‘How bad is this area?’: Customer says Chinese restaurant scans customers with a metal detector before letting them in
A TikToker's video is going viral after it showed a Chinese restaurant with locked doors and a metal detector screening all customers.
The video comes from the @nanobytesinc account; the creator is also a YouTube vlogger that tries to live on $100 in various places around the world for long enough to secure housing. Though the creator doesn't identify the location in the TikTok, viewers speculated on where he was, or why the Chinese restaurant might have the level of security it does.
The video went up on the creator's account on Tuesday, generating more than 476,000 views as of Sunday.
The clip starts with the creator approaching the door, stating, "I'm at a Chinese restaurant right now, and they literally have the doors locked, and they won't let you in unless they scan you with a metal detector." The door also has several weathered stickers on it, briefly visible in the video, with one declaring the restaurant an alcohol, drug, and weapons-free zone.
@nanobytesinc New account
♬ original sound - NanoBytesInc
Then, scanning the landscape to reveal a Quality Inn across the street, the creator implores, "How bad is this area?"
Several commenters tried to guess the location. Some placed it in North Carolina, with one guessing Rocky Mount, receiving just a grimace emoji back from the creator, with another asserting it was Winston-Salem.
Another commented that they think they saw the creator in a West Virginia McDonalds; the creator replied "Probably," giving a sense of the extent of his travels.
Several people joked that the level of security was an indicator of how good the food would be.
"That food will be the best food you have ever had," one person surmised.
Another said, similarly, "I just know this meal is going to be absolutely AMAZING."
Another spotted the sticker restricting entry to adults, and asserted, "'No entry under 18' lmao that’s not a restaurant."
But others felt the precautions, extreme as they might look, are warranted given the ongoing violence against the AAPI (Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders) community in the U.S.
"I would too if my community kept getting attacked by randos," one said regarding what the TikTok revealed.
"We just gonna pretend the AAPI community isn’t under attack right now," another said.
The Daily Dot has reached out to the creator via TikTok comment.
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