Monday, February 27, 2006

Conned by TV

I think I had my most absurd meal ever.

Upon recommendation by a particular celebrity on TV, Mr BF decided to take me to this cafe, (believed to be newly opened) last Friday for dinner.

You know how you always see celebrities on TV, and they go "wooooo!" or "woooooow!!" or "MMMmmmmmm....." when they're promoting some cuisines, local or otherwise.

Don't ever believe that. No matter how good it looks on TV.

The ordeal we went through:

1. Ordering

We sat in the open area for five minutes before I took the initiative to pick up the menu from the hostess stand. A waitress came to clear up our table and took our order upon our request.

2. Waiting

We were told, after ordering, that there would be a waiting time of half hour to 45 min. Despite being absolutely hungry, we decided to wait and give this cafe a chance.

3. Being served

Our drinks - The waitress promised to serve us our drinks as soon as possible. Obviously we believe her as we didn't think it was hard to prepare an iced peach and iced lemon tea. She even promised that I can knock her on the head if she forgets about our orders.
After ten minutes or so, we still didn't have our drinks. We had to ask another server, a guy this time, to serve us the drinks. He did that promptly but the drinks that he brought to us, was completely bland. If not for the colouring, I would really think I was drinking stale water from the tap.

After a good 20 minutes, a waitress came along and informed us that they had ran out of pasta for my oven-baked pasta. She asked if we would like to change it to oven-baked rice instead, which is already READY. You don't need an IQ of 200 to realise there was a slip-up on our order and they're trying to persuade us to eat their error.

"Fine." Since we were really hungry.

Oddly, our main course, the oven-baked rice, came before the Caesar Salad, the appetizer.

The next dish served was the order of "Nuggets with Potato Wedges". Except that it wasn't potato wedges that was served. It was juz some good, old fries, fried with very dirty oil.
Grrrr. Never mind.

Before we could get a start on our food, my dessert consisting of a brownie and ice-cream was served. I had asked for the dessert to be served last. So I had to, once again, call the waitress over, and have her to take it away.

By then, we are starting to feel a little irritated, although, I did find it strangely amusing at the same time.

Our appetizer came after that. But it wasn't the Caesar salad that we ordered. The waiter placed the plate on our table. "Your Chef salad".

Now, I usually don't order salad when I eat out because I don't like the taste of too much Thousand Island on my vegetables. But Caesar salads are different. Which is why, i ONLY order Caesar Salads when I'm out.

"We didn't order a chef salad. We ordered a Caesar Salad."

The waiter took the plate back to the kitchen. I was a little annoyed but continued eating nonetheless.

After a while, a waitress brought out the same plate of salad and served it on our table. "Your Chef salad."

"I already told your colleague juz now that we ordered a Caesar Salad. NOT a Chef Salad. This is, NOT a Caesar Salad."

The waitress apologised and took the plate back to the kitchen. She came back a while later, with the exact same plate.

"This is a Caesar Salad. They ran out of chicken so they replaced it with ham."



!!!!

Firstly, if you've made a mistake with the order, admit it.

Secondly, even if what they said is the truth, shouldn't they seek the guest's opinion before replacing any ingredient?

Thirdly, if this is indeed a Caesar Salad, where the hell are the bread crumbs and bacon bits?!

Lastly, it's NOT A BLOODY CAESAR SALAD!!!

"Never mind. Leave it. I'll speak to your boss later."

We continued eating. Just wanted to quickly finish the meal and get the hell out of there.

The waiter who served us the salad the first time came over to our table.

"Eh, they still serve you the salad ah?"

"Yeah. We told them this is not a Caesar salad but they insist this is. There are no bacon bits or bread crumbs on this salad."

"You want bread crumbs on the salad? I think I saw some on the counter. Maybe the staff inside overlooked it. You want it? I can get it for you."

Thank you for that offer. But it no longer matters now.

The only dish that was served correctly was the honey-grilled chicken wings.

After the not-so-satisfying-nor-is-it-delicious meal, I asked for the dessert to be served. Which took another 10 minutes.

Mind you, it wasn't a most busy time for them.

The dessert looked quite appetizing, although the brownie seemed to be able to fill just two mouthfuls.




Our brownie, when served

After we started digging into the brownie, Mr BF decided to ask for a knife. We found it impossible to eat the hard-as-a-rock brownie with conventional spoons. But by then, I was already so fed-up with the dining experience that I decided not to call anyone over anymore as I know it's impossible for them to adhere our request. Not in the right manner at least.

The leftover brownie - Hard as a rock


In the end, I spent a good 30 bucks on a most unsatisfying meal. I would have banged some tables and kicked some chairs, if not for the very eager waiter and waitresses that kept apologising. When I was making payment, I realised that the entire cafe was ran by students, not older than 20.

Besides from the right attitude, they really gotta work on everything else, including serving the right food. Literally.

Needless to say, I won't be going back there. But then again, I might return to claim back the knocks on the head that the waitress owes me =)

11 Comments:

Blogger Green Ogre said...

It must've been a fucked up experience. I was thinking "what the fuck?" while I was reading? Seriously, I would've made some noise because the service is damn bad loh! Which restaurant is that? You have a public service to let us know.

And I don't usually simply believe the shit I se on TV sometimes. I'll judge for myself. In fact, I go to makan places on the recommendation of friends and relatives.

9:52 AM  
Blogger Unknown said...

thats the one big disadvantage on employing students in the service industry: Sucky Service. they simply do not have the discipline, motivation, or understanding of why good service is important.

and yes, i agree with the celebrities makan-shows. they simply say that EVERYTHING they sampled is delicious. then again, the celebrities mention nothing abt the sucky service for the cafe you went to (or did they? >.<). :p

P.S: ROFL = Roll On Floor Laughing. just one of those acronyms that i picked up when i was playing a MMORPG (Massive Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game or if you have a twisted sense of humour, Massive Men Online Role-Playing Girls >.<) last time.

12:01 PM  
Blogger Adrenaline said...

greenie: i didn't think it was ethical of me to put up the name of the cafe juz based on my own experience. but i'll tell u when i see u though.

and i really wanted to make a lot of noise but they're all students! So young, and inexperienced. They were very eager to apologise and seemed really lost. I thought of how we started out as waiters/waitresses when we were young and decided to juz forget it. Pay up and go.

ensui: it's not all true that students give sucky service. Hey, i started out as a waitress when i was 15 but it didn't stop me from rendering good service! hee ... more importantly, proper training muz be given before these students actually take on the job.

and it's not juz based on this that i say the celebrities makan show sucks. i see those taiwan variety shows toking abt how good taiwanese food is, but i certainly wasn't impressed when i visited taipei.

eh, is counter strike considered as a MMORPG?? hee ...

5:24 PM  
Blogger Unknown said...

true true. have to blame their staff training. of course there are exceptions, but i think they are few and far between (unless the company strongly emphasises on good service >.<).

i guess the saying holds true: One man's meat is another man's poison (or this case, woman >.<).

erm... as for whether CS is a MMORPG, i think there are two schools of thought on that. :p IMO (In My Opinion), i wouldn't say that it is, mainly coz its not classified a Role-Playing Game. others might dispute that view though. sorry to disappoint you, girl. :D

6:00 PM  
Blogger barneysaurus said...

MAUHAHUHAUH :D! This place sounds so sucky, we really should go there with Linx and Yang they all. Then after that can practise our, eh, sprinting or something :)

11:19 AM  
Blogger Adrenaline said...

barney: heh ... i hv no problem wif the sprinting; been running. heee ... but u will give us away.

1) u are heavy and ur "pomp pomp pomp" when running will attract a lot of attention

2) u're purple and it's not that hard to track u down. then u'll implicate all of us.

1:05 PM  
Blogger Green Ogre said...

Hehe, that's quite true. Cannot eat with Barney again.

1:28 AM  
Blogger barneysaurus said...

Walau, you two damn cruel lah. Let's go kopi after my stupid projects and exams are done :D! You are welcome to treat me of course, keke....

8:13 AM  
Blogger Adrenaline said...

ogre: actually not really. we'll juz dump him after we've eaten so he can be the scapegoat.

barney: okie. kopi. and we'll eat a lot of "BAOS" also. hahah .... u can even "DABAO" home if u want. wahahhahah ....

when ur exams finito? if u're pulling ur hair out already from all the studying, then lemme know. i buy magical dice for you so you can handle the MCQs. haha ...

10:08 AM  
Blogger Zhe Bin said...

Everything about this restaurant is wrong right from the start lor! And yes you are absolutely right that it is an absurd meal experience. What the hell. = /

Haha. And I think you are kind enough not to blow up the restaurant's name in big fonts (celebrities already promote lousy stuffs on TV le wor!).

2:28 PM  
Blogger Adrenaline said...

bin: i scared i kena sue leh! haha ....

6:22 PM  

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