Item Reviewed: Mongolian Beef
Price Paid: $10-15

We were staying in Ruidoso, looking for somewhere inside to eat, nothing fast food, and we agreed on Chinese food. There were 3 places to get chinese that I knew about, so we decided to give the Great Wall a try since we had passed by it a few times.

When we got inside we were seated rather quickly, but then there was a long delay before anyone waited on the table. Our drink order was taken after a few minutes and we started selecting our order. The drink order never came. We waived another waiter over to ask about the drinks. A few more minutes passed and a set of drinks arrived.. Then another 5 minutes passed before someone came back to take our order, when they did they brought the first order of drinks. 15 minutes now and we were just receiving our first set of drinks, and having our order taken. Our glasses were then refilled repeatedly before they were even half empty.

The people I was traveling with ordered their entrees.
They asked the waiter.
"Can we substitute the steamed rice for fried rice?"
The menu said "all dinners served with white rice, Substitude fried rice for white rice will be $2.00 extra" on the menu.

The waiter said "we cant substitude but you can order fried rice on the side. Would you like fried rice?"

Puzzled they said "we get both?" He said "yes, you will get the white rice on the plate and then a bowl of fried rice as well."

The waiter asked "Egg, Pork, or Chicken?" they said "Pork & Chicken."

So its been about 30 minutes since we arrived. The food arrives at the table, and our glasses are almost empty again. Now that the food is here the waiters who were filling our glasses every time we took a sip have dissapeared.

The food is placed on the table along with 2 huge bowls of fried rice with chunks of pork and chicken in them. Whats odd is that the rice had bean sprouts in it. None of us had ever seen fried rice with bean sprouts, and we asked the waiter about this. One person was totally turned off by the bean sprouts in the rice. The waiter commented that it was totally normal, and acted as if rice without beansprouts in it was odd. He said "thats our specialty, people say great things about our rice, everyone makes it different".

We all ate our food, the entrees were good, and were large portions. No complaints there. All of us in fact had so much food it looked as if we had not touched our plates. My mongolian beef was piled up with tons of onions and peppers and beef. We all packed boxes to take back to the hotel with us.

The waiter brought the reciept to the table, and the couple that was with me looked at it puzzled. It was over $50 for 2 plates and an appetizer. The entrees were about $12 each, drinks were $2, appetizer was $5 but then there was 2 fried rices each marked $6.50. They asked the waiter about the rice. The response was a total surprise. Fried rice implies plain fried rice. Pork, Chicken, Shrimp ect.. are 6.50 each. Only the plain fried rice is $2.

So suddenly the cost of their meal increased by alot. The rice bowls were actually entrees.

Probably the most expensive chinese dinner they had ever had. I myself was rather astounded by the bill.

We paid our bills, including the extra $13 for 2 bowls of rice which were barely touched.

As we left all of us felt as if we had just been scammed. Thus the name of this review.

Variety: Chinese

Pros: Good Food, Wide Variety, Large Servings

Cons: Poor Service, Extra Charges On Bill