Just today, proof of LOUSY and DOWNRIGHT CRAP service in Singapore.
Went to a restaurant called Hot Stones along Clarke Quay today for lunch.
Food was mediocre and a little on the expensive side. Service was BAAAAAD.
What rubbish kind of food AND service was there? I went there with my parents and they had some sort of promotion on. $15 nett set lunch, with a starter (Sweet corn broth with asparagus or salad), a choice of 2 meats for the main (choice of beef, pork, salmon, tuna, king fish, tiger prawns), dessert (panna cotta or fresh fruit platter), and choice of tea or coffee.
Sounds good right? Wait for it...
We all ordered the set lunch each. The bad service started almost immediately. After taking our orders, the seemingly polite waiter (maybe manager since he was wearing a business shirt) tried to get us to order their expensive rice ($2 for normal steamed rice, $6 (!!!) for garlic rice).
We said no thanks at once. Already off to a great start... not!
So we eagerly awaited our food, especially since enticing smells were wafting over from neighbouring tables.
So our soups came. It looked like something someone had already swallowed and then regurgitated. The sweet corn taste was overpowering, and the asparagus looked mighty sad, small little sticks of green swimming half-heartedly in the broth, as if they didn't even want to be in there.
We said, never mind, it's the main course that matters most.
The meats came, along with the hot grills to cook them on. The meat was good, albeit being quite a minute portion. My goodness! I've had the same sort of meal, in a similar-style restaurant that was previously located along Katong, but there was probably double the amount of meat for the same price, and theirs wasn't a promotion.
Anyways, the grill was so poorly designed that when we put the meats on to cook, the oil on the meats (apparently they were pre-marinated with olive oil) immediately started spluttering all over, causing a huge greasy mess on the table, and onto our hands, as we had to turn the meats to cook them properly. So we had to endure being spluttered and scalded by hot burning oil.
My mom liked the beef she and my dad had ordered with the set, and so according to the promotion set lunch menu the restaurant had propped in a plastic holder thing, additional meat could be ordered at $5 extra. So my mom decided "Let's get another portion of beef for $5!"
So my dad calls over the waitress and asks for the $5 extra meat.
Here's where it gets preposterous.
The waitress says "Sorry you can't get the meat for $5 extra. You have to order that at the beginning of the meal. If you want that extra meat, you have to order another set."
WHAT THE FUCK?!
So my dad, being all nice and such, said no thank you, forget it.
But me, being, well, me, had to have a word with the manager (another guy this time, I supposed he was more senior since he looked less dumb than the other guy).
So I asked again for the meat for $5, and once more, I was met with the same ridiculous reply that I had to order the extra meat at the beginning when I placed my original order.
So I said "This is the first time I have come to this restaurant. I don't know the size of the portions you provide, so how do you expect me to know if I want extra meat?"
Again the well-rehearsed and probably often repeated line about how their restaurant policy is that way, that their little promotion menu also mentions that, and that the waiter who took our order also tells us this.
So I said "But the guy who took our order didn't tell us. And your menu doesn't say it either."
The menu REALLY doesn't.
Here's a picture I found from the Clarke Quay website to prove it:
See? WHERE GOT?! Don't have, right?!
The weedy reply that came was "Oh. But this is our restaurant policy."
That did it.
So I had a go at him.
"Don't you think it's a rather silly (I wanted to say 'fucking stupid' but was holding myself back. On hindsight, I should have.) policy to have?! How are people supposed to know that they want to eat more than the portion given BEFORE they have even started eating?!"
He didn't even have the decency to apologize for his restaurant's unreasonable and nonsensical so-called policy. Instead, he just kept on repeating his little memorised speech, going on and on like a broken record.
So I said "I'm just saying it's a really silly policy. And you should let whoever is in charge know." and just left him at that without so much as a 'thank you'. Why waste my thanks on such insipid stupidity?
WHAT THE FUCKING HELL KIND OF SERVICE WAS THAT?!
Is that the kind of 'service quality' Singapore wishes to promote?
Or maybe 'service quality' Singapore wishes to have are only for tourists to experience? Sometimes, I imagine there's a manager in a store saying to their employees "No need to be nice to Singaporeans or non-Caucasians. See angmoh then be nice la."
WHAT THE F?!
It's outlandish. I've seen proof of that. Nothing against them, but tourists, especially Caucasian ones, sometimes DO get better service. Sometimes I think Singaporean customer service personnel have some sort of, I don't know, superiority complex? Do they think Caucasians are better than Singaporeans? Then that means they think they're better than even themselves. It's so stupid.
Everytime I meet someone overseas, and they hear I'm from Singapore, they go "Oh, such a clean city! And such friendly people and good service!".
And I think incredulously to myself, "REALLY?!?!"
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