This just makes NO sense ! Why would a restaurant in TAIWAN discriminate against TAIWANESE???
Blows the mind.
I think if her story is true the Italian manager should work in another country. Seems to have some truth. The restaurant “messed up the price” . What was that about?
So here’s what I heard happened from a 2nd source from someone who knows the owner. The Taiwanese women ordered wine and the chef paired her with another. She complains that the wine taste bad to the server and he tells the chef. The chef thought she was ignorant and uncultured with bad pallet so he says to the server that she did not deserved to drink the wine that he paired and was good. The server was a idiot and thought he would say this to the women instead of saying that this is good wine and parred with her meal.
I believe the women was just a idiot that is indeed uncultured and don’t no shit about wine and food pairing and thinks expensive=better. I’m very ashamed of my Taiwanese countrymen and women in this regard. So many times I go to a very good and authentic place and I read some idiot Taiwanese person complaining about the food prepared a certain way when that is the correct way the food is suppose to be.
And being charged 2x is clearly the servers error. So really the server is a dumbass and he is also fired my the owner.
The restaurant held a press conference on Monday, two weeks after the incident, saying that they messed up the price and were already in the process of giving her a refund.
They admit they messed up the price, but after 2 weeks they are still in the process of giving a refund! and they claim they are “already” in the process, as if 2 weeks to offer a refund is to be congratulated. Some people don’t know when to do damage control, offer a sincere apology and perhaps a free meal, instead look to experience the Streisand effect.
Then he admits having the wine, but were running out. Better to tell your customers “we’re out of stock” to saying something like “oh sure we have that wine, but only a few bottles left and are saving them for more important customers”. Then claim they didn’t exactly say “they didn’t deserve good wine”.
As a resto lifer and generally speaking the most anti-customer drone you’ll ever meet, I think the woman in question is totally, irrevocably in the right.
It’s not up to me, you, or the chef to decide whether or not a diner likes what they’ve been served.
Likewise, it’s not up to me, you, or the chef to determine the diner’s cultural pedigree.
She ordered one thing and got another. Unacceptable unless there’s consultation with the diner.
You run a resto in Taipei and you’re making assumptions about your clientele? You’re going to get all Amy’s Bakery Kitchen Nightmares on these people? Foul.
The woman deserved a full refund on her meal and an immediate apology.
Perhaps people in Taiwan tend to feel antagonistic in resto situations because they’re used to being treated like ill-literate children by worldly foreigners who scoff and look down their noses. I’m not saying all diners are equal. You just don’t know. See #2.
I’ve seen this situation play out, and although you didn’t mention whether the chef was foreign, somebody in the chain of command was foreign, and the treatment the woman alleges to have received from “Fabio” is fuckin’ ignorant and intolerable in any service industry locale. If that fucker worked the floor in my resto, that would have been his last day.
hell man — that episode was lite
samy being DA MAN
And so Taiwan will demolish the building in retaliation on charges that it is illegal. I find it a bit too coincidental that the demolition, which was supposedly filed in 1999, is going to take place soon.
Being in the news can be BAD !!
The TW authorities take their sweet time to do anything. This brings this building up to the eye and someone remembered that it was an illegal building and …there you have it.
LIfe in Taiwan 
Looks nice, but BIG BUCK PLACE
http://www.ilmercato.com.tw/3375621934-menu.html
I better stay with my niu row mien
Any bets the current tennent will be forced to move out then the demolition get stalled in paperwork and a new tennent move in?
They really pissed off someone important. So sorry for the owner. Big investment loss.
As a foreigner, he probably did everything by the book. That was his mistake. Or was misled by the Taiwanese partner. That happens.
important !!! ahhh yeah, that kind of important people -
“important”. Connected. Guaxi rules all.
Someone was gunning for them real bad.
Foreigner in the news = bad unless you are a centenarian priest.
that seems pretty clear -
it is always super sad when i see this kind of news - wonder why all good places shut down or have all the difficulties in the world to survive.
i dont like too much HK or China ( i dont like crowded places … i know that Taiwan is but i like it here) but, DAMMMN !!! I am always happy eating there and seeing foreigners having some great business pretty much everywhere and being encourage to do so - Having the ability to choose what to eat when you go outside.
i came to Taiwan a bit over 6 years ago and i am seing less and less good spot where to eat - Shida and Dongmen are dying every single year a bit more.
Of course there are still many good places, but for how long???
Yup, pissed off someone who could cause trouble.
This makes sense to me 
The department confirmed that the building of the restaurant had been reported and filed as an illegal building in 1999 and was scheduled to be demolished in June this year.
Coincidences happen. That the entire force of the government swung against them to demolish their rented building doesn’t seem like the most likely scenario to me.
I still think the server is a complete idiot. If you’ve worked in the restaurants before you know everyone says things about customers. You certainly don’t go and tell them that they don’t deserve the wine even if it’s said the the kitchen. That’s just common sense. I had tables that were just complete entitled picky assholes. They have to mod everything, also the “gluten intolerant” people that makes us sanitize the whole cooking area to prevent cross contamination because some people actually are allergic to gluten but most just are those gluten free idiots for no real reason. Plenty of times the chef or people in the kitchen and other servers have said something along the lines of “fucking assholes” I don’t go and tell the customer “hey, the chef said youre a fucking asshole and you should just eat the food”
Yeah, he was probably right. But the customer is always right, or so I heard somewhere…
Not in that Gordon Ramsay episode. That was entertaining.
According to Chinese news sources the building was scheduled to be demolished in June before the whole fiasco happened, but it sounds pretty bs given that no one at the restaurant knew.