This restaurant certainly cannot be accused of overdoing the menu.
A Chinese restaurant in Montreal is going viral for its “extremely honest” menu descriptions that are posted with each dish.
Earlier this week, Twitter user Kim Belair tweeted photos of some of Tia Dai’s menu descriptions, which were written by the restaurant’s owner.
“Tia Dai is my favorite Chinese restaurant in Montreal, but the real treat is the menu, with extremely honest comments from the owner,” Belair I wrote next to the photos.
The dishes that Belair included in his tweet were Orange Beef, which apparently isn’t “SO good” compared to the restaurant’s General Tao Chicken and the Sweet and Spicy Pork Strips, which the owner “is not a big fan of” because the version he ate when he went to university in China is different.
The tweet also showed the descriptions of the Satay meat sauce, which the owner “didn’t get a chance to try” when he wrote the description, and the Cumin Beef, which the owner said was “very tasty”.
Since Belair posted the tweet on Sunday, it has been retweeted more than 9,400 times and has enjoyed more than 66,500 times until it was posted on Friday.
Feigang Fei, the owner of the restaurant, told Today that online attention has attracted more customers to Tia Dai, starting Monday and Tuesday. After a radio interview on Wednesday, the restaurant “received a lot more” orders.
“It is very, very good for our business,” Fei told Today.
Fei said he started writing the descriptions because customers were not familiar with some of the traditional menu items and asked for things they ended up not wanting.
“The idea is to let people know what they are asking for,” he told Today. “Many people found it very funny [and] very useful. I was so encouraged by them. I thought I didn’t need to write comments for each item, but I was encouraged by them, their comments and feedbacks, so I finished them all. “
Ultimately, Fei said the restaurant wants to be “very honest, very truthful with us and our customers”.
“We don’t want them to arrive with high expectations and then feel disappointed,” said Fei. “We are not always the best food restaurant, but we try to do our best every day and satisfy our customers and not overdo it.”