Oriental East 

1312 East-West Highway Silver Spring, MD 20910 (301) 608-0300

I think my cousin-in-law Danny summed it up best when he said after our meal “When I go to dim sum places like these I pretty much expect the service to be bad.”  I wouldn’t say the customer service at Oriental East was bad … it was atrocious.

Today was our first visit to the popular Oriental East in Silver Spring.  We were going for my sister’s birthday and we were reminded to arrive early because of the wait and that they will not seat anyone without their full party.  True to their policy, we arrived on time to a long line.  Luckily we had 3 tables in the back “reserved” for our party.  The last table we were sitting at had 4 of us sitting and 3 more just about to walk in.  This is where the fun begin.  The lady manager begins to tell us that we can’t sit down because our whole party wasn’t here.  We explained several times that the other 3 are walking in but she said “I’m giving this table to someone else.”  After a short melee, the other three arrived and we all sat at the table before the Dim Sum Nazi (equally bad as the Soup Nazi) declared no dim sum for you.  NOT a good way to start lunch.

The carts eventually came out with the standard variety of dim sum – shrimp in rice noodle crepe, fried shrimp, shrimp dumpling, shu mai, fired rice, green leek sprout with shrimp paste, chicken feet and more.  Word to the wise – sit near the front because by the time the dim sum carts came to the back they were empty.  All dishes were good, not great, but not as good or original as Hollywood East Cafe.  Because service was bad because Dottie had at one point grabbed a place mat, a plate, extra chop sticks, and a pitcher of water because no waiter was around.

Because our party was big, there were of course kids – 5 kids under the age of 6.  And with kids, they tend to roam around from table to table and explore.  What was pretty alarming was when one of the other dim sum Nazi managers was seating another party, he yelled at the kids and shooed them away with his hand for them to move.  NOT COOL!

This place is like a cattle herd, they get you in and out as fast as possible and treat you disrespectfully.  To me the most important part of the dining out is the overall experience … not just the food or the service.  Mediocre food can be good dining if the service is great.  If the service is great and the food is mediocre, the meal can still be good.  But if the food is good and the service is awful, the dining experience is awful.

Looking at it from a different perspective, I came to this conclusion.  In any business, your customers are your greatest assets – they buy from you and keep your business going.  Without the customer, your business dies.  So you would think that any business would want to give the BEST CUSTOMER SERVICE possible.  Now in the case of Oriental East, obviously based on my experience and of the majority of the party, they could care less about customer service and don’t even make an effort to make you feel like a valued customer.  But it goes even further!  If Oriental East management treats their customers like crap, how do you think they treat their employees?  This was evident from the rude, un-attentive waiters and servers.  Even further, if the management treats the servers terrible, how do you think they treat the cooks – the people preparing our food???  It is this trickle down effect which clearly made this visit to Oriental East an unpleasant one.  Luckily for me, time with the family made up for it.

I will not go back to Oriental East.  I much prefer Hollywood East because their food and mostly their service is superior.  Parents – Oriental East is not kid friendly.  Readers – Oriental East is not adult friendly.

.25 stars out of 5 stars