This was one of those outings most
would choose to forget. My family and I went to a restaurant in
Puchong for dinner on a Saturday in August this year. We were so
happy looking forward to good food, especially the sight of a big
"steamed Sultan fish", which we saw on the brochure
distributed by that restaurant.
None of my family member had ever seen
this Sultan fish, let alone tasted.it. It would have been a good
experience of sort for them. I had booked a table for 5 the morning
as I wanted to be sure we did not have to wait for a table. At the
time of booking the table, I was asked whether I wanted to make order
for our dishes at the same time. Was this an omen that the service
is going to be very slow?
Since I did not know what they offered
other than the Sultan fish, I said I will do that when we reached
there.
We reached the place at around 7.20PM.
After sitting down, we immediately placed order for our food. The
first dish came out about 20 min. later, and another two within 15
minutes of each other. Then the waiting game started.
"Where's the fish" I asked
one of the waiters. He then walked to the captain just outside the
kitchen. The latter flipped through the order sheets and then
gestured to me to say the order is being readied. On seeing that the
fish is still not coming after another 10 minutes, I walked up to the
captain and asked again,
"what happen?". Again he
said it will be with us in two minutes. At that moment the clock on
my mobile phone was showing 8.30PM, some 70 minutes after we sat down
at the restaurant.
While waiting, we saw a big plate of
steamed Chinese pomfret being served to a table who came 20 minutes
after us. Earlier, I had suggested to my family to walk out, but
my eldest insisted on staying put. Now this latest episode
completely put us off. I could not stand it any more.
I walked up to the cashier, "please
give me a bill, we are not waiting for the fish, any more!".
At the same time the captain was
looking in my direction, so I gestured and told him we won't want the
fish any more. He came over, apologized a few times. It was too
late. We were determined to leave.
The captain offered not to charge for
the 3 dishes that we were served. I did not accept his offer and
insisted the cashier bill me for the served food. I then paid the
billed amount of RM70.50, by giving her an RM50, 2 RM10, and an RM1
note and left immediately without bothering to collect the 50 sen
change and the receipt.
While paying, I told the captain we
will not be coming again. He was dejected, but it was a lesson he
ought to digest to find out what went wrong. From my side, I could
see that the whole organization needed to be revamped. It was not
just us losing patience, the table next to us must have also been
cheesed off by the slow and bad service.
If the captain had the foresight, he
should have done the following:
1) Food ordering procedure and follow
up. The waitress who took our order told me she would check with
the kitchen and come back to me to let me know the size of the Sultan
fish available. This was important as the fish is charged by the
kilo @ RM99. She did'nt report back. I only saw the figure RM138
written on the counter foil at the cashier.
It should have been good customer
service to come over our table after 3 dishes were served to check
whether they have left out anything, or whether we were happy with
the quality of the food, or whether they suited our taste. I take
it as an essential customer service procedure if the restaurant
wanted to retain existing customers. Satisfied customers are the
best advertisement.
2) The kitchen was dis-organized,
otherwise our dishes should have been out one after another. In
most of the reputed restaurants we went to so far, we notice any
steam fish will be on the table before the 3rd dish. in many,
steamed fish come out first.
3) The captain must keep a tight
control on the sequence of delivery for dishes ordered. He must not
be just the person waiting outside the kitchen identifying where the
cooked dishes should go to. The kitchen staff should be placing
some sort of clip marking on the cooked dishes, freeing the captain
to go round to spot check and take remedial measures.
4) The kitchen was under staffed, while
the cashier counter had one too many.
Having said that, I had one compliment
for the restaurant. They employed 3 guards to look after the
security outside the restaurant. This gave customers at least a
sense of security.
Overall, I would rate the restaurant
2/10. It's a lot of improvement to make. Until then, we will not
return.
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