China Legend Enchanted Forest

My girlfriend and I finally went to China Legend after living right next door to it for almost 6 months. We were excited when we saw all of the vegetarian options available, but a bit disappointed that none of those veg options (beside Kung Pao tofu) were listed on the Dinner Specials (which includes a soup and a spring roll for slightly less than buying everything separately). I asked the waitress about getting the General Tso's chicken special with Tofu instead. Since both items on their own are the same price when not getting the dinner special, it seemed a very easy substitution and like an obvious accommodation they would make for vegetarians. Big mistake on my part, I guess... After explaining to me that it would be impossible because 'the computer doesn't have it', I understood that the manager does not allow want deviations from the menu. I was fine with that, I mean it could get confusing having all the orders coming in with substitutions or special instructions, but prodded a bit more, because the place was completely empty except for us and two other tables. So I asked her one more time if it was possible to tell the chef of the substitution, and she apologized profusely but said it’s impossible. Being a great waitress, she decided she could give us the soup and spring roll without putting it on the ticket(since she makes those personally), and then it would basically end up the same thing! We were very happy with this, and thanked her and anxiously awaited our soup and spring rolls. This is where it got weird... After our soups and spring rolls were brought out my girlfriend thought she had seen a tall bald man who works there peering very intently at our table, several times. A minute later, our waitress returned, visibly shaken, saying that there was some mix-up and she was going to have to charge us for the spring rolls, but she could still give us the soup for free. We had already finished both, and I got a little upset that the manager forced our waitress to tack on an extra charge for what, all things considered, should have come with our meal. It wasn't just the extra charge that irked me, but the fact that he forced the waitress to tell us, when it was obviously his decision. So I said that I would like to ask the manager about why the menu is set-up in the way that it is and she quickly stopped me, saying 'oh no, you don't need to talk to him, everything fine', and dodging my requests. It seemed to me like she was afraid of losing her job, or worse... So I didn't say any more during our meal. She was a very nice waitress and had great customer service skills and we certainly didn't want to get her into any trouble. But when we were paying the check at the register I saw the big bald man again, and decided I had to ask him why he didn't include any of the main vegetarian options on the Dinner Specials menu. He was incredibly rude, and immediately fired back lies to me about how 'those vegetarian items are not tofu, it is bean curd', and that it wouldn't be possible because they 'import it from Singapore'. He honestly thought we were too stupid to know that bean curd and tofu are one-in-the-same, and I guess he didn't think we noticed that the tofu items and the chicken equivalents were basically the same price. I backed down a bit (I didn't want him to knock the waitress around over this), and told him that I thought it would be nice if the vegetarian items could be included in the Dinner Specials, even if he had to charge an extra buck or two for some of them. He was still really offended, I guess, and didn't even acknowledge that this was a reasonable request. Instead of trying to cater to the customer, he basically told us to F-off and that 'if you like how the food tastes I think that will be enough for you to come back'. Unfortunately for him, he was wrong. We did like the food, but that bald creep and his terrible management have ruined this restaurant for us, permanently. I guess it is a good place to go as long as you don't ever raise a concern or have a comment!
Aug 8th, 2005

Jun 4th, 2003