The Shocking Truth Behind a Chinese Restaurant’s 21 Jajangmyeon Order: A Case of False Claims?

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A Chinese restaurant owner says he accepted a large group order—including 21 bowls of jajangmyeon (black bean noodles)—only to be hit with an unfair loss after a false foreign-object complaint. The story has been drawing heavy attention online.

On the 26th, the owner, who runs two Chinese restaurants, posted a thread titled “Why delivery freeloaders keep appearing” in an online community and shared the baffling experience he recently went through.

He says that on the 22nd at lunchtime, a group placed a big order that included 21 jajangmyeon and sweet-and-sour pork. His staff prepared the food as usual and completed the delivery.

Not long after, the delivery app company contacted the restaurant. The app said a customer reported finding a foreign object in the jajangmyeon and requested a refund, and it pushed the restaurant to make a quick decision, the owner said.

The owner, who was at his other location at the time, said the app’s pressure forced a part-time employee to process the refund.

After the incident, he asked the app company to retrieve the food so he could inspect it for the reported foreign object himself.

What he found was shocking. The “foreign object” in the jajangmyeon turned out to be a medical band the restaurant never used. The same band was found in the customer’s trash bag, and the ordered food had been completely eaten.

He presented this evidence and asked the app for compensation, but the company replied that compensation would be difficult because the restaurant had already agreed to the refund.

He said he was frustrated that the app refused to even investigate despite clear evidence. When he asked to speak with a supervisor, he says he got only perfunctory responses.

He questioned whether it’s appropriate to shift responsibility without any review. While the customer’s bad-faith actions are a problem, he argued the bigger issue is a system that fails to filter out such claims and instead pushes losses onto small business owners.

Readers who saw the post criticized both the delivery app and the customer who demanded the refund. Comments included concerns like, “It’s worrying that we create an environment where bad-faith consumers can run rampant,” “There are too many abusive customers,” and “Passing the buck is the real problem.”

Meanwhile, a delivery driver who said he handled the pickup in this case also shared his experience.

The driver said he gave up other work and drove a long distance because he was told to simply retrieve the food, but there was no food to collect. Instead, he found a large pile of trash dumped by the roadside.

He added that he wasted time and dirtied his vehicle, and that the app failed to provide clear information about what to pick up. He said he felt betrayed.