Bi Bim Bap stories

For 13 years there have been many happenings in Bi Bim Bap that I could not talk about. Now that we are closed I am free to talk about all these things. ENJOY!!

Blue Bum: One rainy day someone came in with wet pants. Blue Jeans i guess. She sat on our white seat and left a blue bum print that lasted two years. She wasn’t overweight but because the cushions were soft it just looked so big! Always made us chuckle when we cleaned the seats at night.

The boy that messed up our ladies washroom: For a while someone was urinating on the walls, floor and sink in the ladies washroom. It was impossible to catch this person until the Corona Pandemic. People were not using the washrooms much but we still cleaned the washrooms twice daily. We had narrowed down the suspects to a few individuals already but on this day this boy was the only person to go downstairs to use the washroom after the morning cleanup. We knew the boy’s name and family and we didn’t want to involve the police but felt the need to inform the family so that they can deal with this in their own way, so we put out a word to let the boy know to bring in his parent to discuss the situation. This boy had already been a problem as he always ordered something and then when the food came out he tells the server that he ordered something else. He did this so consistently that all the servers knew him by name and always double checked the order. He kept doing it anyways and unfortunately in the restaurant business the customer is always right so we always remade his order. We wasted lots of money just to serve this one boy. The boy had ignored the message to bring in his parent for the next year so I had started banning everyone that was affiliated with this boy. Finally the dad came in with the boy. They never apologized but the dad told me that he is now a changed man and will never misbehave again. It’s been a few years and he has been on his best behavior. Him and his friends are one of my favorite customers now because I love to see people improve and grow. To be totally honest, it was kinda fun tracking him down during the slow corona time.

Split Bill Karen: As most of you know, we have many kids coming to our restaurant. They are all well behaved but kids are a pain in the ass to serve. They are noisy, messy, impatient and everyone wants a split bill. During student special hours we have to split the bill 40 ways. It’s a lot of work but there aren’t too many adults so we do it because they are kids. Now during dinner service we try split bills for them when we can but on one very busy night a group of 10 kids came in. They wanted 10 separate bills even though we had a policy in place that we don’t split bill for groups of 4 or more. I was trying to be nice so I told them that if everybody paid the same way (all card, all cash or all eTransfer) I would let them split the bill as this makes it easier for the server to closes the bill. They opted to split the bill and everyone eTransfer. One of the kids had to call her mom to send the eTransfer for her. Two minutes later we received a phone call from an irate mom demanding to talk to the owner. When I got to the phone, she was screaming “it’s your job to split bills. I can’t believe my daughter is calling me to send you an eTransfer when I am so busy!! Do Your Job!!” So I told the mom most restaurants don’t split bills that many ways and her daughter’s meal is on the house, sorry for the inconvenience. She yelled “GOOD” and hung up the phone. I had to go to the table and let the girl know that I talked to her mom and that her meal was free. All the kids are so nice that I really didn’t mind not getting paid for her food. I don’t know if it was the girl or one of her friends but someone sent an eTransfer for her. Yes there are Karens in Forest Hill.

Less Rice/More Rice lady: We had a lady that came in once in a while. She would order our Bi Bim Bap and ask for half the rice and extra vegetables to compensate for the missing rice. Our bowl have only 3/4 cup of cooked rice in it so when you ask for half the rice there isn’t much rice in the bowl. She called the server over and complained loudly that there is hardly any rice in the bowl. The server explained that what she received was half the portion of rice of our regular bowl and that we had given her extra vegetables to compensate for the less rice. She started to stir the bowl around yelling in front of all the customers that this is too little rice to eat this dish with and how terrible it was. So we brought her an extra bowl of rice for free. A few weeks later the same lady came in and repeated the same thing. Ask for half the rice and more vegetables, complain about how little the rice was and demand that we give her more free rice. This went on for a few months. Well, she was the first customer that I asked not to come back to the restaurant. She came back once in a while thinking that we didn’t recognize her but all the servers were traumatized by her and always remembered her. We all pretended we didn’t know who she was and she never asked for half rice again.

The one time I replied to a review: I usually don’t reply to reviews. I think everyone has a right to an opinion and they have the right to say what they want. BUT this one customer really rubbed me the wrong way. A lady and her daughter came in one busy night when there was a line up of people waiting for a table. They skipped the line, came directly to the counter and asked to order food. We assumed that this was a takeout order as most takeout customers do this. They paid at the counter (no tip as should be for a takeout order). I rushed the order for them even though there was a pile up of orders in the kitchen and brought out their food. There was a table that just became available and we had not had a chance to clean it yet for the customers that were waiting. They rushed over to the table and sat down, took the food out of the takeout bag and started eating at the table. The servers called me and I went to the table to explain that people were waiting. I didn’t want to cause a scene so I had the servers clean the table and bring them some water instead. At this point they started to complain that they wanted their food put in stone bowl and heated up. I told them that we couldn’t do this because the kitchen was slammed and there were people waiting for the table. The next day the daughter posts a 1 star review on Google with a made up story about how they have 10 years of experience in restaurants complaining about how bad our service was, how bad our food was and how expensive our food was (they paid around $35 for two meals) She lied so much about the event that I was compelled to write a reply to the review. I pointed out all the lies that she wrote (and it was easy because many things she wrote did not make sense) that she erased her review. And magically her mother writes her first review on Google trying to clean up the lies she wrote. I replied again explaining what really happened and pointing out her obvious lies. I maxed out how much I could write but in this instance I felt it necessary to tell the story. You could probably find the review on google as we don’t have many 1 star reviews. If you have time go check it out.

I burned my mouth Lady: You have to be our regular customer to understand this. One lady comes in and orders one of our bowls. She had used some of our Sesame Bean sauce. She demands to speak to the owner. I go over to the table and she tells me that she burned her mouth because the Sesame Bean sauce was so spicy and that she will not be able to taste anything for the next two weeks. I had no reply for this lady…….

Seaweed Lady": Story coming soon.

vg = vegan | v = vegeterian | d = dairy | gfa = gluten-free available upon request