Korean restaurant (Walnamjip @ Phan Khiem Ich, Hung Gia 4, Phu My Hung) discriminates Filipino customers and physically abuses its Vietnamese staff
de Leon Jonee
I’ve been living in Phu My Hung for almost 9 years now and never have I experienced such gross discrimination until now. I’d like to share this story to everyone in the neighborhood to somehow serve as a wake-up call to one Korean restaurant owner who discriminates people from other backgrounds and physically abuses his staff.
I am currently working at one of the premium English centers located in Phu My Hung as its Program Director. Today at around 11:45 AM I went out to have lunch with my colleagues (9 teachers all-in-all) after a workshop. We decided to get some Korean food. Since most of my teachers are quite new to the area, I decided to introduce them to a local Korean restaurant near the school. We went to Walnamjip at Phan Khiem Ich, Hung Gia 4). FYI. I usually go to this place with a Korean friend which was probably why this incident never happened before. Anyhow, we went in the WALNAMJIP restaurant and ordered food. After about 10 minutes the waitress came back to us and said that we’d have to change our order since they no longer do that kind of set in the menu. We complied and selected something else in the menu. After another 10 minutes, came the usual side dishes (common to most Korean restaurants). Then to our surprise, the order that we cancelled previously was the one they served us. It was a simple mistake, so we were very gentle and told the waitress that it’s fine and that we’d keep the order and requested to just cancel the second set of food we ordered since it’s going to be too much if we got them too.
Just a few seconds after we said that (we were very polite… with smiling faces and calm voices), the owner (presumably) since he seemed to be the only Korean running the place, irritably took all the food off from our table and more so ANGRILY threw down all the food to the floor with the staff and other customers watching in shock. (Bibimbap, Samgyeopsal, and side dishes on the floor). Then the owner yelled at our group to leave his restaurant for a reason not very clear to anyone including his staff. One thing that I couldn’t really let off is the fact that the owner slapped his Vietnamese staff in the face after doing this. This is the time when I stood up from where I was seated and told the Korean owner, that none of this was necessary. I told him, speaking slowly that I have been to his restaurant before and that I brought him customers and this was no way to treat us. After this, he wasn’t done with hurting his staff, but he also did more by shoving me away (TWICE) in front of all his customers for reasons still unclear to me. I told him not to touch me again. It looked like it was going to turn into an actual fight but the same Vietnamese waitress who he slapped went between us. I backed down since there’s no point in fighting with this man. Perhaps he was angry at the food order cancellation or he wanted us to order more, but I don’t think this gave him the right to hit his staff in the face. I also didn’t see what he wanted to accomplish in throwing all the food on the floor. That amount of food could have served more than 15 people and there were only 9 of us so I didn’t see the point of all this hostility. It’s like saying indirectly that we don’t deserve the food he is serving and that he’d rather throw the food than sell it to us. I see this as a case of racism.
We walked out without saying anything. When I looked back, it seemed that he had given another slap in the face to his Vietnamese staff. I wanted to introduce the Korean culture to my staff through its food but we got something else instead. I plan to report this incident to the authorities to bring justice to the Vietnamese waitress who was maltreated. (I’m not sure if this will help at all). However, I also thought that if the Korean owner can do this when people are watching then imagine what he can do behind closed doors.