Can anyone explain what's going on at City Diner?
I normally don't take to airing dirty laundry from the City Weekend website about bars, restaurants or clubs. But ever since the new homepage launched, it's been too easy to see what's going on in Shanghai. Scanning the news feed, I saw another review of City Diner - it's been reviewed eight times already, w/ the majority of the reviews on the, uh, negative side. I normally spend most my time in Beijing, where we still don't have a 24hr diner. We all used to rave about City Diner. (Hell, I can still remember when a former CW editor, Megan Shank, happily recommended the Dad's Steak Sandwich at City Diner.) Oh how times have changed, according to the CW website.
Take a look at an excerpt from the latest review by user, p0ck. It's frightening.
"It started by one waiter having a heated argument with this group of people. Then one of the people from the group pushed the waiter away and started asking his friends to leave the restaurant. They tried to leave. But before I knew what happened, all the waiters were all out and the fight broke out. It was not only waiters who attended to the customers, also the cooks from the kitchen, and what's worst of all is that the manager joined. ...I wouldn't want to know what happened, but i sure will think twice to go back there. What if one day, I'm having too much to drink and acted kinda rude, will they beat me up too???"
I haven't spoken with an editor about researching the fight at City Diner and I'm sure the management has their version, but whatever the cause, reportedly, there was "blood on the stairs". City Diner (Tongren) had a lot of promise when it kicked off and still could so, but this is the last kind of promotion any restaurant should want. We hope that this latest incident hopefully caps off a string of bad reviews at City Diner. We'll see. But just like p0ck, we want to know what happened.
Follow up: After posting online, this article generated a heated response from the community. All the comments are below, including a response from City Diner. (It's okay to voice your opinion and CW encourages it, however, please be careful to follow the CW comment policy when posting. Thank you.)
Comments Add a public comment
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So far this is the worst restaurant I've ever been to. The service definitely a big NO NO. My friends were beaten up badly on new year's eve by THE WAITERS. What kind of restaurant allows its waiters to beat up customers???? Four of my friends bled badly and admitted to the hospital at that night. This restaurant had turned our new year's eve into a nightmare. For people who are considering to go to city diner, I suggest them NOT TO.
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I went to City Diner few days ago...as soon as I went in, I saw a fight. Waiters & plp from the kitchen were fighting.... hitting the customers. There were blood & broken glasses everywhere... Then I saw one of waiter was hitting an customer & saying The owner of this place is a SH MAFIA!!!
If I complain about their food or service, im sure the staff will make me leave the place with my nose busted & bleeding
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Should i say, the biggest THANKS for city diner for ruining my 1st NY breakfast? (Extremely sarcastic on above statement)
The night was fantastic at BR. Champagne, the view, fireworks and mostly i was compelled by the waiters service even though bunch of boozed up gents were pushy & being retard. But hey it’s NY who gives a flock of those intoxicated night crawler, that’s what you get for undertaking nightlife jobs.
After party me and 2 guests from France decided to fill our starving crave for snacks, since we passed the road we made an emergency stop at city diner without knowing chaos would exploded.
Was at dawn when a group of Asian men and women thumping the stairs and boisterous laughter echoed across the hall. They were seated in the den opposite the stairs (we were seated on the outside near the stairs with a slight angle viewable).
An argument broke out between them and a few Westerners. After blowing off their steam they all calmed down and began to sit. While a pack of them moving around and trying to sit their dumb drunk asses, a glass flew of the table & shattered on the floor. This is where actually the madness unleashes upon the customers.
A waiter about 5.1 feet, crew cut hairstyle, and rigged facial expression hopped in the scene pushing and shouting to all of them (as if the glass was Riedel Sommeliers). An Asian man rebelled and thrust the waiter into the corner. As the group about to go home and walked off, the waiter rushed from back and threw a punch onto his head. More waiters came to help gang on a few of them. 3 guys were dragged into the washroom, 4 waiters and 2 chefs on rampaged. Unimaginable 2 freaking chefs from kitchen also beating up the 3 ambushed customers (chefs who made us the hamburgers & fries). Even a one eyed man could see that, a chef going inside the toilet carried a fire extinguisher and swinging to the 3 ambushed tipsy men. That is what happened on the hallway to the toilet, can’t imagine while they were trapped inside. All we could hear was just commotion, roar of help and women crying and shouting from inside the toilet. Some of the friends from the group stopped the harassment and rescued the 3 guys. They walked off carried by their friends with cuts, bumps, and blood on their faces on the other hand those hooligans’ waiters and chefs proudly walk away without the slightest guilt.
My own personal feeling and I’m guessing most of the other people in city diner that night felt the same way as I do, frustration, anger, disappointment, anxiety, and stressed on the first breakfast of the year 2008. Read the comment from others, it mentioned about “MAFIA”, by experienced that night, I’m not surprise if it is owned by “them”.
How many of us seen people being silly when they are tipsy, gazillion time How many of us seen bouncer protect and cease fight, trillion time How many of us seen waiter & chef smash tipsy people, NONE Contemplate deeply before eating at city diner unless you want to participate in real life Kung Fu
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Dear Patrons,
We are deeply sorry for and shocked by the occurrence at City Diner on New Year's Eve. Your safety is important to us.
We have investigated the matter fully and are taking the following actions immediately: 1) the staff involved in the incident have been disciplined appropriately 2) all staff is undergoing strict service training
City Diner is a family restaurant. We want you to feel at home when you visit us. We do not condone fighting on our premises and are taking full measures to prevent such things from happening in the future.
Again, we apologize for the events on New Year's Eve. As always, we welcome your feedback.
Best wishes for 2008,
City Diner comments@citydiner.cn
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Hi, I am sorry to hear all this trouble in city dinner. This is the owners of iiiit group ( formed by Eduardo Vargas & Kelley Lee, also run iiiit cafe, azul, viva, casa 13 and soon few other concepts). We opened city dinner with the actual operator but few months ago we " got kick out" indirectly from the partnership in an ilegal way and we are not involve in any operation, manager decision or anything with the actual operator, who we beleive is hurting the brand more than anything. We just getting complains by complains from friends that we not want our name hurt becuase these problems. Just want let you know that we are not involve and I am sorry for this things happen.
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City Diner is a family restaurant?????? We want you to feel at home??????? The owner of City Diner(I heard from the waiter saying they r MAFIA) should teach all staff about that.
I've already told many plp I know in SH about what I saw in City Diner on NY. They were all really freaking out.
Good Luck City Diner & once again,TRAIN ur staff well(especially ur manager!!!). I have to say ur manager is fucked up.
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Restaurant staff shouldn't attack customers -- that's a no-brainer. The staff involved should be fired.
HOWEVER, if I had to deal with some of the clientele that frequents the place between midnight and 8am, I'd probably be swinging for the fences with a fire extinguisher before long, too.
I think what City Diner needs to do is be tough on the little bullshit -- customers that come in, get rowdy, and bother everyone else -- so that things don't get out of control and blow up like they did on New Years. As long as they have the reputation for being a place where you can come no matter what state you're in, do whatever you want, and still get served, incidents like this are going to repeat.
Again, this doesn't excuse the waiters and kitchen staff involved. Fire extinguishers shouldn't be used to solve problems -- except for fires! -- that could be solved by a few bouncers or the police, and the service is pretty poor even at the best of times, but some of customer behavior I've seen in my trips to City Diner has been horrendous. Of course it's just a couple of bad eggs, but those bad eggs ruin it for everyone else, and need to be shown the door.
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Hey guys,
This is Kelley, former partner of City Diner. Just wanted to say sorry to hear about everything that happened at City on NYE and for everything that has been happening for the last few months.
I just want to make it clear to everyone once and for all that Eduardo and I are not involved at City Diner anymore due to longstanding disagreements about service, management, business ethics with our other partner Danyeu.
YES, we did lose money. NO we are not involved in the food, management, service and we do not continue to go there. I apologize personally to all our loyal clientele for helping to create something that has gone so terribly wrong. I don't know if what happened on NYE really happened the way it is described in this blog but I hope that if CD or any restaurant is not providing quality food, service or management to you, you do not continue to spend your money there.
Thanks and happy 2008!!
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Well, this is certainly a shocking report. We were at City Diner on New Year's as well however left prior to the fight breaking out.
Having worked in restaurants in the past, I can certainly sympathize with those who have to deal with rude, rowdy drunk customers. But there are other ways to lay down the law with customers that do not resort to violence. Refuse to serve them, or just ask them to pay immediately and leave. Previous restaurant owners I have worked with have, in some cases, not even demanded pay but simply asked the customers to leave immediately. Believe it or not, the 9 times out of 10 the customer will leave.
What absolutely floors me is the reported use of a fire extinguisher. Back home, we would call this "assault with a deadly weapon" and this would be a criminal charge that could land someone in PRISON. I wonder at the thought process that goes through someone's head when they decide to employ the use of any weapon.
I'm glad to hear that City Diner has instigated some punishment for those responsible and hope that it'll help rectify the situation.
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Basically, city diner used to be great. I used to go every week as I lived within walking distance. The restaurant manager was an English speakign Shanghainese woman named Judy. She had really blunt cut bangs and would wear coloed highlights in her hair. She was the awesome, attentive, and had the staff in-line with service. The owning partnership broke-up, Judy left May in 2007, and everything went south (i.e. started to suck). The Hongmei Lu location closed over the summer (2007) and I heard it just kept getting worse. Go to American Steak & eggs behind the Portman or Moornriver Diner, about 5 blocks north of the Portman, on Xikang and Yuyao (in New Factories) for good service and diner food, plus they're cheaper.
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They really have to do something about their staff. As everyone has commented, they suck. Either find some staff with experience or pay a bit more for good ones. The food is good (burgers are awesome!), cheap and big portions. I usually get Sherpas or get carry-out because the staff and drunks are a bit too much... The BEST carrot cake in Shanghai too, btw.
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Have you tried the carrot cake at Iiit Cafe? Also very good ... probably inspired by the same recipe given the management and founding history of the two venues.
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Just came from City Diner. Looks like they've remodeled a little with the pie counter now a part of the bar and the middle area now has more booths. New wait staff eager to please, but not to knowledgeable about how to use the cash register. I had to leave after the advertised wi-fi didn't work, the electric sockets didn't work, and then cash register also didn't work when I needed to get my check. Seems like the place is falling apart.
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I went to City Diner at around 4am on New Year. I was from a club. When I reached there, it was already kinda full. I was seated and before my friends and I could ordered, we saw this big fight. It started by one waiter having a heated argument with this group of people. Then one of the people from the group pushed the waiter away and started asking his friends to leave the restaurant. They tried to leave. But before I knew what happened, all the waiters were all out and the fight broke out. It was not only waiters who attended to the customers, also the cooks from the kitchen, and what's worst of all is that the manager joined. Since the number of people in the group outnumbered the waiters/cooks, they were actually beaten up pretty bad. The waiters/cooks were actually ganging up on those customers. When we tried to leave after the police came and took those people (incl.some waiters/cooks) away, there were actually a lot of blood on the stairs. I wasn't sure what happened exactly. But since when are waiters allowed to beat up customers??? I wouldn't want to know what happened, but i sure will think twice to go back there. What if one day, I'm having too much to drink and acted kinda rude, will they beat me up too???