one restaurant owner has taken a distinctly different approach by lowering customers' expectations.
Aunt Dai Chinese restaurant in Montreal, Canada, recently went viral for owner Feigang Fei's dish descriptions on the website.
Highlights of the menu, which features both authentic and North American Chinese dishes, include:
"Comparing to our General Tao Chicken, this one is not THAT good," Fei's comment on Aunt Dai's orange chicken reads. "Anyway, I am not big fan of North American Chinese food and it's your call."
"This one is NOT authentic Chinese food," reads the description of black pepper shrimp.
For the sweet and spicy pork strips, Feigang wrote: "Since I have so high expectation on this dish, I am not a huge fan for our version to be honest."
"This dish is very well-known and we are not 100% satisfied with the flavor now and it will get better really soon," Fei wrote of the "mouth-watering chicken."
He continued: "P.S. I am surprised that some customers still order this plate. In my opinion, our Sichuan Pepper Chicken Salad is better than this one."
The amusing menu went viral after writer Kim Belair tweeted some screengrabs.
Her tweet has been retweeted over 71,000 times, with many people expressing their love of Fei's comments.
The restaurant owner told Insider he decided to add the descriptions about five years ago, having opened Aunt Dai in February 2014.
"At the beginning, a lot of the food on our menu was authentic, traditional Chinese, and from the names, a lot of the customers were surprised that the dishes were too spicy, too greasy, or having bones, so they didn't touch the dish and it was a total waste," Fei said.
And that's when he came up with the idea of adding descriptions to the menu online. Fei started with 5-10 items, but his customers found them so helpful that he wrote more.
Fei then took things one step further by creating videos of each dish and posting them on YouTube, so customers could see the food before ordering.
The restaurant has been open for take-out throughout the pandemic in accordance with government guidelines (except for Christmas Day), but Fei wasn't expecting his menu to go viral.
It wasn't until he was contacted by a German journalist that he was even aware of Belair's tweet, and Fei didn't believe it until he saw it himself. "I thought it was a joke," he said.
Aunt Dai has now had media coverage around the world, and Fei and Belair have struck up a friendship. The two of them exchanged phone numbers and had a chat after Fei's "crazy week."
"It was really great," Fei said. "All the articles mention Kim and I, so we're going to be tied forever. We're probably going to become best friends."
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