The Jian BBQ Story - Part III The Case of the Curious Consultant

As you may have read in my previous postings, I had a devil of a time trying to simply order food at Los Angeles hotspot Jian BBQ.

To continue our story, after getting nowhere with and being berated by Jian BBQ's waiter-cum-manager, we finally got a friendly server who attempted to address our issue. All the while, the "manager" hovered around us, arguing and trying to shout us down.

Finally, someone came over. At first, we thought it was the elusive owner. But we later learned this was the genius at Jian BBQ who came up with the tasting menu idea. He was a marketing consultant. He reiterated that the tasting menu was a "promotion" and thus not eligible for use with our coupon. We told him that there was nothing on it that said "Special" or "Limited Time Offer," and thus it was not clearly a "promotion" (remember, our whole disagreement with Jian BBQ is over the fact that our gift certificate said it wasn't valid with any other "promotions.") Here's where it gets really bizarre.

Turns out, Jian BBQ had this very same "tasting menu" before. But they used to call it the "Summer Special." "Aha!" I cried, "had you called it that, we wouldn't even try to use our gift certificate." The marketing consultant told us they changed it because it sounded low-class. I tried to explain to him that didn't matter -- we had no way of knowing whether it was a special or not. "Well," he exclaimed, "clearly you can tell it's a special because it's discounted from the regular menu price."

"Not so fast," I shot back. Obviously it's a tasting menu, so you don't get a full portion. So of course it's cheaper.

He tried a new tactic. Claiming that anything on a separate page outside of the regular Jian BBQ menu was a special. I picked up a separate page of cocktails. "Is this a page of specials?" "Yes! These drinks are for the summer only. And they're discounted." Well, could we use our gift certificate on the drinks? "Yes."

I was dumbfounded. Why could we use it on the drink "specials" but not the "promotional" tasting menu? He didn't have a good answer for that. Or any answer at all.

Being that my friend works in a law firm, she pointed out that gift certificates and coupons are legal contracts. And that they're obligated to honor the terms and conditions. I pointed out that if they didn't want to have gift certificates from Restaurant.com be used for the tasting menu, they could simply add that to the terms and conditions on the gift certificate and put a little asterisk*

*Not valid with Restaurant.com gift certificates

Like so on the tasting menu page. "That's a good suggestion," the marketing consultant replied.

So basically, the marketing consultant agreed with us. But he still wouldn't take our gift certificate.

As we had now been arguing for over half an hour and were extremely hungry, I asked one more time if we could use our gift certificate -- which did not say it wasn't valid with the tasting menu -- on the tasting menu. The marketing consultant told us no.

I said -- "Here's what's going to happen. We are going to leave. My friend will contact Restaurant.com and tell them you're not honoring their coupon. We will ask her boss what the legal ramifications are. I am a consultant, so I work from home. I have a lot of time. I will write a bad review on Yelp and Chowhound and everywhere else I can. And then see what else I can do to let people know about your horrid customer service."

"Don't threaten me!" the marketing consultant barked.

I tried to explain that I wasn't threatening. I was simply telling him what we would do. And we have since done all of that.

Here's the obvious customer service solution. Bearing in mind the maxim "the customer is always right..."

Whether or not Jian agreed with us, they should have said something like: "Sir/Ma'am, we understand your point about the gift certificate. We are going to change the coupon terms and conditions and add a disclaimer to our tasting menu page. We can't accept your gift certificate in the future, but we will take it towards the tasting menu this once." They would have had a happy pair of customers, $25 (plus tax and tip on $50) of our money, and probably our future business. I eat at restaurants I like all the time, some several times a week. In fact, after our poor showing at Jian BBQ that evening, we went down to Koreatown and ate at Road to Seoul, somewhere I'd had dinner just a couple of nights before (it was excellent again and the customer service was fantastic).

Instead, Jian BBQ got two angry customers, multiple bad Yelp reviews, a possible hassle with Restaurants.com and California authorities. And this blog. So, they won the battle but lost the war. Also, whatever they're paying their marketing consultant is clearly too much. Because the negative word of mouth this little stunt over $25 was clearly poor marketing.

Don't eat at Jian BBQ. They're obnoxious and overpriced. There's no shortage of good Korean food in Los Angeles. There's no need to patronize establishments that look down their noses at their customers -- or those that yell at and berate them.

The Jian BBQ Story - Part II The Manager Becomes More of a Jerk

As related in my last post, we had a horrible experience at Jian BBQ in Los Angeles due to their awful customer service. As you may recall, my friend and I wanted to use a Restaurant.com gift certificate towards Jian's tasting menu, but were told by the waiter/pretend manager that we couldn't. He was loud and rude and argumentative, and wouldn't let us talk to the owner or anyone else.

Then, a young girl came over. She was a waitress and she was friendly. We tried explaining our issue to her. All the while, Jian's "manager" hovered nearby. My friend asked him to leave. "I don't have to leave. This is my restaurant!" he boomed. Well, it makes it sort of hard to complain about the rude, obnoxious manager when he's standing over your shoulder listening to you.

He finally walked away for a bit and we outlined our problem again to the young woman. Then, the Jian BBQ manager walked back over and continued to stand there, indirectly contradicting my friend and I as we talked. "I wasn't being rude." "No, I wasn't."

The situation quickly got ridiculous, and we told the waitress that we'd like to speak with someone else, preferably the owner.

That's when another person came over to us. We thought he was the owner, because he didn't say anything to the contrary at first. But we were wrong!

More on Jian BBQ and their rude staff and refusal to honor gift certificates to come.

The Jian BBQ Story - Part I The Case of the Curious Manager

My friend offered to treat me to dinner. We were looking forward to Jian BBQ -- we'd heard good things about their food.

She had a Restaurant.com gift certificate. The kind you pay $10 for and get $25 to use at the restaurant. It had a long list of conditions -- you had to order at least $35 worth of food, you couldn't combine it with other discounts or "promotions" (more on this in a moment), you had to leave an 18% gratuity.

Jian BBQ is pricey. The average entree costs around $26. They had a tasting menu for two people with four meats and various sides for $50. We thought that'd be perfect -- we'd get to try everything and it would only cost $25 after her gift certificate.

Here's where the trouble began. Jian BBQ's obnoxious waiter told us we couldn't use the gift certificate on the tasting menu, because it's a promotion. "Really?" I asked. "Because if I go down to Matsuhisa, they have 3 different tasting menus for $50, $75, and $100, and they're a regular part of the menu." "Well, that's omakase, that's different." Now, omakase just means "chef's choice." Which is pretty much Japanese for "tasting menu," which is also the chef's choice. So that argument didn't hold any water.

"Well, what about Jar? Or Opus? Or any other of the hundreds of restaurants in town that have tasting menus all the time?" He had no answer for that, just that their tasting menu was obviously a promotion.

Well, how would we know that? There's nothing that suggested any of the things that are normally associated with a promotion, like the word "special" or "limited time" or even a little disclaimer on the bottom saying that the tasting menu is not valid with Restaurant.com gift certificates. We told him that if any of those things were there, we wouldn't even ask. But as they're not, we want them to honor the gift certificate. After all, it has a long list of terms and conditions that we need to follow to use it, and if something's not specifically excluded, then the gift certificate is valid for it. That's not just my opinion, it's how coupons work; it's part of the law. I know that because my friend happens to work at a law firm here in Los Angeles.

Our Jian BBQ waiter repeated that he couldn't honor our gift certificate for the tasting menu. He'd be happy to "work with us" to pick out the same items as the tasting menu. But at regular price. Since this was around 4x the price of the tasting menu, this didn't seem like such a good deal. Well, I suppose it was a good deal for Jian BBQ.

We went back and forth for a while, with the waiter getting loud and frustrated. I suspect this was because my friend and I weren't buying his flimsy argument and actually expected him to honor their gift certificate. The waiter told us that we weren't listening to him and that he's trying to help us out, but that we kept arguing with him. He continued to get louder and louder and repeat himself.

My friend asked to speak to the manager of Jian BBQ. The waiter disappeared for a moment, then came back and stood at the table, silent. My buddy said "We were waiting for the manager." "I'm the manager."

We couldn't believe it. Our Jian BBQ waiter tried to pull something out of I LOVE LUCY. All he was missing was a wig and fake mustache.

We were a little stumped by our waiter's boldness. So my friend asked to speak to the owner of Jian BBQ. The waiter told us repeatedly that the owner would just tell us the same thing he did and she was not interested in talking to us. Obviously, that's not the kind of customer service you expect. But that's what Jian BBQ gives you. If the waiter was smart, he would've just lied and pretended to go in the back and then told us the owner wasn't there. But instead, he was just plain rude.

My friend said the owner of Jian BBQ would probably be interested in hearing that her manager was rude to customers. The "manager" said that he didn't have to let us speak to the owner, that the owner still wouldn't be interested in talking to us, and that he's not being rude. We just weren't listening to him.

Finally, a nice, friendly waitress came over. And we tried to explain our issue to her.

But the trouble continued at Jian BBQ, the worst restaurant in Los Angeles.

More to come on Jian BBQ, its horrible personnel, and awful customer service...

Jian BBQ - The Worst Restaurant in the World?

This is my new blog, set up to warn people away from Jian BBQ, a horrible, horrible restaurant on Beverly Boulevard in Los Angeles.

Supposedly, Jian BBQ has great food. I wouldn't know. I never actually got to eat there. I had the worst customer service I've ever experienced in a restaurant and left before we actually ordered. In my defense, I did try to order several times. But it just didn't work out. More to come in a bit.

Meanwhile, if you're looking for a good Korean barbecue restaurant in Los Angeles, there are several.

A personal favorite is Road to Seoul, an all-you-can-eat joint down on Western and Pico. For the bargain price of $16.99, you get all the panchan you want, including kimchi pancake, plus a nice selection of meats (ranging from the traditional galbi and bulgogi to sirloin, brisket, chicken, even baby octopus). The food is fantastic, rivaling the quality at many of the non-AYCE places, and the wait staff is extremely friendly. So if you're thinking about Jian BBQ, do yourself a favor and go to Road to Seoul instead.

More on why Jian BBQ is the worst restaurant ever shortly.