Institute of Hospitality Management in Prague

Bianca Nicole Necpal

History and Analysis of Chinese Restaurants in a Selected region

Bachelor´s thesis

2019

History and Analysis of Chinese Restaurants in a Selected region

Bachelor´s thesis

Bianca Nicole Necpal

Institute of Hospitality Management in Prague

Department of Hospitality Management

Major field of study: Hospitality Management Dissertation advisor: Mgr. Šárka Masárová, Ph.D Date of submission: 13.06.2019 Date of defense: September 2019

Prague 2019

Oath

I swear that the bachelor dissertation entitled History and Analysis of Chinese restaurants in a Selected Region was written by me independently, and that all literature and additional material used are cited in the bibliography and that this version is exactly the same as the work submitted electronically.

In accordance with §47b law no. 111/1998 coll. on higher education institutions, I agree to my dissertation being published in its complete form in the publicly accessible electronic database of the Institute of Hospitality Management in Prague.

Signature

…………………………………… Bianca Nicole Necpal

In…………….. on 13.06.2019

I would firstly like to thank my thesis advisor Mgr. Šárka Masárová, Ph.D for the valuable guidance, patience and immerse knowledge whenever it was needed. Moreover, I would like to express gratitude to the Institute of Hospitality Management in Prague for the education acquired during my three years of studies.

Abstract

NECPAL, Bianca. History and Analysis of Chinese Restaurants in a Selected Region. [Bachelor dissertation] Institute of Hospitality Management in Prague. Prague: 2019. 55 pages.

This Bachelors thesis entitled History and analysis of Chinese Restaurants in Vienna gives an overview of the history of Chinese immigrants in Austria, Chinese restaurants in Vienna, the regional Chinese cuisines and dining etiquette in the Chinese culture. Furthermore, there will be an analysis of five Chinese restaurants in Vienna which will be conducted through the marketing research Mystery shopping. There will be a Mystery shopping manual made up with 7 categories that will observe: Website, Arrival and Greeting, Staff, Environment of the restaurant, Quality of services, Menu and quality of food and the overall impression which will help to evaluate the quality of services. This will help to achieve the main aim of this thesis, which is to find out if traditional Chinese restaurants are offering the same quality of services. Furthermore, to find out if the personal evaluation from the Mystery shopping is in accordance/discordance to the general opinion of guests’ reviews on Tripadvisor and Google. To help to achieve this aim two research questions were set, the first one if the quality of services in the five chosen restaurants are similar and the second research question if the personal evaluation conducted through the Mystery shopping manual is in accordance with the online reviews of each restaurant. Both of the research questions could be answered because the quality of services is on the same level but the newer the restaurants is the better the offered quality of services becomes. Furthermore, similarities between online reviews and the personal evaluation could be found in four out of five observed restaurants but the differences of the one who was not in accordance was not too different from the personal evaluation.

Keywords: Analysis, Austria, Chinese restaurants, History, Mystery shopping, Vienna, Quality of services Table of Contents

INTRODUCTION 1

1 THEORETICAL PART 3

1.1 IMMIGRATION IN AUSTRIA 3 1.1.1 CHINESE IMMIGRANTS IN AUSTRIA 4 1.1.2 FIELD OF ACTIVITIES OF CHINESE IMMIGRANTS IN AUSTRIA 4 1.1.3 CHINESE RESTAURANTS IN VIENNA 5 1.2 CHINESE CUISINE 8 1.2.1 DIVERSE REGIONAL CUISINES 9 1.2.2 TASTE AND AROMA OF CHINESE DISHES 9 1.2.3 REGIONAL CUISINES 10 1.3 DINING ETIQUETTE IN THE CHINESE CULTURE 13 1.3.1 TYPICAL DINING ETIQUETTE IN CHINESE RESTAURANTS 14 1.4 METHODOLOGY 15 1.4.1 MYSTERY SHOPPING 15 1.4.2 USED METHODOLOGY 16

2 PRACTICAL PART 17

2.1.1 PHASE I – PREPARATION AND DESCRIPTION OF THE CHOSEN RESTAURANTS 17 2.1.2 DESCRIPTION OF THE SELECTED RESTAURANTS 18 2.1.3 PHASE II - MYSTERY SHOPPING 24 2.1.4 PHASE IIA - MYSTERY SHOPPING IN THE CHOSEN RESTAURANTS 29 2.1.5 PHASE III - EVALUATION FROM THE MYSTERY VISITS 33 2.2 ONLINE REVIEW ANALYSIS 41 2.2.1 PROCESS OF ANALYZING TRIPADVISOR REVIEWS 42 2.2.2 SHU RESTAURANT 42 2.2.3 CHINAZENTRUM ZHONG XIN RESTAURANT 43 2.2.4 GOLDENER DRACHE 44 2.2.5 HAO NOODLE AND TEA 44 2.2.6 MAMA LIU AND SONS 45

3 RESULTS 46

3.1 RESULTS FROM THE ONLINE REVIEW ANALYSIS 47

4 RECOMMENDATIONS AND CONCLUSION 49

4.1 RECOMMENDATIONS 49 4.2 CONCLUSION 52

LIST OF REFERENCES 54

APPENDIX 55

List of tables

Table Page

TABLE 1 NAMES OF THE FIVE CHOSEN RESTAURANTS ...... 18 TABLE 2 - MYSTERY SHOPPING RATINGS ...... 28 TABLE 3 - EVALUATION OF EACH CATEGORY IN EACH RESTAURANT ...... 34 TABLE 4 – TRIPADVISOR REVIEWS FOR SHU RESTAURANT ...... 42 TABLE 5 – COMPARISON BETWEEN ONLINE REVIEWS AND MYSTERY SHOPPING ...... 43 TABLE 6 - TRIPADVISOR REVIEWS FOR CHINAZENTRUM ...... 43 TABLE 7 – COMPARISON OF ONLINE REVIEWS AND MYSTERY SHOPPING FOR CHINAZENTRUM ...... 43 TABLE 8 - TRIPADVISOR REVIEWS FOR GOLDENER DRACHE ...... 44 TABLE 9 – COMPARISON OF ONLINE REVIEWS AND MYSTERY SHOPPING FOR GOLDENER DRACHE ...... 44 TABLE 10 TRIPADVISOR REVIEWS FOR HAO NOODLE AND TEA ...... 45 TABLE 11 COMPARISON OF ONLINE REVIEW AND MYSTERY SHOPPING FOR HAO NOODLE AND TEA ...... 45 TABLE 12 – TRIPADVISOR REVIEWS FOR MAMA LIU AND SONS ...... 45 TABLE 13 – COMPARISON OF ONLINE REVIEWS AND MYSTERYSHOPPING FOR MAMA LIU AND SONS ...... 46

List of graphs

Graph Page

FIGURE 1 – TOTAL SCORE FOR WEBSITE AND SOCIAL MEDIA ...... 35 FIGURE 2 – TOTAL SCORE FOR ARRIVAL AND GREETINGS ...... 36 FIGURE 3 – TOTAL SCORE FOR STAFF ...... 37 FIGURE 4 – TOTAL SCORE FOR ENVIRONMENT OF RESTAURANT ...... 38 FIGURE 5 – TOTAL SCORE FOR QUALITY OF SERVICES ...... 39 FIGURE 6 – TOTAL SCORE FOR MENU AND QUALITY OF FOOD ...... 40 FIGURE 7 – TOTAL SCORE FOR OVERALL IMPRESSION ...... 41 FIGURE 8 – TOTAL SCORE OF ALL GROUPS ...... 46 FIGURE 9 - COMPARISON OF ONLINE REVIEWS AND MYSTERY SHOPPING IN % ...... 48 FIGURE 10- COMPARISON OF POINTS GIVEN IN TRIPADVISOR AND PERSONAL EVALUATION ...... 48

Introduction

As pasta to Italians, noodles and rice are an essential food to the Chinese but also to people all around the world who enjoy eating at Chinese restaurants. The popularity of Chinese restaurants is not something that has developed in the past few years. Chinese restaurants and the Chinese cuisine are really popular in nearly every corner in the world and also in Austria. The amount of Chinese restaurants in Vienna increases every year and nowadays you can find next to Kebab and Pizza vendors nearly on every second corner either a Chinese restaurant or a Chinese street vendor. But not all of them sell solely Chinese dishes. Most of the restaurants offer Asian cuisine, which includes not only Chinese cuisine but also Japanese, Thai, Vietnamese or dishes that have been modernized to Austro-Chinese food. Although these restaurants are presented as Chinese restaurants on Tripadvisor, Google and even on their websites, when looking deeply into their menu you can find mostly Asian dishes and not traditional Chinese dishes. Only a few restaurants specialize in solely Chinese cuisine and some of them specialize only on a specific Chinese region. This thesis deals with the analysis of the quality of services provided by typical Chinese restaurants in a selected region.

The main aim of this thesis is to find out if traditional Chinese restaurants offer the same quality of services. The research aims as well to examine the accordance or discordance from online reviewing websites with the personal evaluation conducted through the Mystery shopping method. In the end, there will be a recommendation on how the restaurants can improve their services.

There are two research questions:

Research question no. 1: Is the quality of offered services in traditional Chinese restaurants on the same level? Research question no. 2: Is the personal evaluation through the Mystery shopping method in accordance to the opinion of guest’s reviews on Online reviewing sites?

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The bachelor thesis is divided into three parts. In the first part, the theoretical part there will be an overview and history of Chinese people in Vienna and Chinese restaurants in Vienna. Furthermore, the theoretical part will have an introduction to the regional Chinese cuisines and their dining culture. A literature review in the form of books, national and international government statistics, a review of professional institutes and organizations, websites and newspaper articles are going to be conducted to help the reader to better understand the topic. Furthermore, in the chapter Methodology an introduction to the Mystery shopping method will be introduced and also the whole process of creating the Mystery shopping manual for this thesis.

In the second part, the practical part, there will be a description and analysis of the five Chinese restaurants. The qualitative research method will be used more specifically the Mystery shopping method. This marketing tool is suitable for controlling and evaluating the provided services according to their criteria. The restaurants will be evaluated and ranked and compared if they were ranked similar. The collected data will later be compared with online reviews to find out if the personal evaluation is in accordance with other guests’ opinions. In the last part of this thesis recommendations for every restaurant will be given.

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1 THEORETICAL PART

1.1 Immigration in Austria Austria and especially Vienna has a long history of immigration. Since the 18th century, Austria has been an appealing country for foreign workers from south Germany, Switzerland, and north Italy until the 19th century. Vienna’s population grew yearly by a percentage of 1.7 which increased to 2% because of the expansion of the city to its outside villages. (Pammer, 2002)

With around 235.000 inhabitants by the end of the 18th century, the population grew to 2.239.000 in 1916 which was the peak. High birthrate and two-thirds of immigration was the reason that until 1880 the population grew rapidly. For the next two centuries, this changed when the birthrate and the immigration rate balanced out. (Bauer, 2008)

After 1945 and the following few decades Austria became an important transit country for immigrants, especially from Eastern Europe and the Balkan. Around 1.4 million immigrants lived in Austria after the Second World War and half a million immigrants, so- called displaced persons – eg. Expellees, refugees or Jewish refugees waited in Austria to be sent to other countries like the United States of America, Australia or Canada.

After the Prague spring in 1968 more than 160.000 Czech and Slovaks came to Austria. After the revolution, many Czechoslovaks stayed in Austria and whereas some of them immigrated to other countries or went back to Czechoslovakia and only 12.000 stayed at the end. (Volf, 1995)

From the 1950s Austria was suffering from a labor deficit and in the following decade's many immigrants, mostly men without their families from Yugoslavia, Turkey, and Italy came to Austria as Gastarbeiter- “a person with temporary permission to work in another country.” (Bauer, 2008)(Oxforddictionaries, 2019)

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1.1.1 Chinese immigrants in Austria

According to Statistik Austria, there are currently 15.700 Chinese people living in Austria and 9.653 in the capital city Vienna. The number of ethnic Chinese in Austria is estimated to 30.000 which are people who were already born in Austria, asylum seekers and illegal immigrants. Furthermore, most Chinese came from the cities of Qingtian and Wenzhou and in the past few years, many came from the poorer cities like Fujian and Dongbei. The first two Chinese immigrants in Austria who arrived in Vienna in 1780 were two boatmen on an Austro-East India Company. By the end of the 19th century, many Chinese businessmen and workers came to Austria, and also some officers for training in the Austrian army. (Anonymous, 2010) After the First World War the first Chinese families settled down in Austria and by the beginning of the Second World War around 600 Chinese people were living in Austria, according to the Österreichischer Integrationsfond. With the arrival of more and more Chinese immigrants, the first Chinese restaurants were established at the beginning of 1950. In 1978 China went through an economic reform where it relieved the migration policies and made it easier for Chinese people to emigrate. (Zhao, 2010) Student exchange programs were also promoted, where the Chinese government sent students to countries like the United States of America, the United Kingdom, and Japan and also to Austria, in hope of bringing them back with the gained know-how to rebuild China. (Otchet, 2006)

1.1.2 Field of activities of Chinese Immigrants in Austria

The Chinese community in Austria mostly specializes in gastronomy, because the demand for Asian cuisine is really high. In the 1980s there were already around 120 Chinese restaurants in the capital city alone. Many Chinese people came in the years from 1993 to Austria with a tourist visa, where they could easily gain a work permit. This led to a rapid increase for Chinese restaurants and at the time there were around 1100 restaurants that specialized in Asian cuisine in Austria. Around 90 percent of Chinese immigrants work in the gastronomy. Over time many businesses opened in order to deliver these restaurants with food, this resulted in new export and import companies that not only delivered food from China but also Chinese traditional antiques. In the fourth district of Vienna on the

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most famous food market “Naschmarkt” and around, most shops are managed by Chinese people where they sell not only food but also clothes and other stuff and these small shops are also really popular in other districts. In the past few years, many opened travel agencies and many Chinese started to specialize in Chinese traditional medicine like acupuncture. Furthermore, there are some teachers who teach Taijiquan or Qigong. (Gumpenberger, et. al, 2010) The Chinese community also has its own phone books where all the services are listed that are provided by Chinese people. According to the latest edition of the phone book (2010), there are 42 supermarkets, 1168 Asian restaurants, 16 travel agencies with Chinese employees or Chinese general managers, and 9 religious organizations, 7 insurance companies that specialize on Chinese inhabitants, 6 Hotels, 6 Chinese schools, and other services. (Phonebook, 2010) With all the services they are providing they try to live their lives like they would in their home country. One of the biggest problems is that it decreases their language and cultural barriers. Their level of education is not always high and their knowledge of German is not good which leads to why the Chinese community is usually really close with each other and many managers employ their own family members or someone from their circle of friends. (Zhao, 2010) This can be felt when visiting a Chinese restaurant, where the employees cannot speak proper German and have a strong accent. Furthermore, by observing Chinese restaurant nearly no restaurant employes waiters or cooks outside of their own heritage.

1.1.3 Chinese restaurants in Vienna

The very first Chinese restaurant was opened in 1920 in the twelfth district of Vienna, with only four to five tables, where mostly only Chinese people ate. It was later destroyed in the Second World War and after that two new restaurants were opened in 1940. The first Chinese restaurant “Goldener Drache” that exists to this day was opened in 1968 by a Taiwanese immigrant family. The restaurant was an expensive upscale banquette restaurant with typical Chinese dishes, which at that time was extraordinary to the Viennese people. According to Daniel Wu the manager of the “Goldener Drache”, who inherited the restaurant from his father, said that back in the 1960s most of the guests were diplomats and the Japanese delegation. (Müller, 2018)

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The increase of popularity of Chinese restaurants led to having around 120 restaurants in the 1980s in Vienna alone. At the moment more than 1200 Chinese restaurants in Austria are in business. Most Chinese restaurants were opened by immigrants from the Chinese region of Qingtian, who were mostly farmers or workers. The Qingtian region is one of the poorest regions in China and a region where migration to other countries is really popular. (Zhao, 2010) A study by Hong Liu (2006) says that out of the 40.000 legal emigrated Qingtian Chinese were 50% farmers, 25% workers, 12.5% retailers, 7.5% students, and 5% others. Most of them do not have the right skills to work in the gastronomy and that is the reason why many Chinese immigrants started to work in retail but also in other parts of gastronomy like cafes, pizza places, and Japanese restaurants. The Qingtian region is not popular for their cuisine, so most cooks in those restaurants did not learn how to cook and were not cooking traditional Chinese dishes. Some restaurants tried to cook traditional dishes from the Qingtian region, but put ketchup on the food, because that was how Austrians liked it. Additionally, they started to cook food that was similar to Austrian cuisine and later they started to offer Chinese dishes from other European countries that became popular there, for example, Beijing duck. Many Chinese restaurants started to cook more beef than pork dishes, although in China it is the opposite and they do not cook a lot of beef. According to Daniel Wu, Austrians have always preferred sweet, crispy and fried dishes, which are served with sweet sauces. This is why many restaurants offer for example Fried chicken with sweet-sour sauce or Crispy duck with spicy sauce and many other dishes. Furthermore, in Austro-Chinese restaurants, they prefer to use meat from the breast, which is mostly unpopular in China because they tend to eat every part of the animal. Furthermore, many Chinese restaurants in Austria started to use more vegetables from the tin like bamboo or bean sprouts and do not use fresh ingredients because it is easier to store them for a longer time and the import of fresh vegetables from China is more expensive. (Müller, 2018)

Over the years many Chinese restaurants decided to enlarge their menu by Japanese, Thai, Vietnamese or other Asian cuisines as well as renovate Chinese restaurants to modern Asian-Fusion restaurants. Many sushi places are managed nowadays by Chinese immigrants rather than Japanese people. To saturate the demand of Asian cuisine and to

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balance out the fact that there are not many qualified cooks who specialize on Chinese cuisine, new types of restaurants were established who started to offer food from all East Asian countries and started to change into Running sushi restaurants or All-you-can-eat buffets. As mentioned before many restaurant owners employ people from their own community, which leads to a decrease in the qualities of the cooks. Most Chinese immigrants come from poor regions of China and do not bring the necessary skills and education to work in the kitchen. Chinese restaurant owners usually have problems finding new cooks. Today, only one cook in Vienna has an education from a cooking academy in traditional Chinese cuisine. According to Kaminski (2011), it is Wu Liming a chef in the restaurant called “Green Cottage”. Before he came to Austria he was a cook in a popular restaurant in Hangzhou. In the service restaurants also employ waiters and waitresses who are family members or people from the community, because it is easier for them to talk to the cooks in the kitchen, who mostly speak broken German. According to Dr. Jian Zhao, a restaurant owner and honorary president of the Association of Chinese gastronomy in Austria he thinks that in the next five years the problem of finding the right and qualified staff will still exist and Chinese restaurants will start to expand their food offer and offer more pan-Asian cuisines. (Mosleh, 2014) Zhu Maozou, Vicepresident of the Chinese Association for Gastronomy explained this problem in that restaurant owners want to bring more authentic dishes to the customers but they do not have cooks who are capable of cooking traditional dishes. The reason for this is that the Visa regulations for Chinese people are strict. Following this the Chinese restaurant owners start to recruit cooks from Vietnam or Thailand who are already in Austria. (Kastenhofer, 2016) At the moment many restaurants in Vienna are starting to serve more dishes that are more traditional and popular in China than in Austria, because of the increase of the Chinese community and more tourists from China. In the second district, a Hotpot restaurant was opened which is really popular in China. Also, many restaurants decided to enlarge their menu by more traditional fish and seafood. (Müller, 2010)

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1.2 Chinese cuisine

Chinese cuisine is a big part of the Chinese culture. In many Chinese restaurants outside of China, Cantonese cuisine is being offered. But the Chinese cuisine has even more cuisines to offer. The Chinese cuisines are divided into four big categories: the Sichuan cuisine, the Shandong cuisine, the Cantonese cuisine, and the Huaiyang cuisine, where every category is subdivided into other regional cuisines. Every province from North, West, South, and East has its own specialties.

The Chinese put a big emphasize on color, aroma, and flavor of food and drinks, but also on the combination of the different kind of foods and the right atmosphere and surroundings. (Li, 1998)

The Han people of China, which is the largest ethnic groups in China, influenced a lot of food habits and traditions in culinary, but also other ethnic groups like Tibet people or many Muslim people, who live in China. Over the years many foreign foods were brought to China, which are becoming more and more popular, for example, tomatoes, watermelons or bananas. Chinese use mostly basic food that they can turn into many different dishes with all kinds of flavors and aromas. Additionally, they eat nearly everything that is eatable and avoid very little foods. (Newman, 2004)

Their staple food is mostly grain, like rice, noodles, wheat, and millet. Dairy products are mostly avoided because many Chinese people suffer from lactose intolerance. According to Pamela Goyan Kittler (2012), they eat a lot of tofu, soy milk; small bones from fish and food where bones are cooked, to get their daily amount of calcium. They believe that by eating the right food they can prolong their life and ensure their good health because for them food and medicine go one in one and both of them providing nutrition and health. (Kittler, 2012) “They use philosophic opposing forces to maintain balance, harmony and good health, dividing almost all foods and health into two forces yin and yang. (…) They recommend yin foods to treat yang health conditions and yang foods to treat those that are yin.”

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According to this theory they believe in the harmony of the positive and negative, by eating the right amount of bad and good foods for our body. (Newman, 2004, p.13)

1.2.1 Diverse Regional Cuisines

“Traditionally, there are eight main regional cuisines or the Eight Major Dishes Systems. The names of these systems are based on their geographical locations. The Wan System (Anhui province), the Yue System (Cantonese province), the Ming System (Fujian province), the Xiang System (Hunan province), the Su System (Jiangsu province), the Lu System (Shandong province), the Chuan System (Sichuan province) and the Zhe System (Zhejiang province). Sometimes four of the Eight Major Dishes Systems are given greater emphasis, and are considered to dominate the culinary heritage of China; we call them the “Four Major Dishes Systems.” (Shan, 2009) There is a big debate on how many traditional cuisines exist in Chinese cuisine since China is a big country and each region and ethnic group has its own cooking traditions. However, there are at least four major cuisines which can be divided into two groups, because many think that dividing the Chinese cuisines into just four categories is not enough. One way of characterizing the four major dish systems is by the four regions like the North, East, South, and West and others speak of the Cantonese cuisine, Shandong cuisine, Sichuan cuisine and the Huaiyang cuisine. But these can also be put together, where the Cantonese cuisine represents the south, the Sichuan cuisine the western region, Huaiyang the east and the Shandong or Beijing cuisine representing the north side. Each geographical location has its own specifics of preparing food and what ingredients are dominant. (Law and Meng, 2004)

1.2.2 Taste and Aroma of Chinese Dishes

The Art of preparing a good Chinese dish is the perfect balance between the aroma, color and the taste and missing only one of these things would not make the perfect dish that China is most famous for. Chinese dishes should be appealing to the eye when served and there should be a balance between how much meat is used and how much non-meat ingredients are used, like vegetables, noodles or rice. Every ingredient should have a different color, taste, and aroma to make the dish special and the combination of these

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ingredients should be balanced out. This means that it should not be too spicy, too sweet, too salty or too sour. The aroma of the finished product is achieved by the different spices and base ingredients like garlic, onions, ginger, pepper and different kind of oils like sesame oil. The taste of the food can be influenced by these aromas, but also by the cooking technique. The most popular cooking techniques in the Chinese kitchen are stir- frying, boiling, frying, roasting, steaming and simmering. Every cooking method gives the food a different flavor and can maintain the natural taste and juice. The color of the food can be influenced by the color of the vegetables, meat and also spices that can color the food. (Liu, 2010)

1.2.3 Regional Cuisines

This chapter will introduce the four major regional cuisines in China. Unfortunately, there are not many books or publications for regional cuisines available in English language or German language. Mostly only recipes books for Chinese dishes can be found where only a small chapter focuses on the regional cuisine and the rest are recipes. Many publications that were found are written in Chinese. I. Northern Cuisine Popular regions of the northern cuisine are Beijing, Shandong, Tianjin, Inner Mongolia, Xi´an, Northeast China, and many other parts. The climate in those regions is continental with cold winters, hot summers and with low annual precipitation. This cuisine uses pork, lamb, beef, mutton, fowl dishes, and celery cabbage. Fish is also consumed in these regions but mostly in dried and salted form. (Simoons, 1991) The northern dishes are mostly salty and simple with fewer vegetables and more wheat and millet, like dumplings, noodles or baked buns. They cook their dishes with a lot of oil and meat, especially red meat is more popular than in other regional cuisines. The northern also use a lot of onions and garlic as the base ingredient. Over the years they started to add chili to their dishes too. (Reid, 2009) “The most popular seasonings used are soy sauce, vinegar, garlic, scallions, ginger, leeks, star anise, sweet bean sauces, chili peppers, and sesame oil. Northern chefs skillfully make use of seasonings to add richness to its dishes without covering up the natural flavor of the ingredients.” (Wu, 2018a) The dish should have a perfect balance of rich flavor but not too over spiced and a mild flavor and also a balance

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between sweet and spicy, where it is not too sweet and not too spicy. Only if a chef masters this balance the dish is well-prepared. Another way of preparing a successful dish is not only by balancing out the aromas and the flavor but also the color and the nutritional aspect of the finished dish. (Simoons, 1991) Northern foods are usually boiled, braised, stewed, steamed, roasted, glazed, deep-fried, or stir-fried. Boiling is most important, not only because it is the usual method of preparing noodles, but also because soups from thin and clear to stew-like are universal and a key part of virtually every meal; they are even parts of snacks. Cooking in covered, slatted bamboo steamers over a water-filled vessel is perhaps the next most common method. The most famous Chinese method, however, is Zhao or stir-frying. Thinly cut ingredients are stirred rapidly in very hot oil, searing them quickly. Sometimes the ingredients were blanched briefly first, other times stir-fried first, and then water added to the pan. Cooking is finished by stewing. While more oil is used in stir-frying in Northern than Southern cuisine, it is always nutritious, flavorful, colorful, and with a wonderful aroma.” (Zuo, 1998)

II. Eastern Cuisine The eastern cuisine includes dishes from Shanghai, Hangzhou, Suzhou, Kiangsu, Chekiang, and Fukien. The climate in the eastern part of China has usually more precipitation and milder winters, which is a benefit in growing more crops. The fertile soil in this region allows growing many different vegetables. The eastern cuisine is mostly sweet and delicate, with mild seasoning. The dishes are not as oily as in other parts of China and they use a lot of sugar but also salt to make the flavors richer. (Simoons, 1991) “Soy sauce, too, is a common flavoring, and the region is most famous for its red cooking dishes (long, slow cooking with soy sauce), to which rice, wine, sugar, gingerroot, and sometimes salt, scallions, and other flavorings are added.” (Simoons, 1991, p. 50) Their staple food is rice and wheat and they use a lot of seafood, chicken, pork and vegetables and other flavorings such as vinegar, rice wine, rice vinegar, and sugar. Many dishes are slow cooked like pork and chicken, but can also be steamed in a pot with other ingredients. The food is cooked in sauces, which gives the meat, for example, a tender texture, but they also stir-fry a lot, where the ingredients are put into a pan with a sauce. (Parkinson, 2018) Vinegar is also really famous in the eastern region where they produce

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the “Chinkiang vinegar” a really thick, dark and sweet vinegar mostly used as a dip. Another famous product from the eastern part of China is rice wine, which is either, drank or put into dishes. (Simoons, 1991) The Eastern cuisine and to be more specific is also famous for the 1000-year-old egg and the Stinky Tofu. (Parkinson, 2018)

III. Western Cuisine Sichuan is the biggest region of China, which is located in the southwest. Therefore, one of the most famous cuisines of the western region is Sichuan cuisine. Other popular regions in the west are Tibet, Xinjiang, and Gansu. These regions are influenced by Muslim food, where they cook their food “Halal” but are not considered as religious cuisines. The climate in this region is subtropical, which means that it is humid with little perception and hot summers. Because of the mountains, which are around it is not that cold in the wintertime and although there are a lot of mountains and uneven floor the region is fertile. They harvest a lot of rice but also other crops like wheat, oats and soybeans and exotic fruits. (Simoons, 1991) The Western cuisine and to be more specific the Sichuan cuisine tends to be spicy. Frederick J. Simoons (1991) describes in his book that according to some writers observations they tend to use a lot of spice because of the subtropical climate which covers the smell of spoiling food but also it causes people to sweat which cools them down. Some people also think that salt for some Chinese is scarcity because the region is far away from countries where salt is produced, so they try to avoid using salt or use a little salt to flavor their foods and instead they use a lot of spices. Furthermore, western cuisine includes a lot of preserved foods, like dried fruits, a lot of salted, spiced, smoked and pickled foods, which is used in flavoring foods. Their dishes are oily and sesame oil is most commonly used. The western cuisine also mixes all kinds of flavors and from one dish you can taste sweet, salty, sour and spicy at the same time. The most common meat types are sheep; mutton, beef, horse meat. Some regions in the west use less or hardly any pork because of their religious beliefs. (Wu, 2018b) But the Sichuan cuisine, for example, uses a lot of pork, chicken, and duck. The western cooking methods are stir-frying, roasting and steaming. (Simoons, 1991)

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IV. Southern Cuisine The southern cuisine is one of the most popular Chinese cuisines especially outside of China. The most popular regional cuisines are the Cantonese (Guangdong) and the Fukien cuisine (Southern Fujian). Other parts of the southern part of China like Hunan, Guizhou, and Kwangtung also have their typical dishes. The southern region of China is mostly subtropical to tropical. Frederick J. Simoons (1991) describes in his book that the summers are hot and humid and the winter is mild with no frost. The southern cuisine is sour and spicy which is cooked simply and with natural ingredients and cooks tend to cook everything when cooking for example meat, like the inner parts of the meat, which is usually thrown away. (Simoons, 1991) The reason for this is that many people living in the southern part are farmers and do not have that much money. They grow their own fruits and vegetables in their garden. The southern cuisine does not have a lot of wastage since they either try to cook everything or they preserve the food to make it last longer. Because of the hot weather in the southern region of China, most of the foods are sun- dried, pickled in vinegar or cured. The most common ingredients that are preserved are vegetables, tofu, meat, fish and fruits and others. These preservations give the southern cuisine its typical sour taste, but other typical flavors in these cuisines are spices especially chili and ginger, which tends to cover the flavors of foods that are not as tasteful. (Hinsbergh, 2018)

To sum this chapter up, every region in China and even every village has its own specific cooking traditions. They use different kind of ingredients depending on their region and what foods are available. Because China is a big country with many different regional cusines not every cuisine could be introduced.

1.3 Dining Etiquette in the Chinese Culture

The dining etiquette in China is differently than in western countries. Chinese like to spend time with their friends and families and inviting them for dinner or parties is very common in China, where they can entertain their guests. For each occasion there are some basic rules which should be followed if you do not want to be impolite and disrespect the host.

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These rules came from the Confucius era and were established 500 BC. He taught his students basic table manners, but also when they should eat and what they should drink. In the following centuries new rules to his teaching were added. For example, meat with bones should be on the left side of the plate, cut meat should be on the right side of the plate and sauces on the bottom part of the plate. Another thing that you should not do in the Chinese culture is to season the finished dish, especially in front of the host. The host in this case must apologize for not cooking the food correctly and this leads to him feeling humiliated. Not only rules for the food and how to consume a dish were stated but also how to behave in front of people. The interaction between people with higher rank and lower rank and the interaction between younger people and elders is very important in China. (Witt, 2006)

In China everything is allowed at the table what is forbidden in other countries. For example slurping, chewing, burping and eating and talking at the same time is allowed and it means that the food is good. In contrast to western countries, where putting your finger into your mouth to pull out bones or other things is seen as disrespectful, in China it is normal and allowed. People in China do not use toothpicks or cover their mouth with napkins but they spit the food usually on the plate but also on the floor. The tables after finishing the food do not look clean. Fritz and Frisch (2013) found out that while most people try to leave the table clean, without spilling food or drinks on the table or the tablecloth in Western countries, people in China do not care how they leave the table behind and you can see dirt everywhere. Many Chinese people also smoke at the restaurant, while they are eating. (Berners, et. al, 2013)

1.3.1 Typical dining etiquette in Chinese restaurants

In Chinese restaurants in China it is most likely that you will sit on a round table. Many restaurants offer only one menu for the whole group and usually the person who receives it will choose the food for the whole table. This people will also pay for the whole table, because in China splitting the check is disrespectful to others. Another way of choosing the person who will pay for the table is the person who is sitting next to the door.

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The person who is ordering the food usually chooses up to four courses. The first course is usually a cold and hot dish. The soup is served after the main course, not like in western countries as the starter and as a dessert Chinese prefer to eat fruits. Many countries in the world eat their food quietly and with closed mouth but in the Asian culture it is disrespectful to eat with a closed mouth. Chinese eat loudly and with their mouth open but also talk loudly because it symbolizes that the food is good and they enjoy it. (Zhou, 2005 )

1.4 METHODOLOGY 1.4.1 Mystery Shopping This chapter is focused on the methodology that will be used in the analytical part of this thesis. Since the practical part will focus on the analysis of five chosen Chinese restaurants in terms of the quality of service and quality of product the Mystery shopping method was chosen. This method is really popular and in the hospitality and gastronomy industry because it can evaluate the quality of services and the customer can observe carefully the establishment but also how the employees interact with the guests. The Mystery shopping method is considered as a quantitative market research method but can also be considered as a qualitative research method for the individual establishment, since Mystery shopping visits are not as frequent. When doing a Mystery shopping visit there also needs to be a person who is going to evaluate the establishment. This person is called a Mystery shopper or Mystery guest who has to behave as a normal guest and in no way should be uncovered to be a Mystery guest because this can influence the behavior of the employee where he can change his attitude and the way he is serving the guests. Before every visit, the Mystery shopper needs to be carefully trained and follow a pre-given scenario. Additionally, the Mystery guest needs to be more aware of his surrounding in comparison to visiting as a regular guest. This includes observing the establishment in terms of the environment of the restaurant, like cleanliness, atmosphere, observing the employees how they behave not only to the mystery guest but also to the guest around him and also the quality of service and the food. After the visit, the Mystery guest needs to be able to give feedback in his own thoughts and opinions. (Szwarc, 2005)

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1.4.2 Used Methodology

The main aim of this thesis is to find out if Chinese restaurants are offering the same quality of services. To identify what high quality of services means the five chosen restaurants will be analyzed and compared with each other according to seven categories that sum up the overall quality of services by the Mystery shopping method. The seven categories are: the website, arrival and greeting, staff, environment of the restaurant, quality of services, quality of food and menu and overall impression. For each category there are parameters that are going to be evaluated and scored. Each category has a different score that can be achieved. All the scores obtained are going to be categorized and an overall satisfaction and stars are going to be assigned. The restaurant that collects more points in each category than another and has the highest overall score for all categories offers the highest quality of services.

The market research of this bachelor thesis will undergo four phases. The first phase will be the preparation and description of the five restaurants surveyed with the setting of the basic criteria. In the second phase, the mystery shopping questionnaire and evaluation sheet will be created. The system of scoring will be introduced. After the preparatory work, the mystery visit will be realized, by the author as a mystery guest. The third phase is the evaluations. The scores will be put into a pre-prepared evaluation sheet. This evaluation sheet is included in the analytical part. Afterward, after the implementation, all collected data will be analyzed and compared to the online review site Tripadvisor, which is the fourth phase. The timeframe from which the reviews are going to be evaluated is from the creation of the Tripadvisor site, which means from the first entry on Tripadvisor up to the date, when the reviews were analyzed which is June, 1st 2019. The last phase of this bachelor thesis will be the conclusion and recommendation.

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2 PRACTICAL PART The practical part of this thesis is focused on the overview and analysis of five Chinese restaurants in Vienna to find out if Chinese restaurants offer the same quality of services. This chapter is divided into three subchapters. The first part consists of a brief summary of the five restaurants that were chosen. The second part is focused on the methodology that was used which is Mystery shopping. The third part is going to be the implementation of the Mystery shopping with the evaluation. The last part will focus on the Tripadvisor analysis, where all five restaurants are going to be observed and analyzed.

2.1.1 Phase I – Preparation and description of the chosen restaurants

This phase is going to feature all the preparation that had to be done before the analysis. This chapter starts with the setting of the basic criteria, on which the mystery shopping manual will be conducted. In the second step, there will be an overview of Chinese restaurants in Vienna and which restaurants were chosen. There will be a short introduction to all five restaurants.

Basic Criteria: 1. The market research took place between 30.11.2018-5.4.2019. 2. The market research took place at the same day (Fridays) and time (17:45-18:15). 3. The market research took place in Vienna, Austria. 4. A two-course menu will be ordered. (Starter and Main course) 5. The ordered food has to be a typical Chinese dish. 6. If possible the ordered food should be the restaurants' specialty.

2.1.1.1 Overview of Chinese restaurants in Vienna

Based on the research on Chinese restaurants in Vienna, before starting to write this thesis it was found that in Vienna, according to Tripadvisor.com there are around 162 restaurants that specialize in Chinese cuisine. Furthermore, when looking for Chinese restaurants on Google the number of Chinese restaurants increases to around 202. The reason for this is that more street vendors who sell Chinese food can be found and more Asian restaurants that are also categorized as Chinese. Although there are a big number of Chinese restaurants in Vienna, not every restaurant focuses solely on Chinese food.

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Most of the restaurants offer Asian cuisines, which includes not only Chinese cuisine but also Japanese, Vietnamese, Taiwanese, Thai and many other Asian cuisines. As already mentioned in the theoretical part of this bachelor thesis, the reason for this is that the Chinese businessmen saw a potential to increase their menu, because the guests like to have a wider variety of dishes offered. For this analysis, five restaurants were chosen that offer only Chinese cuisine and it is also stated on their website that they offer a regional cuisine from China or their dishes prevail on Chinese cuisine. Finding restaurants that offer traditional Chinese cuisine was a little bit hard because when entering “Chinese cuisine” into Tripadvisor´s advanced search box, it still showed all the restaurants that also have Asian, Japanese or Thai cuisines. After having a deeper look into the websites of the various restaurants that claim to offer only Chinese food, five restaurants were picked that were close or defiantly are solely Chinese restaurants. Table 1 below shows the name of the restaurants that were chosen, their addresses and also on which regional cuisine some of them specialize Table 1 Names of the five chosen restaurants

Name of the restaurant Regional cuisine Address SHU Restaurant Vienna Sichuan Cuisine Operngasse 28, 1040 Vienna Chinazentrum Zhong Xin Authentic Chinese cuisine Linke Wienzeile 44, 1040 Vienna Goldener Drache Beijing Cuisine Porzellangasse 33, 1090 Vienna Hao Noodle and Tea Shanghai Cuisine Opernring 19, 1010 Vienna Mama Liu and Son Authentic Chinese cuisine Gumpendorferstraße, 1060 Vienna Source: Own source

2.1.2 Description of the selected restaurants

This capital focuses on the introduction of the five restaurants. All five restaurants are located in the heart of Vienna and near the city center. Only one restaurant, Goldener Drache is located a little bit far away from the center. All restaurants have different designs, interior and offer different dishes.

2.1.2.1 SHU Restaurant The SHU restaurant is located in Operngasse 28, in the fourth district in Vienna just a few meters from the city center. It is opposite of Vienna’s University of Technology and near the metro station U4-Karlsplatz (around 4 minutes walking distance). If you want to visit

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the restaurant with a car it is possible but the parking spaces are limited and you have to pay for a parking ticket. On the Operngasse, there are many other restaurants and cafes, which are also pretty popular especially for the university students that study nearby. The restaurant was opened in 2018 by two young Chinese men, who previously worked in other Asian restaurants and wanted to open a restaurant that specializes only on Sichuan cuisine since this cuisine is one of the most popular regional cuisines in Austria. (Holzer, 2018) The exterior of the restaurant has black walls and two logos with a red map of China. The whole front of the restaurant has large windows overlooking the busy street of Operngasse and makes it curious for people walking by. The restaurant is open from Monday to Saturday and has a rest day on Sunday. The opening hours are from 11:30 until 15:00 and there is a two and a half hour break until 17:30 and the restaurant closes at 22:00.

Interior of the restaurant Right after entering the restaurant you see a small simple bar and on the right and left side you can have a seat. Next, to the door on the right side, you can sit on high chairs and look out while enjoying spicy Sichuan food. On the left side to the door, there are three tables in front of the window. The whole left side has a sofa by the wall. The other side of the restaurant is nearly the same, with the difference that there are high chair and tables on half of the side. The restaurant has 24 seats with an additional 4 seats in front of the bar. In the summer people can enjoy sitting outside of the restaurant with an additional 16 seats. When visiting the SHU restaurant you will not expect a traditional Chinese interior, like many other Asian restaurants in Vienna. The restaurants´ design is minimalistic and modern with small Chinese face masks hung up on the wall. The big windows bring the restaurant a lot of light and air and it does not look too cold. The restaurant has also an industrial touch because of the lights and the visible air conditioner tubes. (Own Observations)

2.1.2.2 Chinazentrum Zhong Xin

The restaurant Chinazentrum Zhong Xin is located on the Linke Wienzeile 44 in the sixth district. It is right next to the open air market called “Naschmarkt”, which is also said to

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be Vienna´s Chinatown. The metro station “Kettenbrückengasse U4” is right across the street. The restaurant has one of the most typical and traditional Chinese dishes on its menus because it offers food for not only Austrians but mainly for the Chinese community living in Vienna. The restaurant wants to make Chinese living in Vienna feel like home since 2002 and most of the guests in the Chinazentrum Zhong Xin are Chinese people. (Restaurants Website) Although the restaurant focuses on Chinese guests and tries to bring authentic food to the table, it still offers other Asian dishes like sushi or curry. The restaurant is located at a corner. There are three red logos with the name of the restaurant hung up. Additionally, next to the door there are two menus, which gives the guest a chance to have a look at what the restaurant offers before entering the restaurant. The restaurant is open every day from 11:00 – 22:00.

Interior of the restaurant Right after entering the restaurant you can see the bar and behind the bar, you see right into the kitchen, where the cooks are preparing the food. The restaurant is pretty big with around 70-75 seating place and additional seating places outside of the restaurant. The tables are mostly close together, so you sit right next to another table. Most of the tables are square tables with usually four seating places next to the window and a two-person table next to it. The restaurant also offers three typical round tables that are popular in Chinese restaurants with a rotating part in the middle of the table. The restaurant gets a lot of light from the big windows, which is supported by the light wall colors. The restaurant has a lot of Chinese decorations on the wall with one big painting with waterfalls and Chinese lanterns are hung up, which gives the restaurant a more authentic Chinese atmosphere. The restaurant also has many flowers and plants all over the restaurant. The interior of the restaurant is slightly old with old and used tables and chairs. (Own Observations)

2.1.2.3 Goldener Drache

The Goldener Drache restaurant opened 56 years ago in 1963 and is located on the Porzellangasse 23 in the ninth district. The metro station “Roßauer Lände U4” is located 10 minutes walking distance and there are two tramway stations around 2 minutes from the restaurant. The restaurant is located a little bit far away from the city center but still

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in the heart of Vienna. You can come with the car to the restaurant since there are more parking spaces available than in the city center but you still have to pay for a parking ticket. The restaurant is under a residential building. There are two logos hung up, one of them also written in Chinese. Before entering the restaurant you see three blackboards, one menu hung up on the wall and also a window, with all of them informing about the menu, lunch menu and specialties of the day. The restaurant offers typical Beijing cuisine and many dishes from the northern part of China as well as dishes that can be found in other Chinese-Asian restaurants. The restaurant is open from 11:30-15:00 afterward the restaurant has a break and is open again from 17:30-23:00. The restaurant is open every day except Monday evenings where according to the restaurant's website there is a theater event.

Interior of the restaurant Since the restaurant is the oldest functioning restaurant the interior has not changed since the first opening and stayed true to its traditional Chinese decorations. The entrance has a beautiful golden archway with dragons and typical Chinese patterns. Walking further inside you will see two additional archways. The restaurant is mostly painted in red and golden colors, which gives the restaurant an authentic feeling. Furthermore, the restaurant has a lot of plants all over the place, also many Chinese paintings hanging on the wall and Chinese lanterns. The restaurant has 90 seating places. Most of the tables are square tables but they also offer many round tables to sit. In the summer you can sit outside in the garden and 25 persons can have a seat there. The restaurant has also a corner for children, with toys. The feeling of being in an authentic Chinese restaurant can also be seen on the waiter´s uniforms because there are wearing traditional clothes, for example, the women wear dresses called cheongsam and man are wearing Chinese tunic suits. (Own Observation)

2.1.2.4 Hao Noodle and Tea The China restaurant Hao Noodle and Tea is another traditional Chinese restaurant that specializes solely on Chinese cuisine especially the Shanghai kitchen. The restaurant is located in the city center on the Opernring 19. It is five minutes walking distance from the metro station U4 – Karlsplatz”. Coming with the car there are parking places in front of

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the restaurant but being in the city center you have to pay for parking tickets. Another option of parking with the car is the underground garage in front of the Viennese State Opera, which is located on the other side of the road and three minutes walking distance. The restaurant is next to a cinema and another restaurant but stands out because of its matte black painted walls. The name of the restaurant has red colors and in the evening it lights red. Above the entrance, you can find the name of the restaurant “HAO” and next to it, it is written in Chinese letters. The restaurant was opened in 2017 and is managed by Family Jin, who also manages a Steakhouse in the city center. There focus in Hao Noodle is to bring the guest traditional Chinese noodle soups but also other Asian fusion dishes from the Shanghai region or from Hong Kong. (Corti, 2017) The restaurant is open every day from 11:30-23:30. (Own Observation)

Interior of the restaurant The restaurant has two floors and when you enter you see the stair upstairs. On the ground floor on the left side of the entrance, there are around 28-30 seating places. Upstairs there is a bar and an additional 34 seating places. The restaurant also offers a room with a 12 seat round table with a view on the Opernring. This room is reserved for groups of 8-12 persons who order from there VIP Menu, which offers authentic Asian fusion cuisine. In the summer there is a terrace in front of the restaurant with an additional 48 seats. The design of the restaurant is modern with a lot of lights, not only from the chandeliers but also from the big windows and open space. The restaurant is held in neutral and earthy colors like different shades of brown, with some plants. The restaurant has only two wall pictures with Chinese letters on it and no other decorations, expect plants on the tables. (Own Observation) Before the restaurant was opened there was an Italian restaurant inside and you can still see the Pizza oven and a prosciutto cutting machine. (Corti, 2017)

2.1.2.5 Mama Liu and Sons Mama Liu and Sons is a family owned restaurant on the Gumpendorferstraße 26 located in the sixth district in Vienna. It is near the city center but also near Mariahilferstraße, which is a really popular shopping street. But most importantly it is also near “Naschmarkt”, which is as already mentioned Vienna´s Chinatown. The nearest metro

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station is U4-Karlsplatz and a bus station is just across the street. There are no parking spaces provided by the restaurant. The restaurant used to be an All-you-can-eat Hot Pot Buffet but the owners changed their concept to an Ala carte menu in 2014, where the guest can choose from a wide variety of Chinese dishes like Hot Pots or homemade Dim Sum. (Corti, 2014) The restaurant is located at a corner and there are logos hung up in black letters and also above the entrance there is a logo. Outside of the restaurant, there are is no menu to be viewed for people walking by. The restaurant is opened from Tuesday to Friday from 17:00-00:00 and on the weekend it is open from 12:00-00:00 and the kitchen closes at 22:30. On Monday the restaurant is closed.

Interior of the restaurant The inside of the restaurant is big with around 95-100 seating places and additional 12 seating places at the bar. Most of the tables are suitable for 5-7 people but it can happen that when you arrive in a group of three persons that you can sit with other people on the same table. Additionally, on the right side of the restaurant, there are high chairs where people can sit alone. In front of this, there are two big square tables for 12-16 persons each. The whole restaurant is open a bright and the interior design of the restaurant is industrial. The bar is covered in mirrors made out of metal which makes the restaurant even bigger. The tables and chairs are all out of wood and have a light brown color and look minimalistic. One of the walls is out of brick and on it, you can see a group of Chinese men dressed in traditional clothes at a table, which is painted on the bricks. On the other side of the restaurant, there is a wallpaper which looks rather oriental than Asian. Furthermore, there is no other decoration which makes the design of the restaurant minimalistic. But the bar can be seen as a decoration because it is pretty big and there are shelves with many bottles from alcohol. On the tables, you also cannot find any decoration only a napkin and on top one pair of chopsticks. (Own Observation)

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2.1.3 Phase II - Mystery shopping This subchapter includes the preparatory work and the implementation process. Criteria for the Mystery visit can be already found in the first phase. This capital will be divided into two parts. In the first one, question paper (included in the Appendix) and the evaluation sheet with the specific seven categories which are going to be observed will be set. This will help and build a bridge for the second part of this capital, the implementation of Mystery shopping where the focus is on the control of the quality of the food, the quality of the services provided and the overall impression. Furthermore, there was also a scenario created which had to be followed when visiting the restaurant and the chosen mystery guest was trained accordingly.

2.1.3.1 Creating a Mystery shopping manual

The main characteristic of the Mystery shopping manual is the focus on the quality of service, quality of food, the environment of the restaurant, the website and the overall impression from a normal customer’s perspective. The mystery shopping questions were mainly inspired by the manuals of The Leading Hotels of the World, Small Leading Hotels of the World and the Accor manual for Mystery guests as well as publications from Researchgate.com. Since the Mystery visits in a hotel restaurant are different than visiting a regular restaurant the author of this thesis made up a Mystery shopping manual by herself, where the main characteristics focuses on the quality of the food, the quality of the service, environment of the restaurant and staff, but also the website which will be observed and analyzed from a normal customer´s perspective. This helps to evaluate the overall quality of services that are provided by the restaurants.

2.1.3.2 Creating the evaluation sheet

The evaluation sheet is going to be divided into seven categories that will guide the Mystery guest in evaluating the Mystery visit and according to which the evaluator is going to proceed. Furthermore, every category is going to be subdivided into parameters that are going to be observed.

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I. Website and Social media II. Arrival and Greeting III. Staff IV. Environment of the restaurant V. Quality of service VI. Menu and Quality of the food VII. Overall impressions

I. Website and Reservation i. Look of the website is going to be the first parameter in the evaluation because it is most likely that a person who wants to visit the restaurant and has not been there yet is going to check the website. The website should be easy to use and have a good overview of the website. Ideally, the menu should be uploaded to the website and additional information like address, phone number and the opening hours should be available. ii. Facebook is really important at this time because it can serve as an additional source of information for the guest and can be updated on a daily basis. Marketing is also mostly done through social media and it can bring new customers to the restaurant. Social media is also another source of reviews.

II. Arrival and Greeting In the second category, the mystery shopper will answer and evaluate four questions about the arrival and the welcoming of the restaurant´s staff in the mystery shopping manual. The arrival and greeting is very important in the evaluation of the restaurant because it is the first physical contact with the customer and it can influence the first impression of the restaurant. Ideally, someone working for the restaurant should acknowledge the guest and greet him. If not while entering the restaurant at least by the table. One member of the staff should ideally bring the guest to the table or point to a free table where the mystery guest can take a seat. The greeting should also be repeated at the departure of the guest, which leaves the guest with a last impression of the restaurant.

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III. Staff The behavior of the staff is one of the most important parameters in evaluating the quality of services. Politeness, friendliness and a smile on a face makes the customer feel welcome and should behave like this at any occasion. The waiter should be attentive and ask if everything is alright. The staff should know everything about the menu and what they are offering and is able to give the customer a recommendation. Serving the food according to the principles of dining etiquette is also a big parameter on how to evaluate the quality of services. Furthermore, the grooming of the staff is also important. In this manual, the uniform is going to be evaluated.

IV. Environment of the restaurant The Restaurant facilities are going to be observed on the cleanliness and the equipments. This parameter is important because it influences if you enjoy sitting in the restaurant or do not feel comfortable there. The toilettes should also be clean and equipped accordingly. Tables should be clean and should not be dirty from the previous guests. Crockery, cutlery and glasses should be clean and polished and have no evidence of damage or dirt. The atmosphere should be appropriate. The lights, music and the overall impression are going to be observed. V. Quality of services The fifth group is going to evaluate the quality of services, not only the serving time but also the Menu. The waiting time for not only the menu but also for the drinks and the food is one parameter that can influence the guest experience and is going to be observed. Sometimes the waiting time can be really long and waiting for the food can be very unpleasant for the guest. The food should be brought to the table at the same time and the basic principles of service should be applied. VI. Quality of the food and Menu In this phase, the mystery guest has the opportunity to evaluate the quality of the product. At first, the food and drink menu will be examined. The food and drink menu reflects the restaurant and it should be clean and easy to read. Because of observing Chinese restaurants, the menu should have a Chinese translation in the

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menu to bring more authenticity. But also the German translations should be grammatically correct with no typos. Does the restaurant offer authentic Chinese dishes that are special and have originality? Was the food prepared according to traditional recipes? Taste of the food should be fresh and it should be served hot. The appearance of the food should be nice. The smell and the taste of the food should also be appealing, this represents that the food is fresh and not old. VII. Overall impressions The last group specializes in the overall impression of the restaurant visit. Price and quality ratio is going to be analyzed if the offered quality of food but also the service is in accordance with the prices. The mystery guest can evaluate the guest return, which is important because it reflects the overall impression of the visit in the restaurant and can also influence if the restaurant is going to be recommended to friends and family.

2.1.3.3 System of scoring

For the evaluation of the categories, a scoring system between 0-10 was set. Where 0 is the lowest score you can get and 10 being the highest score. Every answer needs to be clear and unambiguously so that the score can be assigned accordingly to the scenario of the visit. Furthermore, to keep objectivity dichotomous answers in form of YES/NO were used which were scored with 0 (NO) and 10 (YES) points. (Bauer, Urbahn and Markart, 2003) After every visit, the mystery guest scored the restaurants and put them into the manual from which you can see the total score of each group and then the overall score of all groups for each restaurant. There are 40 questions and the total score that can be achieved is 400 points. For the first category, 30 points can be achieved. In the second category, 50 points can be collected. In evaluating the staff there can be 60 points collected. For the quality of service, a total of 60 points can be collected and for the quality of food 80 points. For the last category, the overall impression 40 points can be achieved. To better answer the second research question and compare the Tripadvisor reviews with the evaluation from the Mystery shopping the restaurants were rated with stars and overall satisfaction was computed. The categories were inspired by Tripadvisor, where 5 stars could be reached. In the table below is an overview of how many points can be achieved and in which category it is categorized.

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Table 2 - Mystery shopping ratings

Category Points achieved Percentage 5* - Excellent 400-356 points 100% - 89% 4,5*- Excellent 355-316 points 88,75 % - 79% 4,0*- Very Good 315-276 points 78,75% - 69% 3,5* -Very Good 275-244 points 68,75% - 61% 3,0* - Average 243-203 points 60,75% -50,75 % 2,5*-Average 202-164 points 50,50% -41% 2,0*- Poor 163-124 points 40,75%-31% 1,5*- Poor 123-82 points 30,75%-20,5% 1* - Terrible > 81 points >20,5% Source: Own source

2.1.3.4 The scenario of the visit In order to be able to compare the results of the analysis with each other, it is important to have the same conditions and criteria. To keep objectivity there will be a scenario that the mystery shopper has to follow. The visit has to take place on a Friday evening between 17:45 and 18:15. After entering the restaurant the mystery guest has to wait at the entrance and see if a member of the staff recognized him and greets him. If someone recognized the guest he should ask if there is a table free and wait to be seated. If nobody recognized the mystery guest after 30 seconds the guest looks for a waiter and approaches him and asks if he can take a seat by himself. When the waiter comes to take the drink order, the mystery guest orders one drink; afterward the guest chooses a starter and a main course. The guest should wait if the staff recommends anything, if not the guest should ask for a food recommendation or a house specialty. After the order and until the food will be delivered to the table the mystery guest will observe the place according to the atmosphere, cleanness, what utensils are on the table, decorations and other things according to the manual. After finishing the food the mystery guest will ask for the bill and will leave the restaurant. After the visit, the mystery guest should fill out the mystery shopping manual. The mystery shopper should know exactly which criteria and questions should be answered before the visit. The accompaniment of the mystery guest should know exactly that it is a mystery visit and should behave professional and trustworthy. In no given way should the accompaniment and the mystery guest be recognized as mystery shoppers.

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2.1.4 Phase IIa - Mystery shopping in the chosen restaurants

The second part of the second phase is the implementation of the Mystery visit. In this subchapter every restaurant´s visit is going to be analyzed and the Mystery visit is going to be described from the Mystery guest perspective. The restaurants are going to be scored and the scores will be put into the evaluation sheet underneath all restaurants. The Mystery visit will be conducted by the author, who will always be accompanied by three friends who are aware of the mystery visit and are trained to act accordingly. The scoring will be done by the author and is not going to be influenced by his accompanies.

2.1.4.1 Mystery Visit at SHU Restaurant

When putting SHU Restaurant into the search engine “Google” the restaurant's website is placed at the first place. The restaurant uses a domain that at the first look you are not sure if the website belongs to the restaurant or if it is a virus. The website has a good overview and you can go through the whole website by just scrolling it and you will find all the necessary information for the restaurant. The website does not provide any menu or pictures of the food and the interior or exterior of the restaurant. The restaurant was visited on Friday the 30th of November 2018 at 18:00. After entering the restaurant I was greeted by two waiters who were standing behind the bar. They approached us and I asked if they have a table for four persons. One of them seated us and the other waitress came with the menu. After few minutes, the waitress took the drink order and brought the drinks within 3 minutes. While bringing the drinks she asked if we are ready to take the order and I asked if she could recommend something. She recommended a starter and main course and could answer other questions that I had about the food, especially about the spiciness of the food and some of the ingredients. The menu was easily readable and clean. The name of the dish was written in English and above it was the Chinese translation in their alphabet and the description of the menu was in German. The starter, a plate with four different small portions (Cumin potatoes, Lotus, Edame, Shanghai Ribs) came after 6 minutes. After 8 minutes the first main course arrived, while still eating the starter. After finishing the starter the plate was taken away and I was still waiting for my food, while my friend already had their main course on the table. After approximately 12 minutes after the starter was served my food (Shu Style

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Beef) came. The food might have come straight from the stove because it was really hot and every ingredient looked fresh. The food was therefore served at various times and not at the same time as in regular restaurants because they do not want to get one of the foods cold, while waiting when the other food is still cooking. The food was delicious and every dish was different in case of aroma, taste and color. After 4 minutes of finishing the meal, the plates were cleaned and we were asked if we want anything else to drink. Afterward we asked for the bill and while the bill was preparing we got a cold plum wine. After paying we were asked if everything was fine and they said goodbye. The restaurant achieved 340 points out of 400.

2.1.4.2 Mystery Visit at Chinazentrum Zhong Xin

The restaurants website is called Chinazentrum-Naschmarkt which is different to the name of the restaurant Chinazentrum Zhong Xin. But when opening the website the correct name of the restaurant is visible. The website has bright colors and the structure is organized well. The website has four menus uploaded: Special menu, Lunch menu, a Regular menu and Breakfast menu. Guest can also reserve a table through the website. The restaurant was visited on Friday the 11th of January 2019 at 17:30. While entering the restaurant we were greeted but there was no eye contact. We waited a few seconds if someone would come but nobody did. One waiter was sitting on a table next to the door and he did not greet but showed us with his hand to take a seat. So we seated ourselves. After we were seated we waited 1-2 minutes for a waiter to come with the menu. When the waitress arrived with the menu, she greeted us and asked us straight away if we want something to drink and came back after 3 minutes with the drinks. She asked if she can take the order because there was a large variety on what to choose from the menu we could not decide what to eat. We asked her if she could recommend us something and she told us that they have a special menu from which you can choose a soup and two small main courses and you get a bowl of rice. This special menu offers only typical authentic Chinese dishes from various Chinese regions and there are also some extravagant dishes like frog legs or duck tongues. The menu had 120-130 dishes to choose from, the name of the dish was written in Chinese, English and German and each group of dishes had 3-5 pictures on the page. After 5 additional minutes, she came and took our order. The soup (Wintermelon soup with mini shrimps) arrived after 4 minutes with a

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spoon. After 7 minutes, while still eating the soup we got one of the first main courses (Cold Salted Duck) and a big bowl of rice. Time after time the rest of the main courses (Crispy duck tongue with Sichuan pepper and Sichuan eggplant) came and the time between the take of the order and the last food to arrive at the table was approximately 15 minutes. The finished bowls of soups were not cleaned after finish eating it and were on the table the whole time. After we finished eating they cleaned the tables. We asked for the bill which came after 3 minutes and paid. We left the restaurant and one of the waiters from behind the bar said goodbye. The restaurant collected 295 out of 400 points.

2.1.4.3 Mystery visit at Goldener Drache

The restaurant has a website that looks old. There is much information available about the restaurant, even with a video about the history of the restaurant. There is a menu uploaded with a lunch menu, different kinds of degustation menus and the regular menu. Additionally there is a link for ordering food online and for reservations. The restaurant Goldener Drache was visited on the 25th of January 2019 at approximately 18:15. While entering the restaurant we were greeted by two waiters who walked by us with food. We waited a few seconds and one of the waiters came to us a seated us. The menu was brought to us 1 minute after seating and we were asked if we want to drink something. The menu was old but clean and structured well. The menu had two 5-6 course degustation menus in offer and also a deluxe menu for up to 10 people with 9 courses and a seasonal menu with seasonal ingredients. When the waiter brought us the drinks she asked if she can take an order but since we were indecisive and told her, she recommended us the degustation menu. Since it was not part of criteria she recommended for me a starter (Fried Wun-Tan) and as a main course the house specialty the Beijing duck with Chinese pancakes. The starter was brought to the table in 7 minutes and all the starters came at the same time. After finishing the starters they were cleared after 3 minutes and we waited for 8:30 minutes for the main course which also came at the same time. The main courses were placed on a plate where underneath it was a candle to keep the food hot. Afterward the food was cleaned and we asked for the bill. It was brought pretty fast with a cup of complimentary tea. When leaving the restaurant they said goodbye and wished us a nice day. The total score for this restaurant was 260 from 400.

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2.1.4.4 Mystery visit at Hao Noodles & Tea

Before visiting the restaurant the website was visited. The design of the website is modern with pictures and a menu uploaded. The whole website is in dark colors which suites the restaurants interior and exterior design and looks modern. The website is structured good and it has a menu available. You can either download the pdf document or view each food section separately. Reservations can also be made through the website. The restaurant was visited on the 15th of February at 18:00. When entering the restaurant one of the waiters was looking down on us from the second floor and smiling. After going up the stairs he greeted us and asked if we have a reservation. He seated us and right after we sat down another waitress came and gave us the menu. The menu was clean and well structured. The names of the dishes were written in English, the contained ingredients of the dish were written in German and above it, there was a Chinese translation. After 1:30 minutes the waitress came and asked for the drinks and if we want to order the food. After bringing the drinks which she brought after 5 minutes she asked again for the order and we asked her what she can recommend. She was feeling a little bit unsafe answering our questions and it seemed that she did not know everything about the menu. She did not recommend anything and I choose by myself a starter (Shanghai Sticky Rice Siu Mai) and a main course (Hong Kong Clay Pot Rice with Chef´s Soy Mangalitza Pork) The starter came within 8 minutes. The main courses came dish by dish although some of us were still eating the starters. My main course came 17 minutes after ordering it and was the last dish to arrive at the table. Before arriving the last dish to the table came 12 minutes after ordering it. After the waiter put the pot on the table he told me that I should be really careful because the food is really hot. The waiter was taking away the plates right after someone finished eating the food. When we asked for the bill the waiter brought it to us within 5 minutes and asked us if everything was fine and wished us a good day. The restaurants´ score was 350 out of 400.

2.1.4.5 Mystery visit – Mama Liu and Sons The website of the restaurant is really nice and the design of it resembles also the restaurants interior design. All the websites information’s can be read by scrolling and not clicking through the various sections. When scrolling you can see the whole menu

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including the cocktail menu and the cocktails of the month. Reservation can only be made by phone from 16-20:00. The last restaurant was visited on the 5th of April 2019 at 18:15. When entering the restaurant it was already pretty full and the waiters did not recognize us. After waiting approximately 1 minute a waiter approached us and asked if we have a reservation. Since we did not have a reservation the waiter seated us on a big table for 6 persons and although we were 4. We waited 2 minutes for the menu and additional 5 minutes until the waiter came and took down the drink menu. The preparation of the drinks took a little longer and when one of the waiters brought us the drinks he asked if he could take the food order. The menu was clean and simple with a section of Warm and Cold dishes, Dim sums, Hot pots and desserts. The name of the dish was written in Chinese but not in Chinese characters and the description was written only in German. I asked if the waiter can recommend us something and he told me everything is good but he would recommend the homemade dim sums. I ordered a starter (Xiao Bing – Homemade flatbread with vegetables and shrimps) and a main course (Bao Zi– Dim sums with meat). The starters were prepared quickly within 8 minutes and came all at the same time. They were also cleaned at the same time but it took them 6 minutes to bring them away since we finished eating. The main course came 15 minutes after the starters were cleaned and also all at the same time. The restaurant was busy and the waiters were sometimes overwhelmed to serve that many people at the same time. You had a feeling that they wanted to take the order and serve really fast. We asked for the bill and since it took them 10 minutes to prepare it we decided to go to the bar and pay there. When leaving the restaurant we were not recognized and did not here a goodbye. The Restaurant collected 320 points from 400.

2.1.5 Phase III - Evaluation from the Mystery visits

Table 3 below shows the scores from each restaurant for each category and at the end the overall score for all categories. Additionally the average of the total score for each category was computed to better compare the parameters with each other and to find out which restaurant is offering the highest quality of services and if they are on the same level. The evaluation will later be put into graphs and analyzed.

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Table 3 - Evaluation of each category in each Restaurant

Name of the Restaurant China Goldener Hao SHU Noodl Mama Liu Zentrum Drache e I.Website 1 Website overview 5 10 5 10 10 2 Website Menu 0 10 10 10 10 3 Facebook account 10 0 0 10 10 Total score of category I 15/30 20/30 15/30 30/30 30/30 Average 0,5 0,6 0,5 1 1 II. Arrival and Greeting 4 First impression 10 5 5 10 10 5 Arrival 10 0 10 10 5 6 Greeting 10 0 10 5 5 7 Seating 10 10 5 10 10 8 Menu while seated 10 10 5 5 0 Total score for category II 50/50 25/50 35/50 40/50 30/50 Average 1 0,5 0,7 0,8 0,6 III. Staff 9 Friendliness 10 5 10 10 5 10 Knowledge 10 10 10 10 10 11 Recommendation 10 5 5 5 10 12 Ascertains 10 0 0 10 0 13 Serving the order 10 10 10 10 10 14 Uniform 10 10 10 10 10 Total score for category III 60/60 40/60 45/60 55/60 45/60 Average 1 0,6 0,75 0,91 0,75 IV. Environment of the restaurant 15 Cleanliness 10 10 10 10 10 16 Atmosphere 10 10 5 10 5 17 Music 10 10 10 10 10 18 Toilet 0 10 0 10 10 19 Table 10 0 10 5 5 Cutlery, Glassware and 20 10 10 10 10 10 Tableware 21 Chopsticks 10 10 10 10 10 22 Interior design 0 5 10 5 0 Total score for category IV 60/80 65/80 65/80 70/80 60/80 Average 0,75 0,81 0,81 0,875 0,75 V. Quality of service 23 Drink order 10 10 10 10 5 24 Drink service 10 0 5 10 10

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25 Serving time: Starter 10 10 5 10 10 26 Serving time: Main Course 10 10 10 5 5 27 Serving time 0 0 10 0 10 28 Débarras 5 10 10 10 10 Total score for category V 45/60 40/60 50/60 45/60 50/60 Average 0,75 0,66 0,83 0,75 0,83 VI. Menu and Quality of the food 29 Menu explanation 0 10 5 0 5 30 Menu 10 0 5 10 10 31 Chinese translations 10 10 5 10 5 32 Food presentation 10 10 10 10 10 33 Temperature 10 10 5 10 10 34 Taste and Flavor 10 10 5 10 10 35 Portion size 10 10 10 10 5 36 Originality and diversity 10 10 5 10 10 Total score for category VI 70/80 70/80 50/80 70/80 65/80 Average 0,875 0,875 0,625 0,875 0,8125 VII. Overall impression 37 Price / service ratio 10 10 10 10 10 38 Recommendation 10 10 0 10 10 39 Return of guest 10 10 0 10 10 40 Overall impression 10 5 5 10 10 Total score for category VII 40/40 35/40 15/40 40/40 40/40 Average 1 0,875 0,375 1 1 340/ 295/ 275/ 350/ 320/ Total score for all categories 400 400 400 400 400 Total percentage of scores for all 68,75 87,50 85% 73,75% 80% categories (Satisfaction) % % Stars given 4.5* 4* 3.5* 4.5* 4*

2.1.5.1 Comparison of each categories

Figure 1 – Total score for Website and Social media

Source: Own resource 35

In the above graph there is the overall score for the first group the “Websites”. In this group the website structure and if the restaurant has a Facebook account, to promote their business and also to stay in touch with its guest was evaluated. The maximum amount of points that could have been gained was 30 points. In this category both Hao Noodle & Tea and Mama Liu & Sons gained the maximum amount of points. Both of them had a well-structured website, with a menu uploaded and a Facebook account, where they update it regularly and try to stay in touch with their customers. SHU Restaurant and Goldener Drache had both only 15 points. The reason for that is that the SHU Restaurants website did not have a menu uploaded and their website had only information about the restaurant but not about the products they offer. The Goldener Drache on the other had had a menu uploaded but the restaurants website was old-fashioned and also had advertisements on the website. Chinazentrum´s website gained 20 points because it did not have a Facebook account.

Figure 2 – Total score for Arrival and greetings

Source: Own resource The total score that could have been achieved for the category Arrival and Greetings was 50 points, which as the only restaurant SHU achieved. The reason for that could be that the restaurant is pretty small and when entering the restaurant on that day there were two more tables occupied and there were three waiters who were greeting us and seating us. Right after SHU is Hao Noodle & Tea with 40 points. On the third place there are Mama Liu & Sons and Goldener Drache. Both places were busy at the arrival and the time to get recognized and greeted took more time than in the other restaurants. On the last place is Chinazentrum with only 25 points, which is the half of the total points that could have been achieved. The restaurant was not busy at all and there were waiters 36

going around but were either only looking at us or smiling without greeting or did not greet and recognized at all.

Figure 3 – Total score for Staff

Source: Own resource In the third group again SHU restaurant achieved the highest amount of points. As already mentioned above the reason for that could be that the restaurant was not full and the waiters had time to communicate and ascertain if everything was fine. Another reason could also be that the restaurant only opened in 2018 and the waiters are motivated and want to make sure that the guest will return. Hao Noodle & Tea achieved just 5 points less than SHU and the reason for this is that for a food recommendation it had to be asked and the waitress looked nervous when asking for a recommendation. Mama Liu & Sons and Goldener Drache are again on the third place. Mama Liu & Sons could have gained more points but since the restaurant was busy, the waiters did not have time to talk to the guest and looked overwhelmed. The same thing applies to the restaurant Chinazentrum with a little difference that the waiters were not busy and the restaurant was not full. Therefore Chinazentrum achieved only 40 points out of 60.

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Figure 4 – Total score for Environment of restaurant

Source: Own resource In the category “Environment” the restaurant Hao Noodle & Tea achieved 70 points out of 80. The restaurant achieved for the cleanness of the tables only 5 points out of 10 because there were not properly cleaned from the previous guest and only 2 seats out of 4 had chopsticks and napkins on the table and therefore were not fully set for new guests. With 5 points less there is Chinazentrum and Goldener Drache. Chinazentrum lost few points because the table was dirty and had to be cleaned in front of the guest and the interior design of the restaurant was poor and had only few decorations on the walls. The Goldener Drache lost few points because of the atmosphere. The whole restaurant did not smell good and it was too hot inside. On the last place are the restaurant SHU and Mama Liu & Sons. SHU lost some points because of the toilet, which was not only small and you could not move inside but also it was really dirt. The atmosphere in Mama Liu & Sons was really loud because there were a lot of people inside and you could not talk properly, additionally the light was too dim. Both restaurants also did not gain points in the interior designs because both had a really modern and industrial design and had nothing to do with traditional Chinese interior.

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Figure 5 – Total score for Quality of services

Source: Own resource The total amount of points that could have been gained for the category “Quality of services” was 60 points. Mama Liu & Sons gained 50 points and Goldener Drache are on the first place. The reason for this was that it lost some points by the drink order, where the preparation and service took too long. In Mama Liu & Sons the serving time for the starters took longer. On the second place with 45 points are the restaurants SHU and Hao Noodle & Tea. Both restaurants lost points when delivering the starter and main course. The timing between the meals was not appropriate because they were served step by step and the last person to get the dish waited 10-12 minutes longer from the first person getting the first plate. In comparison to Hao Noodle & Tea the waiters from SHU were clearing the plate right after one person finished and did not wait until all of them finished. On the last place with 40 points is Chinazentrum. Chinazentrum also lost points by the serving time because they were bringing the food from the kitchen without an order and not at the same time. Goldener Drache and Mama Liu & Sons brought the courses at the same time for every person, but the waiting time for the main course and starter took too long.

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Figure 6 – Total score for Menu and Quality of Food

Source: Own resource In the last category in evaluating the quality of the food and menu was examined. In these category 3 restaurants: SHU, Chinazentrum and Hao Noodle & Tea achieved 70 points out of 80. Every restaurant lost points in the Menu explanation and because you had to ask if they could recommend something and if they have a house specialty that they would recommend. Mama Liu & Sons gained 65 points and the reason for this was that the portion sizes were pretty small for the prices and also because the menu was only written in German and in Chinese but not in Chinese alphabet. On the last place there is Goldener Drache with 45 points. The restaurant lost a lot of points for the food. The food was not hot enough and that might be a reason why it was put on a heating plate. Furthermore, the dish did not contain any fresh ingredients especially the main course. Additionally, the menu and the offered products were not as special as stated on the website that they focus on Beijing cuisine. They offered dishes that could be found in typical Chinese-Asian restaurants and did not offer original dishes like in the other examined restaurants that focused only on traditional regional cuisines.

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Figure 7 – Total score for Overall Impression

Source: Own resource The last category that has been evaluated is the overall impression of the examined restaurant. SHU restaurant, Hao Noodle & Tea and Mama Liu & Sons achieved the highest number of points and could satisfy in all sub categories. Chinazentrum lost 5 points in the overall impression. Goldener Drache lost some points because the return of guest to this restaurant when looking for a traditional Chinese restaurant. Therefore, if someone is looking for a restaurant that is solely selling regional cuisine I would not recommend this restaurant.

2.2 Online Review Analysis This part of the thesis deals with the Tripadvisor reviews from the selected restaurants and if they are similar to the conducted Mystery visit. This means that findings from the Mystery visit are going to be compared with the findings from Tripadvisor and Google, if they have similarities in the evaluation of the quality of services and products with the Mystery shopper. Since some of the restaurants do not have many reviews on Tripadvisor, Google reviews were taken into consideration. Unfortunately, Google reviews show only how many stars the restaurant has and how many reviews in total there are and in comparison to Tripadvisor it does not show how many reviews were written for each point given. Furthermore, no other information’s can be viewed like the demographic, or language the review was written in. Therefore, the Tripadvisor reviews are going to be examined more and are going to be supported by the Google reviews. For the analysis, all the reviews were taken from the first review on the website until the last review to the day of the analysis was conducted, which was the 01.06.2019.

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2.2.1 Process of analyzing Tripadvisor reviews

To be able to analyze Tripadvisor reviews and compare them with the personal evaluation from the Mystery shopping visits a mean had to be computed. The computations of the mean are in the Appendix no.2 for the first restaurant only.

2.2.2 SHU Restaurant The SHU restaurant has only 21 reviews on Tripadvisor on the day of the analysis (01.06.2019), the reason for this might be that it only opened in 2018. On Tripadvisor in the category “Chinese restaurants in Vienna” it is No. 33 out of 162 Chinese restaurants and in the overall ranking, it is placed on the 759th place out of 3900 restaurants in Vienna. In the total ranking and score, it has 5,0 points and also in the subcategories: Value, Service and Food. In Google, the restaurant has more reviews and in total it is 85 reviews with an average of 4,5 stars. According, to the scores from the mystery shopping the restaurant achieved 5 stars out of 5 and overall satisfaction of 85% with the mark Excellent. In Table 4 are the reviews summed up according to their categories and how many reviews were written for the category. Table 4 – Tripadvisor reviews for SHU restaurant

Guest ratings Number of points Number of reviews Total number of reviews Excellent 5 19 95 Very good 4 2 8 Average 3 0 0 Poor 2 0 0 Terrible 1 0 0 Total ---- 21 103 Source: Own resource, Tripadvisor.com To be able to compare it better Google reviews were taken into consideration. Since Google reviews do not show how many reviews were written for each point the Mean was computed as follows. The average stars gained which is 4,5 divided by the maximum stars that could be collected (5). 4,5/5=0,9 which is 90%.

The average satisfaction of the general opinions of the guest who visited SHU restaurant is computed as follows: 98+90=188 divided by 2 is 94%.

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Table 5 – Comparison between Online reviews and Mystery shopping

Category Satisfaction Satisfaction of services in % for Tripadvisor 98% Satisfaction of services in % for Google 90% Average satisfaction of services between Tripadvisor 94% and Google in % Satisfaction of services in % for Mystery shopping 85% Points given in Tripadvisor 5/5 – Excellent Stars given in Mystery shopping 4,5*/5* - Excellent Source: Own sources

2.2.3 Chinazentrum Zhong Xin restaurant

The Tripadvisor page from Chinazentrum Zhong Xin is named completely different than the restaurant’s name. On Tripadvisor it is called “China Zentrum Asia Restaurant” and has 58 reviews on Tripadvisor and is placed on the 1118th place out of 3900 restaurants in Vienna. In the category “Chinese restaurants in Vienna,” it is placed on the 22nd place out of 162. Its overall total score is 4,0 out of 5,0 with 4,0 points in the categories: Value, Food, Service and 3,5 points in Atmosphere. It also has a Tripadvisor Certificate of Excellence 2017 Winner. Table 6 - Tripadvisor Reviews for Chinazentrum

Guest ratings Number of points Number of reviews Total reviews Excellent 5 22 110 Very Good 4 24 96 Average 3 6 18 Poor 2 2 4 Terrible 1 3 3 Total ---- 57 231 Mean computed for Tripadvisor 4,0 Source: Own resource, Tripadvisor.com On Google reviews, it has significantly more reviews which are 198 and has an average rating of 4,1 stars. From the mystery shopping visit, the restaurant achieved 4/5 stars and has an overall satisfaction of 73,75% this is in the category Very Good. Table 7 – Comparison between Online reviews and Mystery shopping for Chinazentrum

Category Satisfaction in % Satisfaction of services in % for Tripadvisor 81% Satisfaction of services in % for Google 82% Average satisfaction between Tripadvisor and 81,5% Google in % Satisfaction of services in % for Mystery shopping 73,75% Points given in Tripadvisor 4/5 – Very Good Stars given in Mystery shopping 4*/5* - Very Good Source: Own resource

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2.2.4 Goldener Drache The restaurant has 37 reviews on Tripadvisor and is on the 1073rd place out of 3902 restaurants in Vienna and in the category “Chinese” it is on the 25th place. Its overall score is 4,5 points as well as in the categories food, service, and value and has 4 points in atmosphere. Table 8 - Tripadvisor reviews for Goldener Drache

Guest ratings Number of points Number of reviews Total reviews Excellent 5 18 90 Very Good 4 12 48 Average 3 6 18 Poor 2 1 2 Terrible 1 0 0 Total ---- 37 158 Mean computed for Tripadvisor 4,2 Source: Own resource, Tripadvisor.com On Google reviews, the restaurant has 103 reviews and achieved 4,0 stars out of 5. From the personal evaluation, the restaurant has 3.5 stars out of 5 and overall satisfaction of 63.75% and is marked as Very Good.

Table 9 – Comparison between Online reviews and Mystery shopping for Goldener Drache

Type of calculation Results Satisfaction of services in % for Tripadvisor 84% Satisfaction of services in % for Google 80% Average satisfaction between Tripadvisor and 82% Google in % Satisfaction of services in % for Mystery shopping 68% Points given in Tripadvisor 4,5/5 – Excellent Stars given in Mystery Shopping 3,5*/5 – Very Good Source: Own source

2.2.5 Hao Noodle and Tea The restaurant has 79 reviews on Tripadvisor and has a total score of 4,5 out of 5. 4,5 points also apply for the food and service and 4 points for the value. The restaurant is placed 263 out of 3902 restaurants in Vienna and in the category “Chinese” it is on the 8 place. The restaurant also received a Certificate of Excellence Winner 2019.

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Table 10 Tripadvisor reviews for Hao Noodle and Tea

Guest ratings Number of points Number of reviews Total reviews Excellent 5 51 255 Very Good 4 23 92 Average 3 2 6 Poor 2 2 4 Terrible 1 1 1 Total ---- 79 358 Mean computed for Tripadvisor 4,5 Source: Own resource, Tripadvisor.com On Google reviews, the restaurant has 219 reviews with 4,5 stars out of 5. From the mystery visit, it has 4,5/5 stars and is Excellent with overall satisfaction of 87,5%.

Table 11 Comparison between Online review and Mystery shopping for Hao Noodle and Tea

Type of calculation Results Satisfaction of services in % for Tripadvisor 90% Satisfaction of services in % for Google 90% Average satisfaction between Tripadvisor and 90% Google in % Satisfaction of services in % for Mystery shopping 87,5% Points given in Tripadvisor 4,5/5 – Excellent Stars given in Mystery Shopping 4,5*/5*-Excellent Source: Own resource

2.2.6 Mama Liu and Sons This restaurant has 294 reviews on Tripadvisor and has an overall score of 4,0/5,0 points. In the categories, food, service, and atmosphere it has also 4,0 points and in the category value, it has only 3,5 points. The restaurant is placed on the 233 place in Restaurants in Vienna and in the category “Chinese food in Vienna” it is placed on the 1st place. Furthermore, it has a Certificate of Excellence Winner in 2016, 2017 and 2019. Table 12 – Tripadvisor reviews for Mama Liu and Sons

Guest ratings Number of points Number of reviews Total reviews Excellent 5 130 650 Very Good 4 101 404 Average 3 32 96 Poor 2 21 42 Terrible 1 10 10 Total ---- 294 1202 Mean computed for Tripadvisor 4,0 Source: Own source, Tripadvisor.com On Google, the restaurant has 670 reviews and achieved 4,4 stars out of 5.

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From the personal evaluation, the restaurant has 4/5 stars and overall satisfaction of 80% and is marked as Very Good. Table 13 – Comparison between Online reviews and Mysteryshopping for Mama Liu and Sons

Type of calculation Results Satisfaction of services in % for Tripadvisor 80% Satisfaction of services in % for Google 88% Average satisfaction between Tripadvisor and 84% Google in % Satisfaction of services in % for Mystery shopping 80% Points given in Tripadvisor 4/5 – Very Good Stars given from Mystery shopping 4*/5* - Very Good Source: Own resource

3 RESULTS The results are divided into the results from the Mystery shopping and from the online review analysis. To answer the first research question, if the quality of services is the same in every Chinese restaurant the total score of all groups were examined and put into the graph.

Figure 8 – Total score of all groups

Source: Own resource

From Figure 9 the total score for all groups is shown. As mentioned before the restaurant with the highest points is offering the highest quality of services. Every restaurant could gain 400 points. On the first place with 350 points there is Hao Noodle & Tea and an overall satisfaction of 87,50% Therefore, this restaurant has the highest quality of services. On the second place and 10 points less is SHU restaurant with 340 points and an

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overall satisfaction of 85%, which is nearly the same as the first place. The third place won Mama Liu & Sons with 320 points and on the fourth place is Chinazentrum with 295 points. On the last place is Goldener Drache with only 275. Between the first three restaurants there is just a difference of 9% and it can be said that these restaurants offer similar services. Between the first placed restaurant and the last placed restaurant there is a difference of 21% in the overall score and also the overall quality of services.

When looking back at the descriptions of the chosen restaurants the year of the establishments were given. All three restaurants were opened in the last 5 years. SHU restaurant was opened in 2018, Hao Noodle and Tea in 2017 and Mama Liu and Sons in 2014, whereas Chinazentrum and Goldener Drache have been on the market for 17 years (Chinazentrum) and 56 years. Because on the first three places are the above mentioned restaurants a correlation between the years on the market and the quality of services could be found. Furthermore, when looking at the literature review of these restaurants SHU restaurant, Hao Noodle and Tea and Mama Liu and Sons are all managed by a younger generation than Goldener Drache and Chinazentrum and their services are slightly different than when they are managed by owners who have been on the market for years. To approve this theory a higher number of restaurants needs to be examined in terms of the years on the market and the quality of services. But for this thesis it can be said that the restaurants offer the same level of services but the shorter the restaurants are on the market the better their quality of services is.

3.1 Results from the Online review analysis To better visualize all online reviews with the personal evaluation of the mystery guest all the findings were put into a graph. This helps to answer the second research question: Is the personal evaluation from the mystery visit in accordance with the online reviews of other guests? To answer this question every restaurant needs to be examined by itself.

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Figure 9 - Comparison of Online Reviews and Mystery shopping in %

85% SHU 90% 98% 73.75% Chinazentrum 82% 81% 69% Personal evaluation Goldener Drache 80% 84% Google reviews 87.50% Tripadvisor Hao Noodle & Tea 90% 90% 80% Mama Liu & Sons 88% 80%

0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%

Source: Own resource Figure 10-Comparison of points given from Tripadvisor and personal evaluation

For SHU restaurant the online reviews are in accordance with the personal evaluation. On Tripadvisor the restaurant got 5/5 points which is categorized as Excellent. This also applies to the personal evaluation which is 4,5*. Since the restaurant has been opened for a year there are not many reviews yet, it influences the algorithm of the website and the satisfaction is on 98%. This makes a 13% difference with the personal evaluation but is still in accordance.

For Chinazentrum the findings are also the same. It is categorized as Very Good on Tripadvisor and from the Mystery shopping, where it both achieved 4/5 points. On Google review and Tripadvisor the satisfaction in percentage is nearly the same. Therefore, the accordance could be approved.

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For the third restaurant, Goldener Drache, there could not be an accordance found between the online reviews and the personal opinion. The restaurant is ranked better on online review platforms although when going through the written reviews the opinions of the guests were similar to the experience of the Mystery guest but were scored better. That is why the restaurant had 4,5 points – Excellent on Tripadvisor and from the Mystery visit only 3,5 points – Very Good.

For the last two restaurants, Hao Noodle & Tea and Mama Liu & Sons the ratings from Tripadvisor as well as from Google were nearly the same as from the Mystery shopping evaluation. For Hao Noodle & Tea it achieved two times 4,5 points – Excellent and there was a 2,5% difference in the overall satisfaction. For Mama Liu & Sons, although the restaurant is ranked as the best Chinese restaurant in Vienna both in Tripadvisor and from the personal evaluation it received 4 points – Very Good and the overall satisfaction was the same with 80%. On Google review it achieved

88% satisfaction.

4 RECOMMENDATIONS AND CONCLUSION

4.1 Recommendations SHU restaurant was ranked second through the Mystery shopping manual and received 4,5*/5*. This restaurant did not have any big flaws; the only recommendation would be to improve their website. Especially, the domain of the website since it does not look reliable and people could be confused if it is the restaurants website or some kind of virus. Furthermore, I would recommend uploading a menu or at least some pictures of the food because some people would like to see what is expecting them before visiting the restaurant. In general the whole experience from the arrival to the farewell was excellent. The staff was really attentive and helpful, but it still lost few points in the quality of services because of the serving of the dishes, especially the main course. To improve the quality of services I would recommend bringing the food to the table at the same time, so when being accompanied with someone nobody has to wait until the last plate is on the table.

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Chinazentrum Zhong Xin received 295 points out of 400 and was on the fourth place. This restaurant did not achieve many points in three categories: Arrival and Greeting, Staff and Quality of services. All this categories are playing together to bring the customer the highest quality of services. For this restaurant I would recommend to train the staff on welcoming customers friendly when entering the restaurant, because the first impression counts and to be attentive during the whole visit and ask if everything is alright. As far as for the quality of services this restaurant had the same problem as the above restaurant, the serving time. The food should be brought to the table at the same time and especially when finishing the starter, in this cases the soup. Since the main course came few minutes after still eating the soup one of the main courses were not as hot as they were brought to the table. Concerning the quality of food, the restaurant puts a big emphasis on traditional and original dishes, especially on their special menu, where you can choose from a wide variety of exotic meals. Furthermore, the menu is in need to be changed, since it looked old and dirty and many grammar mistakes were inside. All in all this restaurant offers delicious traditional Chinese dishes as well as drinks and but the quality of services needs to be improved.

Goldener Drache was placed on the last place with 275 points and 3,5*. This restaurant would be recommended as an Asian restaurant and not as a traditional Chinese restaurant. That is why this restaurant did not achieve more points because it was like in every other Chinese restaurant in Vienna just that it offered few traditional Beijing dishes and the interior was in typical Chinese architecture. The staff was friendly but since the restaurant was full they were busy and did not have much time. I would recommend hiring more staff. In the category Quality of food the restaurant achieved the lowest score from all restaurants. The reason for this is that the food did not taste fresh, and so called tin vegetables or ready-to-eat ingredients were used, which could be tasted while eating and the known “Chinese taste”, with the use of a lot of Glutamate which is used in nearly every Chinese restaurant. For this I would recommend starting to use fresh food and specialize on more traditional Chinese dishes, since it is the oldest operating Chinese restaurant in Vienna.

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Hao Noodle & Tea restaurant was ranked as the best Chinese restaurant in this analysis with 350 points out of 400 and 4,5*/5* - Excellent. This restaurant has nothing to point out, except as mentioned in previous restaurants to bring the food at the same time. One solution for this would be to start cooking the food which needs to be cooked longer than the other dishes at first so by the time it finishes other dishes can be prepared. The recommendation for this problem, does not only apply to Hao Noodle & Tea but also to the other observed restaurants. Minor problems could also be found from the staff, the waitress for example who took the order looked nervous when asked for recommendations or the food description. Therefore, I would recommend training the staff in terms of the menu and doing a menu tasting. Furthermore, since the restaurant was not full at the time we arrived, it would be recommended to look if the tables are clean and set up for the next guest.

Mama Liu and Sons restaurant achieved the 3rd place with an overall satisfaction of 80%. This restaurant is on the first place on Tripadvisor in the category “Chinese restaurants in Vienna” but unfortunately it cannot be trusted. All the findings from the Mystery shopping were similar to the written online reviews. One of the biggest problems of this restaurant is the fact that when the restaurant gets full, which was the case on a Friday night, the staff was overwhelmed and in a hurry. Therefore, it would be recommended to hire more staff or since the restaurant is only opened from 17:30 and only from Tuesday- Sunday open the restaurant from lunch time and also Mondays. This would help to spread the guest visit over the whole day and people who want to come to the restaurant do not need to wait until the evening. As other Chinese restaurants do like SHU restaurant or Goldener Drache the restaurant could be closed in the afternoon for example from 15-17:30 to prepare the food or to rest before the evening starts. Another thing is that the price/service ratio is too high; especially the portion sizes are too small for the prices. The reason for this could be that since it is ranked as the best restaurant the demand is higher and they are allowed to charge higher prices. But it would still be better increase the portion size.

All in all in every restaurant there is something that can be improved to bring the highest quality of services to the guests. But one problem that was discovered is that nearly every

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restaurant brought the food at different times out of the kitchen. This is rather unusual for Chinese restaurants or other types of restaurants where most of the time the food comes out of the kitchen at the same time and nobody has to wait for a long time until the last dish arrives to the table. Another problem was the staff, since the staff is there from the first step into the restaurant until the last step out of the restaurant. The staff also influences the overall impression of the restaurant; some of the restaurants could improve on how they interact with guests. Last but not least the environment of some restaurants, like Goldener Drache or Chinazentrum are in need of renovation or do an overall cleaning to make the guest more comfortable.

4.2 Conclusion

The main aim of this thesis was to summarize an overview of five traditional Chinese restaurants in Vienna, Austria, compare and analyze them according to the chosen criteria and categories and find out if the restaurants offer the same quality of services. Another aim was to see if the opinions of guest writing online reviews for these restaurants have the same opinion as the personal evaluation from the Mystery shopping method.

The theoretical part was divided into three chapters. The first chapter introduced Chinese people and what brings them to Austria. Furthermore, in which fields they are working and we came to the conclusion that nearly 90% of Chinese immigrants are working in the gastronomy. Most of the restaurants that are owned by Chinese people offer Asian cuisine and there are not that many restaurants that offer traditional Chinese cuisine. To specify what traditional Chinese cuisine is the second chapter deals with the Chinese kitchen and the four major Chinese regional cuisines were introduced. It was found out that since China is a big country there are even more than four regional cuisines and every region uses different kinds of ingredients, spices, and methods to cook the dishes. This chapter helped to understand the Analytical part where five traditional restaurants were chosen according to the different cuisines. The regional cuisines were Sichuan cuisine, Beijing cuisine and Shanghai cuisine and restaurants where they offer all regional cuisines. The third chapter was a short summary of typical dining etiquette in China.

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The methodological part described the Mystery shopping method, which was used in the Practical part of this thesis. This included the preparation, creation and evaluation of the Mystery shopping.

The practical part of this thesis deals with the answering of the two chosen research questions. Which were: Do traditional Chinese restaurants offer the same quality of services? Is the personal evaluation through the Mystery shopping method in accordance to the general opinion of guests on online reviews sites? The chosen method that was used was Mystery shopping which helped to evaluate the quality of services in each restaurant and compare and analyze them. For the implementation of the Mystery shopping criteria and categories were chosen to give each restaurant the same conditions in evaluating the quality of services. After the Mystery visit were done the scores of each category and restaurant was put in a table and compared with each other in form of graphs. The restaurant who achieved the highest score was ranked as the best restaurant with the highest quality of services. Underneath are the scores of each restaurant: 1. Hao Noodle and Tea – 350/400 points 2. SHU Restaurant – 340/400 points 3. Mama Liu and Sons – 320/400 points 4. Chinazentrum Zhong Xin – 295/400 5. Goldener Drache – 275/400

Furthermore, the restaurants were compared to Tripadvisor reviews if they are in accordance or discordance. It was found out that the personal evaluation by the Mystery shopping method are similar to the guests opinions on Tripadvisor and Google and only one restaurant Goldener Drache is ranked better online that by the personal evaluation.

From evaluating the results and findings recommendations for each restaurant was given on how the restaurant can improve their quality of services. The findings from this bachelor’s thesis can help the restaurants but also for people who want to open a restaurant, preferably a Chinese restaurant in the future. The evaluation of the restaurants was done objectively and with the purpose of helping the restaurant to improve. 53

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Appendix A. Map of the chosen five restaurants

Source: Google Maps, Own source

B. Question paper for the Mystery visit

I - Website and Reservation

1. Does the Website have a good overview? Evaluation: 10 points - If the restaurants website is well structured and has a clear layout 5 points - If the restaurants website is complicated to view or does not open properly 0 points - If the website is over packed with information, not well structured and has no clear layout. 2. Does the Website have a menu uploaded? 10 points – Yes, the website has a menu uploaded 0 points – No, the website does not have a menu uploaded 3. Does the restaurant have a Facebook account? 10 points – Yes, the restaurant has a Facebook account 0 points – No, the restaurant does not have a Facebook account

II – Arrival and greeting 4. How was your first impression of the restaurant? 10 points – Good 0 points – Not so good

5. Were you greeted or acknowledged within 30 seconds upon entering the restaurant? 10 points – Yes 0 points – No

6. Were you greeted friendly and with eye contact? 10 points – If the staff greeted you friendly with eye contact and approached you 5 points – If the staff greeted you but from far away and did not approach you 0 points – If the staff did not greet you at all

7. Did the staff bring you to the table? 10 points – If the staff brought you to the table 5 points – If the staff did not bring you to a table but either pointed to a free table or said you can choose where you want to sit 0 points – If the staff did not bring you to a table and did not say anything

8. Did you get the Menu while you were seated? 10 points – If the staff gave you the Menu while you were sitting down 5 points – If the staff brought to the menu after you sat down 0 points – If you waited longer than 1 minute after sitting down

III – Staff 9. Was the staff friendly? 10 points – If the staff was friendly, welcoming and communicative 5 points – If the staff was polite, but there was a lack of smile, eye contact or conversation 0 points – If the staff was unfriendly and you felt unwelcome

10. Was the waiter able to answer any questions with regard to the menu and its ingredients. 10 points – If the staff knew everything about the menu and could tell exactly what it contains 5 points – If the staff did not know everything and was not sure about certain dishes 0 points – If the staff did not know anything about the offered dishes

11. Did the waiter recommend any dishes? 10 points – If the waiter recommended dishes by himself 5 points – If the waiter recommended something after he was asked 0 points – If the waiter did not recommend anything and did not know what to recommend

12. Did an employee visit the table to ascertain at any point if the service was satisfactory? 10 points – Yes 0 points – No

13. Did the waiter serve according to the principles of dining etiquette? 10 points – If the waiter served according to the principles of dining etiquette. 5 points – If the waiter served somehow according to the principles but not correctly 0 points – If the waiter did not serve according to the principles of dining etiquette

14. Were employees well groomed and presented in clean uniforms 10 points – Yes 0 points – No

IV – Environment of the restaurant 15. Was the restaurant overall clean? 10 points – If the restaurant was clean 0 points – If the restaurant was dirty

16. Was the atmosphere in the restaurant appropriate?(Lights, Temperature) 10 points – If the atmosphere was appropriate 0 points – If the atmosphere was not appropriate (too loud, too dark or bright, too hot or cold)

17. What kind of music was playing? 10 points - If Chinese music was playing 5 points – If other type of music was playing eg. Radio 0 points – If no music was playing

18. Was the toilet clean? 10 points – Yes 0 points – No

19. Was the table clean? 10 points – If the table was clean and the fully laid 5 points – If the table was dirty and the waiter was cleaning it in front of you 0 points – If the table was dirty and had leftovers from a previous guest

20. Was the cutlery, glasses and the tableware clean and polished? 10 points – Yes, If there were clean and polished 0 points – No,If there were dirty and unpolished

21. Were chopsticks available at the table? 10 points – Yes, If chopsticks were at the table 0 points – No,If no chopsticks were at the table

22. Is the interior design of the restaurant typical Chinese?

10 points – If the interior has typical Chinese decorations 5 points – If the restaurant has few Chinese decorations 0 points – If the restaurants interior is not typical Chinese

V – Quality of service 23. Was the correct drinks order served within 5 minutes of order 10 points – If the drinks were served within 5 minutes 5 points – If the drinks were served within 6-8 minutes 0 points – If the drinks were served within 10 minutes or more

24. Were drinks served and cleared using a tray? 10 points – If drinks were served and cleared with a tray 5 points – If drinks were served with a tray but cleared without a tray 0 points – If there was no use of a tray at all

25. Was the starter served within 15 minutes of order? 10 points – 0-15 minutes 5 points – 15-20 0 points – >20 minutes

26. Was the main course served within 15 minutes of starter? 10 points – 0-15 minutes 5 points – 15-20 minutes 0 points – >20 minutes

27. Was the service between the individual meals timed good? 10 points – Yes, If the food was timed good and brought to the table at the same time 0 points –No, If the food was not timed good and not brought to the table at the same time

28. Were dishes cleared within 5 minutes of all guests finishing their meals? 10 points – If the dishes were cleared within 5 minutes of all guest finishing eating 5 points – If the dishes were cleared after 5 minutes but waited for everyone to finish eating 0 points – If the dishes were cleared < 5 minutes or when it was cleared after each guest finished eating without waiting for everyone

VI – Menu and Quality of food 29. Was the menu explained and if the menu has a house specialty were they introduced? 10 points – If the menu was explained and house specialties were introduced 5 points – If the menu was not explained but specialties were 0 points – If the menu was not explained and no specialties were introduced

30. Was the menu clean, in good repair, grammatically correct and easy to read? 10 points – Yes 5 points – If one of the things was not applicable 0 points – No

31. Were Chinese translations available in the menu? 10 points – If the dishes had a Chinese translation (Chinese characters) next to it 5 points – If the menu was not written in Chinese characters but had Chinese translations 0 points – If the menu was only in German or English

32. Was the food presented in an appealing manner and did it resemble its description from the menu? 10 points – Yes 0 points – No

33. Did the food have an appropriate temperature? 10 points – If the food was hot 5 points – If the food was warm 0 points – If the food was cold

34. Was the overall taste and flavor of food in good combination? 10 points – If the overall taste and flavor of the food was good and in good combination with seasoning 5 points – If the overall taste and flavor was sufficient but not in good combination with seasoning 0 points - If the food did not taste good

35. Was the amount of portion sufficient? 10 points – If the amount of portion was big 0 points – If the amount of portion was not sufficient with the price/service ratio

36. Is the offer original and diverse? 10 points – If the menu has a lot to offer and offers mainly traditional Chinese dishes 5 points – If the menu does not offer too much and most of the dishes are not traditional 0 points – If the menu does not offer traditional Chinese dishes

VII – Overall impression 37. Are the prices adequate to the quality of the products (portion size, appearance and quality)? 10 points – Yes 0 points – No

38. Would you recommend the restaurant to your friends and family? 10 points – Yes 0 points – No

39. Would you return to this restaurant? 10 points – Yes 0 points – No

40. How was your overall impression of the restaurant? 10 points – Exceptional 5 points – Good 0 points – Bad

C. Compution of Mean Compution of the Mean for SHU restaurant all other restaurants were computed the same with different number. The mean is computed as follows:

In Tripadvisor, you can see how many reviews were written for each category of points (1- 5). To compute the mean the total number of reviews from each category of points is computed by the obtained category points. For example 19 (written reviews for the category 5-Excellent) * 5 (the number of points for the specific category) =95. The same has to be computed for the rest of the reviews. In this case for Very good, it is computed as follows: 2 (written reviews for the category 5- Very good) * 4 (points are given for this category) = 8. The computed numbers for each category are going to be computed together, in this case, 95+8=103 and divided by the total number of reviews which is 21. For example 103/21=4,9. 4,9 is the mean. To visualize it better and to be able to compare it to the Mystery shopping manual the Mean is divided by the highest number that can be achieved (5). For example: 4,5/5=0,98. The total satisfaction for the provided services in SHU restaurant is 98%.