Pretty eventful if you are to ask me regarding my dinners for the last 2 days. Got good, got bad for each dinner and overall I will say one of the not so good experience Lunar New Year dinners I ever had. Usually Lunar New Year dinners are suppose to be fun and enjoyable but for me both dun quite fare well to standard and in fact quite abit of disappointment.
Lets talk about the reunion dinner which I had with my family at Hotel Intercontinental, The Olive Tree Restaurant. Being one of the best hotel in Singapore the service of the staff was of cos good and as we opt for a buffet dinner (international cuisine) so nothing much to complain about the quality of the food. Pretty much everything was edible thou nothing to be really fancy about.
What I was very unhappy about was the table arrangement for families who had arrange to have reunion dinners there. All families who made reservations for reunion buffet dinner were arranged to be seated at a large section of the restaurant toward the other end of the restaurant. There tables were arranged in rows so that each family will be allocated one row of tables depending on the number of people. Below is how they had arranged my family table.
| **** ****The lines denote wall and the * denote seat size. As you can see mine being a small family gotten the last table (denoted by ***) and when we were to go and get our food we will need to basically squeeze thru 2 rows (the same family) before getting out. How stupid is that!!! Why can't the smart Alex who arrange the tables just move my table up and bring the two longer row tables down. That will have save alot of traffic congestion and my table can act as a divider between the family above and below. If they had just use abit of logic and some imagination I believe the whole dinner environment would be better. Just a simple move and things would be better. Dun you think so?
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| **** ****Next the Lunar New Year Dinner at Mouth Restaurant @ Chinatown Point... another disappointment which can be avoided if the staff had just pay alittle more attention and improve their service quality.
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The problem came immediately after we were seated and ask to place our order. I told the waitress (or captain) that we will like to have the Dinner Promo Set with Yu Sheng. The captain immediately gave me a very surprise look and went to check the reservation book before coming back to tell us that if we had made a reservation on the Dinner Promo Set. I was like of cos we had made a reservation else how will we had know of the Dinner Promo Set which they had not even put up anywhere in the restaurant! No choice the captain went over to the counter and inform the cook about the menu. We waited for quite a while before food was served (guess due to the kitchen not prepared for our menu) and when they started serving food just keep coming out 3 dishes at one time and we got ask them to slow down. You think that is the worst? They even got the cheek to ask me if they should cut the Peking Duck or we wish to cut ourselves. My bro in law was so surprise when the captain actually ask us that... When in the right mind did the captain manage to see a freaking knife on our table to cut the Peking duck! Of cos we will need the cook to cut it!!! Even with knife do they think we know how to cut and serve Peking duck?!?!
They even forgot to gave us our plates after collecting it back and when they serve the food I got to tell other captain that we can't enjoy our food if we do not have plates. Ok maybe for this I can forgive them as the restaurant was pretty packed and everyone was busy. But the fact that they forgot (or did not note down) our menu selection, causing us to wait for a nice 15 minutes before the first dish was something I cannot forgive. Further more the reservation was made like 2 weeks before Lunar New Year when things were still in a pretty relax mode. Luckily the food was good else I would really had just ask the manager to sit down and experience for herself what sort of dinner Mouth Restaurant was serving.
2 dinners... 2 bad experiences... Ox year might not be a good year after all for me...
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13 comments
I want to say some fair words for Mouth Restaurant. It is more famous for its dim sum rather than its a la carte manu.
And my experience with the staff there was good. Probably too many customers and I think the "captain" who served u asked the right thing about the Peking duck. Some customers perfer to serve themselves rather than have the waiter/waitress serve them.
And also I think the waitress is trying to double check the reservation.
CY let me ask you if you have no freaking knife on your table do you expect to cut the duck yourself. Have you order Peking duck and you have to cut the duck yourself before? If you have well either you are a experience cook or the restaurant is damn poor in service that they need the customers to cut the Peking duck themselves.
As for the waitress (captain) she is not trying to double confirm the reservation but rather "telling" me that I need to make a reservation cos now they need to specially prepare the stuff for the menu. In a way accusing me of not making the reservation just that not telling me straight in the face.
They may serve good food which I agree but as long as the service is not there I think it is not worth the $. Thou I did give them some consideration with regards to many customers on that particular night but then there is a limit to how much we can give and take.
I believe your experience with them is during normal days maybe if you were there yesterday during the CNY dinner you will change your views about them.
Sorry to hear about your experience. Although it can be relatively convenient having Chinese New Year dinner outside, we have to contend with certain restrictions and the food, being mass produced, often left much to be desired.
For me, a simple dinner at the comforts of our home will do just fine.
Happy CNY. Huat ah! :)
hrm i feel that u should eat @ home... maybe its a sign u should eat @ home... XD
Hi Rinko, actually this is the first time I had reunion dinner outside. Usually what we had was steamboat at home but this year my mum wanted a rest so we ate out.
Guess still better to keep with the norm of eating at home as you mention.
KRISCELLL!! HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!
Your this blog is actually quite nice to read. I should be linking u so that it's easier to click and come here.
I had the same problem as you while taking my new year dinner reunion outside. It's my first anyway and i guess its my last time to go there!
Hi VC, Happy New Year to you too. I added you to my blogroll so can link each other up.
Hi Justin, guess it is always better to have dinner at home.
Oh man... I'm really sorry you had such bad meal experiences...!
So sorry to hear that.. It's kinda sucky to be disappointed twice on such an auspicious occasion isn't it? Well, I hope next year will be better for you.. :)
Next yr having it at home no matter what.
Happy niu year to you and don't worry, you are not alone, almost everyone I know got lousy start for this year.
Hi Irene, guess Niu Year nota very good year for many :(
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