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Singapore food - generally very poor quality

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rajagainstthemachine
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Re: Singapore food - generally very poor quality

Post by rajagainstthemachine » Sun, 21 Dec 2014 11:31 pm

JR8 wrote:
rajagainstthemachine wrote: The ones I have frequented however need to be commended, maybe in a new thread?
Or in the topic... where I see you've posted before. That topic was started with the idea that food that stands out can be elusive to find. Hence a place to share tips and suggestions...
'Getting to eat 'proper food' again...'
http://forum.singaporeexpats.com/viewto ... 3&t=103262

aah I forgot about that thread, thanks for reminding me.
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Re: Singapore food - generally very poor quality

Post by Brah » Mon, 22 Dec 2014 5:52 pm

rajagainstthemachine wrote: I haven't posted any reviews on any of those websites, I've heard stories where the owners have threatened legal action against patrons posting bad reviews and thereby hurting their business.
I don't want to get into that muck, I'd rather tell people on here to avoid some places that are not worth eating at.
On the contrary, I think those are the exact right places to (anonymously) post your honest feedback, as more people look there for reviews than will here, and, and to my earlier point, here could be dangerous as although somewhat anonymous, I wonder how much, and someone here got in trouble [rightly] criticizing bad service and somehow got into legal trouble.

I am interested to know what you have heard about people getting in trouble for posting their feedback, and how they got tracked down.

I think we all should be free enough to post to those sites anonymously, and here as well, otherwise people will not say anything. This point is actually fodder for a thread of its own.
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Re: Singapore food - generally very poor quality

Post by x9200 » Tue, 23 Dec 2014 9:07 am

People are just frightened by liability and defamation laws being a huge chunk contributing to why the service quality is here so bad. I had pleasure interacting with some sellers who threatened me with legal action for criticizing they products/work over private one-to-one e-mail. This nicely illustrates how pathological this system is.

It is probably assumed to be good to have a business that generates profit and employs people even if the products of this business are poor by any standard – what choice an average resident has anyway? Any open action against such companies, justified or not, would lead to the profit decrease and money is everything.

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Re: Singapore food - generally very poor quality

Post by Steve1960 » Tue, 23 Dec 2014 12:58 pm

In my experience whether the food is good or bad the serving is usually atrocious. Happened to us again last Friday in China Town. It was lunch time and the restaurant was maybe 30% full.

The food that did arrive actually tasted very good. The seafood fried rice came first, then a considerable delay (during which time the rice got cold) until the spicy beef and spicy green beans turned up. This was great for me I had everything I ordered even if the rice was cold. My wife was still waiting for her steamed fish................we waited.............I asked about the fish and was told '2 minutes' by the waitress.............we waited................I complained...................we finished eating the rest of the food.

I called the waitress over and said forget about the fish we are done I would like the bill. There was a heated exchange between the waitress and the chef which the entire restaurant could hear then we paid and left.

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Re: Singapore food - generally very poor quality

Post by Steve1960 » Tue, 23 Dec 2014 1:08 pm

Week before last I took a Japanese customer to a well known seafood restaurant near Clarke Quay. Booked a table for 6pm, their web site said they have two sittings at 6pm and 8pm.

We arrived and the waitress kindly informed me that we needed to vacate the table by 7.15pm for the next customers. I advised the web site said two sittings at 6pm and 8pm and I fail to understand how it can take 45 minutes to clean and prepare the tables looking at the considerable number of staff on duty. I didn't get anywhere and didn't want to push it as I had a customer with me. So I simply said 'if your service is good enough we will be finished by 7.15pm'.

It took until 6.10pm for us to get the menus and have a drinks order taken. At 6.20pm we ordered the food. At 6.30pm the food started to arrive, rice first and then a considerable delay during which time the rice got cold (does this sound familiar?). 6.40pm the rest of the food came up, it was not a huge meal just a light business meal so we were done just before 7.15pm at which point I handed my credit card to the waitress..................and it came back to me 10 minutes later at 7.25pm

](*,)

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Re: Singapore food - generally very poor quality

Post by Steve1960 » Tue, 23 Dec 2014 1:12 pm

Rant continues :x

McDonalds, I don't particularly like the place but my wife and daughter do. I have lost count of the amount of times I have asked for the fries to be replaced as they are cold. Rather than wait until the burgers or whatever are cooked and leave the fries in their heated cabinet they always insist on putting the fries on the tray first.

](*,)

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Re: Singapore food - generally very poor quality

Post by rajagainstthemachine » Tue, 23 Dec 2014 1:33 pm

Brah wrote:
rajagainstthemachine wrote: I haven't posted any reviews on any of those websites, I've heard stories where the owners have threatened legal action against patrons posting bad reviews and thereby hurting their business.
I don't want to get into that muck, I'd rather tell people on here to avoid some places that are not worth eating at.
On the contrary, I think those are the exact right places to (anonymously) post your honest feedback, as more people look there for reviews than will here, and, and to my earlier point, here could be dangerous as although somewhat anonymous, I wonder how much, and someone here got in trouble [rightly] criticizing bad service and somehow got into legal trouble.

I am interested to know what you have heard about people getting in trouble for posting their feedback, and how they got tracked down.

I think we all should be free enough to post to those sites anonymously, and here as well, otherwise people will not say anything. This point is actually fodder for a thread of its own.
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Re: Singapore food - generally very poor quality

Post by martincymru » Tue, 23 Dec 2014 5:34 pm

How do you define "QUALITY" in the context of food ?

If you are unable to then better to keep quiet or at the very least qualify your assertions.

Is quality per se capable of being measured ?

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Re: Singapore food - generally very poor quality

Post by x9200 » Tue, 23 Dec 2014 7:03 pm

martincymru wrote:How do you define "QUALITY" in the context of food ?

If you are unable to then better to keep quiet or at the very least qualify your assertions.

Is quality per se capable of being measured ?
Can not speak for the others, but for me, bad quality, examples: clearly cold when supposed to be hot, too salty when agreed based on a few people opinion, not fresh (stinking, dried i.e you can easily tell when sushi is 1d old etc), cross-contaminated (I had garlic testing fruits at one otherwise good restaurant, meat hard as a shoe-sole or with some bones, tendons, veins (where none of them are to be expected) RT white wine .... etc.etc.etc.

I think people generally understand that their taste preferences it is not what the quality is.

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Re: Singapore food - generally very poor quality

Post by Brah » Tue, 23 Dec 2014 7:17 pm

Steve1960 wrote:Week before last I took a Japanese customer to a well known seafood restaurant near Clarke Quay. Booked a table for 6pm, their web site said they have two sittings at 6pm and 8pm.

We arrived and the waitress kindly informed me that we needed to vacate the table by 7.15pm for the next customers. I advised the web site said two sittings at 6pm and 8pm and I fail to understand how it can take 45 minutes to clean and prepare the tables looking at the considerable number of staff on duty. I didn't get anywhere and didn't want to push it as I had a customer with me. So I simply said 'if your service is good enough we will be finished by 7.15pm'.

It took until 6.10pm for us to get the menus and have a drinks order taken. At 6.20pm we ordered the food. At 6.30pm the food started to arrive, rice first and then a considerable delay during which time the rice got cold (does this sound familiar?). 6.40pm the rest of the food came up, it was not a huge meal just a light business meal so we were done just before 7.15pm at which point I handed my credit card to the waitress..................and it came back to me 10 minutes later at 7.25pm

](*,)
I dislike this tactic as well. Once you are in your seat, it is yours, and you should be able to enjoy your dinner at a reasonable pace and not have to worry about getting pushed out. What are they going to do, take the food away?
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Re: Singapore food - generally very poor quality

Post by Brah » Tue, 23 Dec 2014 7:18 pm

martincymru wrote:How do you define "QUALITY" in the context of food ?

If you are unable to then better to keep quiet or at the very least qualify your assertions.

Is quality per se capable of being measured ?
Simple - it's like pornography - you know it when you see it, or in this case, eat it.

I second the other two comments here about the lacking quality, as well as the OP's title.
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Re: Singapore food - generally very poor quality

Post by rajagainstthemachine » Tue, 23 Dec 2014 10:44 pm

martincymru wrote:How do you define "QUALITY" in the context of food ?
If you are unable to then better to keep quiet or at the very least qualify your assertions.
Is quality per se capable of being measured ?
I'd define quality of food w.r.t a standard of taste I'm used to, for e.g you eat fried rice with large amount of oil, salt and MSG its taste will be bad compared to fried rice with has less of those ingredients.
That would be a definition of poor quality fried rice.
Another comparison would be between two bowls of fried rice, but if one had more delicious ingredients than the other, then one is clearly better quality than the other.
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Re: Singapore food - generally very poor quality

Post by the lynx » Wed, 24 Dec 2014 9:10 am

I learned something about quality vs standard when I attended a project management course recently. TL:DR version, quality is not the same as standard.

Quality:
A young man promised to his girlfriend that he would bring her out for a high quality dinner for Valentine's day. Excited, the lady dressed up to nines and waited by her door to be picked up by the man on that evening. The man picked her up and brought her to McDonald's. Utterly smashed by venue, she lashed angrily at her boyfriend for the sick joke he pulled on her.

"Honey, this is a high quality restaurant. No matter where you go around the world, you will definitely a cheese burger of the same ingredients, arranged in the exact stacking order and with the same bun size."

Moral: McDonald's have high quality but poor standard of food.

Standard:
Two businessmen were on a week-long work trip in Hungary. At the end of the trip (and probably after a week of dreary local food), the duo decided to splurge on a nice meal of a familiar palate on company expense. They drove around the town and found a swanky-looking Italian restaurant. Relieved by their discovery, they made their way inside and had themselves seated in a well-decorated dining hall. Although the price of the menu was a little too steep for their comfort, the men decided to go ahead and savour a meal they had been craving for, thinking that surely, the price would justify the perceived standard of this fine-looking establishment.

Their soup arrived and one of them found a dead fly inside their soup. Before the first businessmen could call for a waiter's attention, the second man quickly doused the soup with a pile of table salt. Perplexed, but not wanting to question a hungry man, the first man watched as the waiter removed their soup from their table and brought second bowls of soup.

The second man smirked and said, "Wait for it."

Within a minute, a couple from the other end of the dining hall called out to the waiter and cried, "This soup is insanely salty!"

Moral: This particular Hungarian Italian restaurant may have high standard of food but poor quality.

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Re: Singapore food - generally very poor quality

Post by Steve1960 » Wed, 24 Dec 2014 9:16 am

Yes, we always found it amusing when implementing or renewing ISO9002 certification.

Many believed incorrectly this ensured the quality of the product. Actually it just sets standards which ensure consistency. If your product is cr*p you will be able to churn out that cr*p with a high level of consistency!!

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Re: Singapore food - generally very poor quality

Post by nakatago » Wed, 24 Dec 2014 9:23 am

Steve1960 wrote:Yes, we always found it amusing when implementing or renewing ISO9002 certification.

Many believed incorrectly this ensured the quality of the product. Actually it just sets standards which ensure consistency. If your product is cr*p you will be able to churn out that cr*p with a high level of consistency!!
At least McDonalds is consistent. You don't walk into one, order your angry meal and be inclined to say, "THIS IS WORSE THAN THE ONE IN YOUR OTHER STORE. I DEMAND AN EXPLANATION."

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