#01-88/89 Bugis Junction (facing Illuma)
NOT RECOMMENDED
First off, I would like to say that the food that I have tasted here, is only limited to it’s omelette.
Why? Well, here goes :
I pass by this restaurant, with nice and beautiful pictures of food being displayed outside the restaurant.
So, I decided to have a go at this joint. A staff member came out of the door to greet me.
She briefly explained the food menu, as well as the promotions available, which is high-tea buffet. Mostly omelets with this and that, and some pancakes. (By the way, I was with my wife.)
As we entered, we noticed that not many patrons were in there, around 6 to 7 tables filled, but at least 3 tables were with plates uncleared.
We were shown a table, which had stains of sauces and food still left on it. It was 2.30pm. I suppose they were too busy to clean up the tables.
We sat down, the table was cleared by the lady staff, which I believe to be the floor manager. Her name is Janice. She was friendly, and smiling while explaining where the salad bar is, and briefing us on the how to place an order.
The order form which we had to fill is, is like a job application form. A4 size, with so many text. I would say, it is quite confusing. I am there to dine. Not trying to figure out where and which box to tick, especially on TWO A4 size “application form”.
Furthermore, in the terms and condition section, it states that each person is entitled to 3 forms. So, we had to make our buffet orders within these 3 forms.
I called Janice, and asked her about the flyer that was stapled together with the forms. Then she said the flyer was not meant for this restaurant. (huh???) I asked why was it stapled with the forms. She just smiled and shrugged. (great!)
The flyer stapled on the forms, that wasn’t meant for the restaurant.
As I was very hungry by then, I ticked without thinking much. TWO servings of each omelette dish, which equates to around 16 to 20 of omelettes. Now, in my mind, I was thinking that the dishes should be small, as it is HIGH TEA buffet.
We ordered fondues and some other stuff on the “application forms”. These are included in the buffet selection. Tiramisu and some other stuff are only allowed to be ordered once.
And so, I looked up and signaled to a staff. An old lady. This was the starting point where I started to feel annoyed. She looked at me, and turned away. Where she went, I would not know. But she sure pissed me off.
I took the forms to a young boy. And my order was processed. I could feel that the vibe in this RESTAURANT was not really good. Why? Because the cashier behind the counter is frowning all the way from the moment we stepped in, to the moment we made our order. Maybe our presence annoyed him? ^^
Barely filled salad bar.
And so, we waited for our food, and I proceeded to the salad bar. Wait, what salad bar? The containers holding the salads are hardly full, the mash potato’s container is not even there. Everything looks so distastefully displayed. The only thing I would want to take is the garlic bread.
I took 4 slices, and went back to my table. While waiting, I looked to my right. Table uncleared since we sat down. It had been almost 10mins. 5 mins later, the young boy came to clear it. Finally.
Uncleared tables for AT LEAST 10mins.
Next, I realised there wasn’t any servettes on our table. We requested for some. Then, I realised we had no drinks or no one asked. So, again we requested for 2 glasses of ice water. (At least they provided ice water. ^^)
On my left, there was a table of 8 person. They were having omelettes too. With fondue and some drinks.
It took me some time to realise that I was about to have something similar to theirs. And the portion of their omelette is huge! And we ordered like 20 of these!! DAMN!
And finally, our dishes came. And so, our omelette odyssesy began. Plate after plate came. All the plates were huge. But the servings inside were quite alright.
I thought the omelettes were supposed to be cooked with mushrooms or bacon or ham that was described in the order form. But no! Those stuff were sides! And all the plates were have the same omelettes.
“Application form”
Now, the old woman came with 2 more plates. The table was full. Take note, that our table comprise of TWO tables, and both are full. She stood there, and asked us to clear a place for her to place the plates in her hands. I looked at her blankly. My wife helped her to clear a space by clearing 2 plates into another plate of omelette.
One minute later, she came back with another 2 plates. She said,”Excuse me.”
She was expecting me to clear space for her. I replied,”you find a spot to place these. Why are you all pushing all these plates out at one shot?”
She replied,”Like that one what.”
I looked at her blankly, and said,”I don’t know. You think of a way. And stop the food for now.”
She GLARED at me, and shouted to the kitchen for her colleague,” hey ‘some name’, slowly!”
Well, what a great way for a restaurant to work!
And so, we tried to wolf down the amazingly embarrassing situation infront of us. TWO tables full of eggs!
Now, I must admit that I was stupid (very stupid) and foolish to order without asking the portion or even trying out 1 dish first, to know what I am getting into.
And so, after getting 4 plates of omelletes each into out tummy, we surrendered. It was almost equivalent to 12 eggs for each of us!
I called Janice over, and said that whatever left over there are, I would pay.
I told her that the food (or I should say the omelletes. Because I only ate omelletes!) was good,. The quality and taste are acceptable. But as a restaurant, if the customer ordered something that was so crazily overboard for a ala carte buffet, shouldn’t the customer be advised on the quantity? It was obvious that two person would not be able to finish 20 plates of omelletes?
I told her I am not looking for trouble, but just trying to suggest that this was definitely not the right way, and I too apologised for not asking before ordering.
BUT, the service they were offering, were way down the line of being acceptable. Crazy auntie even addressed the patrons beside my table as “Boy ah”.
Auntie or no auntie, you are still a waitress, attending to customers of a RESTAURANT. That is definitely not the way to behave.
The air conditioning wasn’t acceptable as well. I was feeling warm, but definitely not because of all the omelletes in my stomach. It really wasn’t having a pleasant temperature in the restaurant.
Anyways, Janice apologised for everything, and said that we do not need to pay for the excessive food or leftovers. I apologised for the food wastage, but reiterated my points and suggestions.
Hence, end of the day, we paid around $46 for 2 pax, for some garlic bread, ice water, and LOTS of eggs. Pretty worth it eh…..
Summary :
Bad service, poor attitude, VERY under staffed.
Poor air conditioning.
No serviettes till requested.
No water till requested.
Tables not cleared for at least 10min.
Salad bar barely filled up.
Poor staff morale, with the sulking faces of some staff.
Extremely bad attitude from old waitress.
(I have to emphasis on this…. I am not picking on her personally, just her working attitude.)
Well, not all was bad. Janice was good and kind enough to serve us with a smile. By the way, from the looks of it, she was the only one serving all the tables. The auntie was utterly useless.
The omelletes were… nice, but way too much for us. ^^
I would like reiterate, that the food is fine. Just the quality of service. We were not satisfied at all by this experience.
The auntie waitress needs to wake the hell up. How to be in service line if the attidue is so poor and rude.
I would urge the management to do something about the menu. It is way too confusing for customers. Simplify it.. PLEASE!
Especially the ordering form….
This is not only me. I overheard from neighbouring tables that they do not understand the menu, and they had to ask the staff, which only Janice was available to help all the customers. Really. The rest of the staff just ain’t helpful at all.
Whooo Hooo!! EGGS!! -_-