Thursday, 15 September 2011

Not always good food and good experience

We are into the 4th week of our vacation and both me and Mr being eating non-stop everywhere we go. We usually tend find hawker food when we are in Singapore, as it's  quite impossible to find authentic Singapore hawker food in Melbourne. Plus it's cheap and delicious.

We don't always ended up with nice food. As mention in one of my previous entry, we revisited one of the Japanese restaurant which we used to frequent. But we were so disappointed.

3 dishes that we ordered at Sushi Tei to start ,
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Cha Soba, cold green tea soba - was served within 5 minutes after placing the order. Definitely pre-cooked and stored in the fridge. It was also over cooked.

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Aburi Sushi Moriawase, halved boiled sushi assortment - sushi rice wasn't firm, breaks when picked using chopstick. The sushi assortment  were just laid on top of the sushi rice without even using any wasabi. Sushi assortment wasn't fresh.

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Tsukuba - Sushi slices wasn't fresh nor firm. It cost us S$54 excluding 10% service charge and 7% GST.

After we paid the bill, we took the escalator up to level 4 food court and ordered a plate of Fried Prawn Noodle. Tummy felt satisfying after that.
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After the terrible restaurant experience, I wasn't very keen to give any other restaurant a try till few days ago when both of us went to Marina Bay Sand (MBS). It's one of the casino hotel in Singapore. It also contains quite a few fine dining restaurant including the very well known Waku Gin which by Tetsuyu.

After making enquiry and flipping thru the different restaurant menu, Mr decided to make a booking for dinner that evening at Hide Yamamoto. We were looking forward to dinner as we spend the afternoon shopping at MBS. Didn't dare to set to high expectation as well.

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But it turned out to be terrible and we walk out of the restaurant even without having a drink!

When we 1st arrived, 1st impression was alright with all the staff greeting us as we enter. Drink and food menu was being shown to us upon seated.

Mr. was in the mood of a mocktail and me a cocktail, Lychee Mojito. A young guy was serving us and Mr. made an enquiry regarding mocktail as it wasn't in the menu. Noticing how the waiter couldn't understand what Mr. was asking and noticing he was asking us questions in Mandarin. I decided to make the enquiry using mandarin.

Both of us do speak and understand mandarin but when it comes to food we are pretty clueless what's the exact name for most of the food names and ingredients used. As the result, we are more comfortable using english.

The waiter came back to us after checking with the bartender but we couldn't understand what he meant. It's either his mandarin is too power or our understanding is too poor. Mr. gave up and decided to order a coke instead while I sticked to my cocktail. Order was repeated to him twice before requesting him to serve drink 1st while we decide what to eat.

He came back few minutes later and asked "lime?". I was totally confused and repeated our drink order again. This time round a colleague of his was nearby and asked what she can do to help.

Told her about our order and she started informing us cocktail wasn't available as they were in the mid of changing the menu. Something else wasn't available too which I don't remember and only sake and soft drink was available.

I wasn't happy. Told them to give us for a few more minutes. Once they left, both of us decided to walk out.

If they couldn't even get our drink order right, how could I expect them to serve me the correct food?
If the drinks wasn't available, why was it still on the menu? Why wasn't we informed when the menu was presented to us?
If the waiter can't speak English, why didn't he ask his colleague who knows, to serve us instead?
Is that the standard for a fine dining restaurant?

We did feedback to the MBS customer relation and hopefully they message get pass and the restaurant can improve the service standard.

S$1.80 Hazelnut Macaron which is totally CRAP! Only took a bite and dump into the bin. Not worth wasting the calories on it.

Macarons seem to be popular in Singapore as well. We sees them everywhere we goes. Mr. was craving for one and bought a Hazelnut macaron from The Icing Room. It was BAD. The shell was hard as a rock and tasteless except sweet and more sweet. Only took a bite and dump the rest into the bin without delay.

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