Chinese restaurant chef uses CCTV to prove 'nonsense' reviews wrong

15 March 2025, 16:26

Jackie Wan uses CCTV to prove customers wrong after they leave bad reviews for his Chinese restaurant in a mission to 'stand up' to rude customers.

Jackie Wan, 40, is the owner and head chef at Forum Chinese restaurant, Great Shelford, Cambridgeshire.

The chef uses CCTV to "clarify" any "nonsense" reviews the restaurant gets from bad customers on TripAdvisor, Google or Facebook.

One customer complained they only had four prawns in their stir fry.

After reviewing the footage, Wan replied to the reviewer: “The sizzling king prawn and rice was served at 18:53:25. Below is the exact time for you both actually put the prawns in your mouth: 18:54:34 yourself, 18:54:39 yourself, 18:54:39 your partner, 18:55:49 your partner, 18:57:11 your partner, 19:01:33 yourself, 19:02:27 yourself.

“From my limited calculating skills, I got seven pieces, which is the standard number of prawns for our main courses. Have you forgotten the three pieces your partner had?”

The same customer said the food was "tasteless" - but Wan debunked this too.

"Our waitress tried to approach to check satisfaction at 19:06:03, however the signs she picked up show how much you both enjoyed the meal eg licking fingers, scooping the last drop of sauce off the plate, picking up the garlic flakes off the table,” he replied.

“The bowl, the plates were shining clean, I could almost see my reflecting image. Still not enjoying huh?”

Wan said that he only uses CCTV if the complaint doesn't match staff's memory of the event, or if the issue was raised long after the customer had visited.

He told The Times: "If there are issues on our side or whatever happens is our mistake then of course we try and make up for.

"I’m more than happy to offer free bills. But there are some customers that it doesn’t matter what you do, you cannot please them. Those are the things I really can’t stand because we’ve done nothing wrong.

I will not kneel down for anyone. I will stand up and fight when the fault is not on our side.”

One dissatisfied customer said the £15 main dish was too expensive, so Wan replied citing research showing Brits often spend more than £50 on a meal out.

"If you sincerely feel you got robbed, as a reputable British citizen, I’d strongly recommend you call the police," he quipped.

He even suggested they go to McDonalds if they wanted a cheaper meal.

Another customer complained about the portion sizes.

Wan saw they ate 16 spoonfuls of a dish and wrote: “A spoonful of our ceramic spoon is around 20g, what you had on Saturday night was way more than our standard portion of 220g."

When a customer grumbled about paying extra for chilli oil, he said: “Try asking for peppercorn sauce when ordering a steak in any steak house and see what happens.”

A couple and their toddler were asked to leave by Wan, and he offered them the CCTV of other diners applauding after they left.

“Your little one is obviously sick, with runny nose, flu … Do yourself a favour, don’t take her out,” he said.

"I will lose on some business, but then at the same time, I protect my name. I’m proud of what we do and I’m proud of the product and service that we deliver so I stand up for myself, my staff," he admitted to The Times.

Wan wants to create an app where restauranteurs can rate customers.

“It works both ways, it’s only fair isn’t it?"