Dined here a few weeks ago with my brother and his girlfriend. She had recently ventured to Japan and brought back a traditional Japanese sash, with the kanji encryption for "Victory!" Written across it, which I decided to wear for the day as it was a pleasant gift, and I wanted to appease my brother's love interest, in order to maintain good relations, and whatnot. Immediately upon entering the restaurant, we were met with grim stares. When making an inquiry as to if we could be seated upstairs, and we're met with a stern: "upstairs is closed right now" the whole tone and demeanor was very abrupt and rude from the beginning, and looking back, we should have just walked out. But alas, we were very tired, hungry, and somewhat distraught after having just visited a family member whom was suffering from a terminally fatal disease. After being seated and ignored for a few minutes, our waiter took our orders and asked me if I was Japanese? I said no. He explained that: "because of the history between Korea and Japan, to wear my Japanese headband in a Korean restaurant is a sign of disrespect." I explained that I meant no harm, and it was merely a gift which I wanted to concede to, and was again, met with somewhat of an emotionless acknowledgement. Me and my table mates looked at each other very insulted with the rude customer service, and just prayed that they would not do anything foul to our cuisine. My brother's girlfriend, being half-Chinese herself, felt very disrespected. Again, looking back, we probably should of left at that point if not the other, yet we continued to stay, and enjoyed some relatively excellent chicken, and other beefs and such. Upon leaving, I greeted our waiter and told him I apologized for the cultural miscommunication, and he responded with one of the most awkward, uncomfortable smiles and nods I have ever witnessed, while saying: "it's okayy 😈😈 hehe." And it was at this moment I knew our food had been tampered with. The real moral of the story is, if the vibe of the restaurant isn't right, just go dine somewhere else. Don't wait around to see if they spat in your food or not, because you may never know.
