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Local restaurant hopes for a fresh start
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Neighbors | Tim Cleveland.Co-owner Jenny Dong (center) and her employees prepared to greet customers at the Koi China Bistro and Sushi Bar restaurant.
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Neighbors | Tim Cleveland.The Koi China Bistro and Sushi Bar restaurant opened in November after going through difficulties under its previous name.
By TIM CLEVELAND
After opening their Chinese, Japanese and Thai food restaurant under its new name of Koi China Bistro and Sushi Bar, Sheng Dong and his wife Yan, who goes by Jenny, are hoping for a second chance to make their business a success.
Under its previous name of Shangrila Express, located at 840 Boardman Poland Road, the restaurant was one of several area Asian food restaurants that received spoiled food from New Sheng Hung Inc. of Cleveland in May after the delivery truck’s refrigeration system failed.
After working hard to win back their customers’ trust, the couple switched to another provider based in Pittsburgh and had the same issue.
The Dongs now are contracted to receive their food from Sysco Pittsburgh LLC. Sheng Dong said he goes as far as taking pictures of all the food upon delivery and posting them to the Koi’s Facebook page to show customers that nothing is contaminated.
“I want to apologize tell all my customers,” he said. “That hurt us a lot and we took a pretty big hit from it. I would love for them to come back and give us another try and everything will be 100 percent guaranteed safe.”
After changing the restaurant’s name, the Dongs did a soft opening on Nov. 15 and a grand opening a week later.
“We did a soft opening without open signs or anything,” Sheng said. “The first week was smooth and the second week, after we did the grand opening and we put the banners up, it picked up a little bit. We’re still doing our best and serving better food, better product to the customers. I have confidence and I want to build my business.”
The couple is doing its best to live the American Dream, as Jenny Dong also owns the Sweet Frosty frozen yogurt business at 215 Boardman Canfield Road.
Sheng Dong said opening a restaurant has been a goal of his for almost all his life.
“I’ve been in the restaurant business since I was little with my dad,” he said. “He owns a little takeout restaurant in New Jersey. As soon as I turned 18, I started working my way to owning my own business. I have quite a bit of experience in the restaurant business. That’s what I’m best at.
“I want to build my business because I first moved to Youngstown eight years ago. I started a couple other restaurants. I owned two restaurants at the same time but my kids needed to go to school and my wife used to be in the restaurant like me, long hours every day, so we decided to sell one of our restaurants [Shanghai River] and focus on this one.”
Dong said while Koi offers many outstanding dishes, its General Tso’s Chicken is a customer favorite.
“A lot of customers have complimented us on our General Tso’s Chicken,” he said. “They say it’s like real chicken. We use all white meat chicken breasts and very little breading, so you get a huge chicken and a little breading with the sauce. Not like other restaurants where you get mostly breading and a little bit of chicken inside.”
An emotional Dong admitted making mistakes with Shangrila Buffet, but said he’s learned from them and hopes for area residents will give him another chance.
“That’s our fault that we didn’t do much of a background check with that company that we went to,” he said. “I want to tell my customers that I learned a huge lesson. My home is here in Youngstown. I bought a house here, my kids go to school here. I’m settled here so that’s why I want to do the best I can and try harder to be able to do better business, support my family and kids, and I learned a huge lesson from what happened before.
“We decided to do the remodel and get a fresh start. Now we’re providing 100 percent safe products and will not order from any of those suppliers. I can’t take any more hits like that.”