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Walking the streets of Xinjiang, it’s not uncommon to see a restaurant whose sign claims that it is a “Western Style” restaurant.  For those of us who live here you get used to companies trying to gain exposure by selling their products as foreign made or influenced, and unfortunately for the most part it works.

Every man wants to buy a foreign-made car, kids think that all Americans love KFC, parents want their kids to be taught English by native speakers, and women think that Amway is still the most popular foreign product line. In some cases they may be correct, but as you can tell by some of the examples above there are many companies that could easily be accused of false advertising, and these “western restaurants” in Xinjiang would one of them.  Ironically, they might be regretting that decision.

Photo courtesy of avlxyz

When you see a sign saying “western style restaurant” while traveling in Xinjiang, don’t get too excited – true western restaurants are few and far between.  I’ve found that this western style claim usually has nothing to do with what kind of food they serve or what special ingredients they use to cook.  The only thing “western” about these restaurants is the way in which they serve the food – buffet style.  Of course they could just say that they are a “buffet style” restaurant, but that just wouldn’t have the nice ring that the word “western” does, would it?

We rarely eat at these restaurants for two main reasons:

1. They’re usually way too expensive
2. The food isn’t that much better than a cheaper restaurant – there’s just more to choose from.

I made an exception today to meet a friend for lunch and to my surprise found a nice little sign on the table that wasn’t there a month ago.  It stated:

This restaurant finally learned a humorous yet important lesson in serving people the “western” way – most people have eyes bigger than their stomachs.  Even funnier is that the charge to eat at the buffet is less than 50 RMB (equivalent to $7), so putting too much on your place could more than double your meal price!  I have no idea how they would enforce this rule – whether a waiter would come out with a scale and tell you take a few more bites to make sure you’re under 200 grams – but the message is clear: if you want to eat like a westerner you better be willing to pack the extra pounds like one of us!