The Fountain Restaurant: Stay away! Xin Tian Di distrcit

First of all, it always stinks when forced to write a negative review. However, the truth may set you free...right!!? OK, so my fiancé and I currently live in Hangzhou and decided to sneak away for a 3 day excursion to Shangahai due to the long Tomb Sweeping national observance weekend. We wanted our first night diner to be memorable, and decided to head over to the Xin Tian Di district for diner. After narrowing it down to two places ( some world best tapa place and the Fountain ), we decided to try the Fountain. The allure was the apparent ambience and chef's special they had posted outside on a billboard that was attainable until 8pm.

We arrived at about 7:45pm, were greeted in the lobby and sent upstairs for our seating. When we got upstairs, I asked the waitress to confirm the chef's special of a 400g T-Bone , with French fries and a salad that came with 2 glasses of complimentary wine -- she confirmed and said "Yes, it certainly does..." So, we sat a few minutes and then decided on the chef's special. After being ignored for 10 minutes, I snapped her over again and politely confirmed the chef's special again with wine. She brought out the wine and then took off without asking if we'd like an app' or something like that. I tipped my chair, turned my head and snapped one of them over again ( we have not even been asked yet for some water, or served table bread or anything else). We then told her we'd like the cheese plate and some water and to bring us the chef's special medium cooked. The cheese comes, but like typical Chinese fashion, they forget about the woman and only bring me my water. Snapped her over again and asked for more water. Finally, the steak comes. Let me tell ya, if you know anything about steak and Shanghai -- then you'll no better than to expect some skimpy t-bone, lettuce with brown leaves and French fries so full of cooking oil a heart massaging is needed after diner.......Whatever!

Diner concludes, and keep in mind we aren't even upset yet and rather just enjoying conversation and each other....We get our bill, and they billed us for the free wine-- another typical Chinese antic. After fighting with the waitress for a few minutes, I tell her to call the mgr. The mgr comes , and after questioning me for a few minutes, offers me some wine -- which i decline -- and then says he'll remove 1 glass.

Look, price is not something we care about too much. It's principal. We travel a lot, enjoy the finer things in life -- and know quite well what to expect! This knucklehead mgr' then keeps pushing the wine on meet . Feeling bad for him, I accept his "peace offering". Turns out his peace offering was nothing more than a Trojan Horse. As I waited for an adjustment to the bill, I realized none was going to happen. They said that because I had one more glass of wine from the mgr, it made up for the 1 free I should have gotten.

To sum it up, when you almost 1000 rmb for a diner, it is supposed to be nice, tasty, memorable and full of great service. The Fountain did not meet any of those expectations and it is obvious they need to seek a good ol' management consulting firm!