There were a lot of new shops opened around our neighbourhood recently. We wanted to try out the two new places this evening - a new restaurant called Marco Polo Kitchen and a new pub called Library. I have now blacklisted both and would not patronise these businesses ever again.
Marco Polo Kitchen serves Italian and Asian cuisine. Firstly, the service was nothing fantastic. In fact, from the look of the restaurant (which attempts to make it like fine-dining ambience), i would even say the service was considered bad.
Then the worst part was the food. We ordered pastas, which supposedly to be their speciality but they could not even get the basics right - pasta must be cooked al dente but the ones they served were either over or under cooked.
The spaghetti that PT ordered was so hard that it was like half-cooked. She told them to change it but the waiter claimed that it was not hard but al dente. I was so pissed and told them off. I told them that the pasta was under-cooked and not al dente at all, and even told him to try it himself. The manager then came over and took the pasta away. We thought they were gonna re-make one for PT (which was what a restaurant with standard would do), but it turned out that they actually re-cook the one that she had (either cooked in pan or microwaved it), which were already tossed with the sauce and ingredients. All of us gave this restaurant two thumbs down.
After dinner, we wanted to chill out at the Library, which was a nicely renovated pub just opened recently and were always filled with customers. When we were there, the pub was still quite empty but most tables were placed with the 'reserved' notice. We stood there for quite a while and no one came up to greet us at all. We then approached a waiter who stood there doing nothing and asked him to show us to a table that is available for 6 persons.
After that, i was really at a loss and did not know what they were doing at all. The waiter did not show us to a table but handed us over to another waiter (who was also just standing around doing nothing). That waiter did not bringing us to any seats either and did not even bother to tell us anything. The few of us just stood there and did not know what was really going on. It was just as if we were totally ignored and they did not bother to do business with us at all. We were so pissed and just walked out of the pub. With such horrendous service, i will not even want to go there again anymore.
I have actually had countless encounters of lousy service at various places in Malaysia. Quite a lot were like these places with expensive renovation but low service standard. It was just like what people always talk about "first class facility but third class (or no class) service".
The worst part is that these businesses really couldn't be bothered with the complaints at all. As they still have lots of customers, they couldn't care less about the negative feedback. In their minds, even you do not patronise them, they still have a lot more other customers. Malaysians in general also seem to accept such low service level and hence indirectly condone such attitude and mentality.
I guess there is still a long way to go before our businesses become truly service-oriented.
Labels: life
