What???
As soon as these words came out, everyone at the table was stunned.
Did the manager mean that they came here for a team-building dinner and casually shot some footage just to smear them?
Ye Shu could not help but laugh and said to him, "Excuse me, but you think too highly of yourself! What kind of status and level do you think our Director Xu has? Would she really resort to such tactics to smear a restaurant that has absolutely nothing to do with us?"
"Besides, if your food is truly good, would you be afraid of people smearing you?"
"Exactly!"
The rest of the team chimed in, "We live in a society governed by law. If we really dared to engage in malicious competition, you could absolutely sue us!"
"Such a large restaurant, and you lack even this bit of confidence?"
Xu Yanxia smiled as well and told him, "To tell you the truth, we came here today purely out of admiration for your restaurant's reputation. But after tasting the food, honestly, we were quite disappointed. To save your face, we asked your staff to step out so we could discuss the cooking among ourselves."
"It was supposed to be a private discussion to improve our professional skills, and we had absolutely no intention of publishing it. But since you think that way, you might as well stay and listen to see if we are smearing you or simply stating objective facts."
She then deliberately added, "Do you want to call your kitchen staff over as well?"
Unexpectedly, the manager replied, "It is peak hours right now, and our kitchen staff are very busy. You can speak directly to me. I will listen right here."
"Alright then."
Seeing that the other party was gradually revealing his true colors, Xu Yanxia dropped her smile and said to Ye Shu, "Record this."
"I am filming, do not worry."
Ye Shu gave her an OK hand gesture.
Xu Yanxia turned back to the manager, "Of course, you can record this too. If anything I say today carries the suspicion of malicious competition, I am fully prepared to take legal responsibility."
She had originally wanted to let her grandfather speak, but he was a gentle person and getting on in years, making him unsuited for a direct confrontation with these people. She would just do it herself!
"First of all, the first dish, the crystal pork knuckle, was not up to standard. It tastes greasy, which is a major taboo for this dish. This is because your chef was lazy and did not remove the fat properly during the stewing stage, so it had to rely entirely on mashed garlic to cut the grease. You can barely eat a few slices on their own."
"The knife work on the sliced sea conch was fine, but it was blanched for too long. The texture became tough, making it impossible for anyone with slightly weak teeth to chew."
"For the dry-fried meatballs, the menu states they are made from black pig foreleg meat, but the meat aroma clearly did not meet the standard. You might want to ask your supplier what is going on."
"The Furong chicken slices missed a dash of Sichuan peppercorn oil before being plated, so it tasted completely unremarkable and lacked any lingering aroma."
"The scallion-braised sea cucumber tasted alright. The scallions were fried, and it was simmered in broth, absorbing the flavors well. However, the ingredients were not up to standard. At this price point in other high-end restaurants in the country, they use wild sea cucumbers that are at least seven years old. Judging by the thickness and elasticity of the meat, yours is clearly farmed, and no more than three years old."
"The Nine-Turn Large Intestine requires a balance of five flavors. Yours was overly sweet and lacked acidity, making it too cloying to eat. Moreover, the preliminary steps were poorly executed; the intestines still had an offal smell, which is the critical point of failure."
Spinning the lazy Susan, she pointed at the three most outrageous dishes, the dry-braised prawns, the scallion-exploded mutton, and the Zaoliu Sanbai, and said, "These prawns, are they dry-braised, oil-braised, or cooked in tomato sauce? You can ask your chef, and it would be best to give your customers a definitive answer."
"The scallion-exploded mutton was actually done quite well, so why did you add cumin at the end? Does that not just make it cumin mutton?"
"And this Zaoliu Sanbai. Could you answer me, what are the most fundamental requirements for Zaoliu Sanbai?"
As her voice fell, the manager and the waiter in front of her paused, neither able to speak immediately.
She gave a cold laugh and said, "The most basic elements of this dish are the wine lees aroma and a tender, smooth texture. You can taste for yourself how tough these chicken slices are. The bamboo shoots are canned. Only the fish meat was decent, but the heat on the lees sauce was too high, making it bitter."
She showed mercy and stopped there for the time being.
Looking up at him again, she said, "The above is my review. Whenever your kitchen staff has free time, you can show it to them and see if I am right. You can also post it online and let the netizens judge whether what I said makes sense."
"Jingbei is so big, and you are not the only Shandong cuisine restaurant here. Besides you and me, there will always be other experts who can uphold justice. If you think we are smearing you or engaging in malicious competition, you can always file for legal proceedings once I publish this video."
With a polite smile but no warmth in her eyes, she asked, "How about it? Are you satisfied?"
The young waiter was already panicking and hurriedly looked at the manager.
The veteran manager, however, paused for a moment before smiling at her again and saying, "As the saying goes, beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and when it comes to taste, a hundred people have a hundred different palates. We are very sorry that today's dishes did not suit your tastes. How about this?"
"If you delete today's video, we will waive your bill. In addition, we will give you a supreme VIP card. From now on, whenever you visit our restaurant, you can enjoy the privilege of skipping the line and having your dishes served first."
Heh.
This time, Xu Yanxia did not even need to speak; everyone laughed.
Suisui said in her dialect, "It tastes so terrible, eating here once is enough. What is the point of giving us a VIP card? Who would ever come back for a second time!"
Exactly, right?
Xu Yanxia was also amused by Suisui. She turned to the manager and said, "We are not here to take advantage of you. We can afford to pay the bill, and we do not need any VIP card. Let us just leave it at that."
Then she called out to everyone, "It seems we cannot continue eating here today. How about we change to another place?"
"Sure."
Everyone grabbed their phones and bags, ready to leave the table.
The manager then said to Xu Yanxia, "It seems Miss Xu is dead set on not giving us face? Then we will not force you."
"However, we hope you know that our Decuilou is a restaurant listed on the famous domestic food review rankings. Every dish we serve today is made according to the techniques passed down from our founding master, Old Mr. Bao. With so many customers every day, it is not like our food is bad just because a peer like you says it is, right?"
Xu Yanxia replied, "If you have something to say, just say it directly."
The other party smiled again and said, "I heard that the company Miss Xu works for recently has plans to cooperate with Meyer from Germany. To be honest with you, we are also one of their candidate partners. You should not smear us like this just because of our mutual competition, right?"
"If you insist on not deleting the video, we might have to get our company's legal department involved. Even though you have the Lu Group backing you, our Yayan Group might not claim to be number one in the country, but you would be hard-pressed to find many above us. If this really gets blown out of proportion, things might not end well for you."
"It would be a shame if it ended up affecting your promising marriage."
Oh, so they were resorting to threats now?
Everyone exchanged glances, finding the person absolutely ridiculous.
"It seems this restaurant is beyond saving. Let's go."
Ye Shu called out to the group.
"That's right, let's go."
The friends supported Grandpa Xu and Grandma Xu, leaving the private room together with Xu Yanxia.
...
Since they hadn't eaten well earlier and it was still early, Xu Yanxia and her friends found a mutton hotpot restaurant after leaving Decui Pavilion.
Fortunately, this place wasn't a disappointment. The quality of the mutton was excellent. Dipped in Jingbei's signature sesame sauce, everyone finally ate to their heart's content.
Because they had to record a program tomorrow, to save time, Xu Yanxia escorted her grandparents and aunt back to Aunt Xiaohua's clubhouse before heading to the hotel where the production team was staying.
It was getting late. After taking a shower, she had just stepped out of the bathroom when a video call from Lu Jingming came through.
She answered with a smile. Before she could even speak, she saw him looking anxious on the other end, asking, "Baby, are you guys okay? That restaurant didn't do anything to you tonight, did they?"
Hmm?
Xu Yanxia found it a bit strange and asked him, "I was planning to tell you tonight. How did you find out first?"
Her husband, Lu Jingming, frowned and said, "That investment company called Yayan or whatever called us over here."
