M. Ismail is one of NewsFlashMedia’s team members. Since late October 2011 she has been living in London and France. In this post she talks about her 'not-so-great' eating out experience while in London.
I’M still in London and I’m still wasting my time at the shopping malls. I don’t know why I do that but I think it has a lot to do with escaping the cold so I stick to anywhere that’s indoors (besides the house).
On Monday I was at Westfield Stratford City, the latest Westfield outlet and Europe’s largest urban shopping complex. There are over 200 stores in this mall but I didn’t take that long to go through each one of them. I’m an expert at shopping. Anyway, it was a boring outing as the sale season was over and there weren’t a lot of excitement, the kind you get when every pair of hands is grabbing for a bargain item.
To kill my boredom I decided to feed my stomach, not that I haven’t had breakfast. The mall has an impressive selection of food outlets although not all of the operators are ‘friendly’. I stopped at an Indian food outlet called Indi-Go at the World Food Court on the first floor to have a look at its menu. They have placed two of their menu cards in these light-boxes placed right smack at the entrance so customers can check out the selection. But because I was unsure if I was going to eat there I decided not to obstruct other potential customers while I decide. Instead, I picked up a loose menu card that was placed in a stack at the side and stood away from the queue. The minute I did that, a wait staff posted at the entrance quickly told me off, reaching out for the menu card in my hand with a disapproving look. I was amazed by his ‘manners’ and am wondering if he actually thought I was going to run away with the menu card?
So I decided to leave in a huff, thinking if people want to be in the service industry they had better spruce up their act!
I then stopped at this Thai food outlet called Rosa’s just opposite of Indi-Go. There was quite a long queue and a wait staff was stationed at the side just to assist the crowd. I lingered just outside to see if I can check out the menu and before I knew it the wait staff whipped out a menu card from the stack to his left and handed it to me with a smile. Now that always make a customer’s day! And when I returned the card to him, he again gave a polite smile and even said a thank-you. Maybe the owners of Rosa’s can teach the people behind Indi-Go a lesson or two.
But the biggest disappointment for the day was when I decided to eat at a restaurant located on the second floor. When I entered the restaurant there was zero customers. There was only me and a family member. We sat ourselves at our table by the entrance and a wait staff attended to us immediately. I placed my order as I already knew what I wanted and we informed the waitress to give us some time to place the second order. Minutes later two other customers arrived and sat themselves.
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| Customers bored of waiting for food to be delivered to the table will occupy themselves with their handphones. |
Just instantly after placing our first order my hot Teh Tarik arrived and we placed the second order. Several minutes later, the serving for the second order arrived but my food was still not in sight. The person with me told me to zip my mouth and not complain. Just wait, she said, it will come. Really? She was already digging into her noodles while I was tapping my fingers on the table to keep cool. I got really edgy especially when my order was just a basic Roti Canai with dhall. And how long would it take to heat up an instant Roti Canai on a hot pan? Less than five minutes. I know because I do it all the time at home.
After about 20 minutes or so I decided to ask where my dish has flown to. The outlet manager quickly buzzed about before coming back to me and said it will be ready in three minutes. And voila! The Roti Canai arrived with the dhall in about three minutes. By then the tea was cold, as anyone would know. Imagine drinking tea, cold. Delicious?
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| (Left) The Roti Canai ordered at Jom Makan, Westfield Centre and (right) the ones ordered at Jom Makan, Westfield Stratford City. |
So I dug into the Roti Canai, which were cooked in a rush, as can be seen from the uneven texture of the flour. One out of the four pieces ordered was not even cooked.
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| See the arrows of the uncooked Roti Canai and the undercooked chicken pieces. |
The saddest thing from this experience was when I put my concern forward, first to the wait staff then the outlet manager. Both of them actually asked if I’d like them to replace the piece with another. Well, let me see. What would the ideal thing to say to an unsatisfied customer? From common sense I’d say: “I apologise for that ma’am. Let me prepare you a fresh set” and whizz off to do exactly that. For goodness sake! Your service was crap and you need to ask IF you can put it right? Just put it right instead of making excuses about having a new cook and what not.
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| Jom Makan outlet at Westfield Centre |
And why do I find this so appalling? It’s because I gave Jom Makan the benefit of the doubt. Despite having gone through a similar experience at its Westfield Centre outlet. Service there was extremely slow as well although the group I was with tolerated it as there was quite a crowd. And the meat in its Chicken Masak Lemak was undercooked.
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| Very nice decor at Jom Makan outlet in Westfield Stratford City. |
It's a pity the service doesn't live up to the restaurant's chic decor because I just love the ambience. However, all said and done, that will be the one outlet I’d avoid on future outings. Hopefully others will not experience the same at these outlets.
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