No Banana No Pay

INDULGENCE is a big scoop of deliciously creamy chocolate ice-cream tucked quickly and neatly into a hungry, opened mouth – MINE!

Ooohhh…the joy of enjoying a Banana Split loaded with roasted nuts is incomparable to anything that’s nice in life, not even getting a present. Yum! Yum!

That is the greedy pig in me talking. A small-eater, that’s me, but when it comes to ice-cream, just bring it on baby.

My favourite ice-cream is the Banana Split and I only like the one I get from Secret Recipe although I’ve tried many from other outlets.

So what’s so special with Secret Recipe’s Banana Split? It’s the ice-cream. Come to think of it I have never asked what brand of ice-cream it uses. It never crossed my mind although if I were to drink brewed coffee I make it a point to ask the brand. So okay I have one new task when I next visit a Secret Recipe outlet.

The Banana Split served at Secret Recipe comes in this typical set of two scoops vanilla and one scoop chocolate ice-creams, plus a shot of whipped cream, topped with chocolate syrup, a piece of cherry (those sugared type, not fresh) and lovelies of lovelies - a sprinkling of roasted nuts.

And the very reason I’m writing this post is because I COULDN'T get my favourite Banana Split with three scoops of chocolate ice-cream, laced with whipped cream and chocolate syrup and a blob of cherry and loads of nuts because the outlet I went to ran out of BANANAS! Are they bananas or something?

Secret Recipe - always my favourite but not when they ran out of basic ingredients.

I asked for a Banana Split and the wait staff took my order. Then she told me, no bananas though. I stared at her. Huh? Banana Split without bananas? I asked why. She said they’ve ran out of bananas. Ran out? Like Pisang Embun (the type of bananas often used for Banana Split) is so hard to get, is it? I asked again: “Why didn’t you guys re-stock?” And she said: “Dah habis (we’ve ran out).”

Hello duhh, tak boleh beli lagi (can’t you buy some more)???

I probed further “So if I order a no-banana Banana Split, the price will be less?”

“No,” she said. “Price is the same.”

Okay, that’s baffling. The outlet is responsible for the no-banana situation and if the customer still wants it, she can but she has to pay the standard price. Daylight robbery I call it.

I wanted to clarify this so I asked her if the outlet manager was around. She stared at me blankly. The rest in my group asked me to ignore the situation and just order something different. I did.

A Chocolate Sundae instead of my fave Banana Split at Secret Recipe.

I ordered a  Chocolate Sundae and luckily for me, or rather for the wait staff, they didn’t tell me I can’t ask for more nuts than what’s given. In some Secret Recipe outlets, customers are not allowed to request for a generous sprinkling of nuts on their ice-cream from what’s given in the serving. I don’t mind as long as they tell me I can pay extra for more nuts. Some outlets don’t even offer that service. Weird, right? Any sale is a sale, even if it's just RM1, so why not?

I enjoyed the Chocolate Sundae but I’m still puzzled how a food outlet can ignore something as crucial as this. Don’t they have an inventory of products and know exactly when to re-stock?

An empty glass - thank God I love the chocolate ice-cream.

And talking about missing bananas from a Banana Split let me tell you a similar incident at Toast Box in 1Utama. I went there to order some takeaway food for dinner. The outlet has quite a good selection of local fare. So I asked the wait staff to pack for me two sets of Mee Soto and a Nasi Lemak. But before I could finish my sentence he told me I can’t have takeaways because they’ve ran out of food carriers.

Can I suggest these operators put a signboard at their outlets like NO BANANAS TODAY or BRING YOUR OWN CARRIERS next time?

Secret Recipe 

B-0-9 & B-0-10, Block B

Casa Tropicana

No.5 Jalan Persiaran Tropicana

Tropicana Golf & Country Resort

PJU 3, Petaling Jaya

Tel: +6 03 7883 0716 

www.secretrecipe.com.my