Singapore food - generally very poor quality

[rajagainstthemachine]

Here are what I perceive are fundamental service problems that should be addressed.

1.waiters not knowing what a particular item on the menu means.. standard response is "I'll check with the cook" and then eff off and not return or come back and say oh thats not served anymore.

2. Serving stuff for people at the same time. e.g bring out tea for one person and then come back with coffee five minutes later. The same applies with food.

3. providing cutlery plates condiments etc., in yesterdays place, they came out with a mezze plate for two people and 1 spoon.
so we asked for a couple of forks and the waiter eyeballed me with a quizzical look.

4. Not providing drinking water. how hard can this simple task get?

I can go on and on and on

[rajagainstthemachine]

- Dishes for our group of about six, all arrived at very different times. We were seated outside and it wasn't that warm, so those that had food couldn't wait for the rest to arrive.
- My wife's main was a shrimp dish in cream sauce on pasta. There were 3 shrimp IIRC. The 'cream sauce' tasted of nothing, so much so it could have been simply flour+water+a pinch of salt (yes, honestly and literally). The sauce constituted maybe 50% of the volume of the dish, i.e. completely drowned. When the pasta and shrimp were eaten there was still getting on for 1/2 pint of solidifying gloop in the dish.

Never again!

I have experienced all these in varying degrees. I think they serve food at different times because they somehow think that they are doing some extra waiting service by going up and down the kitchen to your table and therefore deserve more tips.

[JR8]

I have experienced all these in varying degrees. I think they serve food at different times because they somehow think that they are doing some extra waiting service by going up and down the kitchen to your table and therefore deserve more tips.

I reckon it's because the 'chef' only has one microwave oven, and as nothing in such places appears cooked from scratch to order, one dish gets micro'd at a time.

[rajagainstthemachine]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amy's_Baking_Company

http://www.yelp.com.sg/biz/amys-baking- ... scottsdale

[Brah]

found yet another bad place, Beirut on arab st. overpriced food with terrible service. The food and decor itself isn't bad but the terrible service is a turn off.
ughhhhh

If you posted every time you find a bad place to eat...

...the forum servers would run out of space.


BA-DUMP-BUMP

True but please keep posting those.

And the Fika place, totally pointless, and IIRC they charge for water. One of the too many visit-one-time-only places.

[Brah]

Here are what I perceive are fundamental service problems that should be addressed.

1.waiters not knowing what a particular item on the menu means.. standard response is "I'll check with the cook" and then eff off and not return or come back and say oh thats not served anymore.

2. Serving stuff for people at the same time. e.g bring out tea for one person and then come back with coffee five minutes later. The same applies with food.

That goes as well for taking away plates at the same time, and not rushing the experience by doing while the customer still have food in their mouths or only finished chewing less than 30 seconds earlier. Sounds pretty obvious, but happens all the time here

3. providing cutlery plates condiments etc., in yesterdays place, they came out with a mezze plate for two people and 1 spoon.
so we asked for a couple of forks and the waiter eyeballed me with a quizzical look.

And providing a knife and not expecting customers to use the spoon as a knife. More people should really speak up about this one. Makes for a real low-rent experience.


4. Not providing drinking water. how hard can this simple task get?


Or worse, charging for it.

I can go on and on and on

I think we had whole threads for this a while back.

[rajagainstthemachine]

I did create an account on trip advisor and wrote rather elaborate accounts of what happened.
Today I went to a Thai place, great people, good service but the food was rather apologetic.

[rajagainstthemachine]

Related: An expat blogger talks about his experiences eating at MacDonalds in Asia.

http://features.insing.com/feature/s-po ... es-stories

[JR8]

'Even then, his grouse is that they [promo burgers at McDonalds] are being re-introduced too often and the exclusivity is lost.'

I had to stop reading there. 'Exclusivity', at McDonalds lol!

[Brah]

Interesting to come back from a disappointing dining experience and finding this thread active today.

There is the timing phenomena, where a new place starts off good, then it rapidly declines, though as it is still new, appears to be as it was when it was good only a few months back, and then there is the inertia or lag of how long it takes some customers to pick up on this.

Tonight - nice restaurant, tasteless food, a twice-missed order, music too loud, and prices higher than places that serve better food.

[rajagainstthemachine]

Today it was Ikea, I stood in a rather long patient line to eat bog standard cafeteria food, but somehow still enjoyable compares to eating in fancy places.
I also couldn't help but feeling amused at all the table choping that was going on and the mad scramble for free salt and pepper and ketchup and coffee lol.

[Strong Eagle]

Tonight - nice restaurant, tasteless food, a twice-missed order, music too loud, and prices higher than places that serve better food.

You left out portion size... the plate is a "presentation" and you need a magnifying glass to see your main course.

[Arsenal_fan]

And just when you thought things could not get worse

rats in a buffet @ marina square

https://sg.news.yahoo.com/blogs/what-is ... 03504.html

Would have expected something like this to happen in one of the hawker centers but not in a mall outlet.

[Barnsley]

And just when you thought things could not get worse

rats in a buffet @ marina square

https://sg.news.yahoo.com/blogs/what-is ... 03504.html

Would have expected something like this to happen in one of the hawker centers but not in a mall outlet.

Does this indicate that the "food" was mass manufactured off site and delivered?

It does seem unlikely that this would happen in an "onsite" kitchen of a restaurant , even one of this type.

[Arsenal_fan]

Looks like rats in the restaurant. Pest control caught 2 more rats on premises.

http://news.asiaone.com/news/singapore/ ... e-premises