Review by AcidCat on 11th February, 2007

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We wanted to go to a Thai that we had recommended to us. Sadly they didn't have a table for 4 until 90 minutes later, so we moved onto Sojo, a nearby chinese. They had a table instantly, and rushed us to order, so we were pleased that we would be eating soon. We waited. And waited. Then my main order arrived, and one of my friend's, and my portion of rice. We assumed that his rice, and our companion's food were on the way. So we waited. And waited. And waited. When we gestured to the many waitresses, they waved their fingers at us and said "Coming soon! Coming soon!". Meanwhile, my food had started to congeal, and my friend's main (still without rice) was stone cold. They brought out the oriental duck salad, which for £8 was a tiny portion of cold looking boiled duck, with two leaves of raw lettuce and a bit of onion on the side. Which made perfect sense that they had taken so long to bring it out, as it was clearly a difficult and time consuming dish to prepare, as it looked like it had been sitting on the side of a table for a day or two. After we waited more, and we were still waiting on a main, and three portions of rice, we went to chat to a waitress. She rushed past us, and when we stopped them and asked to speak to a manager, they claimed there wasn't one there. We got up to leave. Surprisingly, all of a sudden we actually got some attention from the waiting staff. We had a waitress screaming at us: "No leave! Not finished!". We told her we were leaving because the service was appalling, and we'd waited too long (close to 2 hours), our food had gone cold. We didn't even start on the quality of the duck salad. She decided to change tack: "We cooked the food, you have to pay!". We pointed out that the food still hadn't all arrived, the food was untouched, and we were leaving. She demanded that as we had asked for the food, we'd have to pay. We stood firm and refused. She said she was calling the police. We told her to call them. The police would have laughed in her face anyway. She went off to use the phone, thinking she was going to intimidate us. She came back and said we had to pay. We said we'd been through that and we refused, and were happy to just wait for the police. She said the manager was coming. We said we were pleased, and would love to talk to him. She then demanded we at least pay for the soft drinks we'd ordered to go with the dinner, and been sipping at while waiting. At this point we realised she was really clutching at straws. We refused on principle, even though it would have only been a few pounds each. She said it was one of the top 10 restaurants in Oxford! Really?! I assumed this could only be: 1. If we're only talking about Chinese, and excluding Thai, Japanese, and all other cuisines. 2. If we're only including those in the very centre of town, so excluding Summertown area's Xi'an. 3. Because there are less than 10 chinese restaurants in Oxford. She rounded off this excellent evening's entertainment by finally telling us to leave, and telling us that we were "crap customers". As we were leaving she screamed at us to "F--- Off!". And not even any sign of our fourth and final main course! Having said that, the mongolian wok bit where you choose bits off a trolley to eat looked better and faster. We were put off when we saw people coughing into the raw food. To be fair, it was a Friday night and therefore busy, but to be kept waiting for over 2 hours for your food, to not have it turn up remotely at a similar time, and the poor quality and value for money and service means this is not one to go to. If you want to take a punt on the mongolian wok style buffet it might be ok, but forget the a la carte.

Date visited: 9 Feb 2007