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A Chinese restaurant in Montreal went viral for its descriptions of dishes on its menu.
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Feigang Fei’s comments on the Tia Dai restaurant menu are terribly honest – and very entertaining.
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“Compared to our General Tao Chicken, this one isn’t SO good,” wrote Fei of the orange chicken. “Anyway, I’m not a big fan of American Chinese food and you decide.”
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Writer Kim Belair tweeted screengrabs from the menu, and it has been retweeted over 71,000 times.
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Fei told Insider that he and Belair “are likely to become best friends”.
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Visit the Insider home page for more stories.
While many restaurants try to seduce customers with exaggerated descriptions of their food, a restaurant owner has taken a distinctly different approach, reducing customers’ expectations.
The Chinese restaurant Tia Dai in Montreal, Canada, was recently viral for descriptions of dishes by the owner Feigang Fei on the website.
Highlights of the menu, which features authentic Chinese and North American dishes, include:
“Compared to our General Tao Chicken, this one isn’t SO good,” says Fei’s comment about Aunt Dai’s orange chicken. “Anyway, I’m not a big fan of American Chinese food and you decide.”
“This one is NOT authentic Chinese food,” says the description of the shrimp with black pepper.
For sweet and spicy pork strips, Feigang wrote: “As I have so many expectations for this dish, I’m not a big fan of our version, to be honest.”
“This dish is very well known and we are not 100% satisfied with the taste now and it will improve very soon,” wrote Fei of “mouth-watering chicken”.
He continued, “PS I’m surprised that some customers still order this dish. In my opinion, our Chicken Salad with Sichuan Pepper is better than this one.”
The fun menu went viral after writer Kim Belair tweeted some screengrabs.
His tweet was retweeted over 71,000 times, with many people expressing their love for Fei’s comments.
The restaurant owner told Insider that he decided to add the descriptions about five years ago, having opened Tia Dai in February 2014.
“At the beginning, most of the food on our menu was authentic, traditional Chinese and, by the name, many customers were surprised that the dishes were too spicy, too greasy or bony, so don’t touch the plate and it was a waste total, “said Fei.
And it was then that he had the idea to add descriptions to the online menu. Fei started with 5-10 items, but his customers found them so useful that he wrote more.
Fei took a step further, creating videos of each dish and posting them on YouTube, so that customers could see the food before ordering.
The restaurant was open for takeout during the pandemic, according to government guidelines (except on Christmas Day), but Fei did not expect his menu to go viral.
Only when he was contacted by a German journalist did he hear about Belair’s tweet, and Fei didn’t believe it until he saw it for himself. “I thought it was a joke,” he said.
Aunt Dai has had media coverage all over the world, and Fei and Belair have become friends. The two exchanged phone numbers and chatted after Fei’s “crazy week”.
“It was very good,” said Fei. “All articles mention Kim and me, so we’ll be tied up forever. We will probably become best friends.”
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Read the original article on Insider