Chicken Up

This is one place that i have the urge to blog about it immediately after I left the place!

I have always heard and read about how awesome Chicken Up's chicken is. And its been on my to-try list. Finally we went as we were in the precinct.

I must say the chicken is really good. Crispy on the outside and juicy tender meat. The new dessert melon bingsu is not too bad too though I felt it was a little pricey.

Here comes the part on why i need to blog about it as soon as we leave the place. The services at Chicken Up was horrible beyond redemption. Best was it was not contributed by one lousy staff. It was a few. Either training was lacking or business is too good, they cannot be bothered.

It started when we were ushered to a table. We were waiting for a waitress to clean the table b4 sitting down. To our horror, she used that same cloth which she clean the oily table top to clean the seat which my hub was supposed to sit. I was kinda taken aback.

Alright... we didn't kick a fuss. We were seated and despite the many staff they had, none offered us the menu. I made a remark to hub that no menu is given. The waitress who cleaned the table was setting up at the table next to ours... heard me. So she asked 'you need the menu?'. Hmmm i thought that is basic? Ok never mind.

So we placed our order with this very polite waiter (not sure if he is a Filipino?) who is also quite friendly. Sadly, he seems to be the only good waiter who can understand his customer's needs. I will share more on the rest.

While waiting for our order, I was looking around the diner's orders and I also saw the chicken wings displayed on their tv screen. It didnt quite look the same so i called out to a waiter to ask. She told me she is new so she cant answer me but she will check with her colleague. She went away and I saw her getting another waiter to attend to us. Firstly its ok to be new but shouldn't she check on our query herself n get back to us instead of asking her colleague to come and ask what we want n we have to repeat all over? That way she will always be 'new' because she never find out the answer she will not be able to answer should the same question popped up again.

Anyway the guy who came to us didn't help much. He was totally clueless as if he didn't understand what I was asking and gave me the blur look. I merely asked the chicken with soy sauce I ordered earlier is it fried type like what other diners are eating? Eventually he did give me an answer but he didn't look confident enough. He also asked was that the only thing I wanted to ask.

Again, it was ok. We didnt get pissed off or complain. But when we were served our melon bingsu, the 'new' waitress served it with a serving tray and she just plonked the whole tray onto our table. I looked around and didn't see other diners ordering similar item being served with the tray at their table. Ok nevermind... she is 'new'.

We are done with our meal so we asked for the bill. We waited and it didn't come. So we asked another waiter for it. He checked and came back to tell us that there is no bill for our table. Ahem! Ok no bill... so what do you want me to do? Are you saying the meal is free for us? Oh well he didn't say anything and walked off to the counter. I didn't see him trying to resolve the issue. Thereafter he went around serving other guests while we were still waiting.

No one got back to us. After 5 mins, I asked another waitress and told her that we were told there is no bill to our table and that waiter simply told us that and just left it as it is. This girl apologized and went to check on our bill. She came back asking if we had used any coupons? We told her we didn't. After waiting for a while, again no sound no picture. How horribly wrong can one make with a simple billing?! No bill then just open another bill right? What is so difficult? They just left us stranded at the table.

I couldn't take it anymore so I left the table for the counter. I queued behind some diners waiting to make payment. There were about 4 staff at the cashier counter so I went forward wanting to ask for my bill. I saw the last waitress at the counter. I think she was asking about our bill... cos shortly she walked to my hub and spoke to him. Not sure what transpired but I went up to ask the cashier can they get me my bill as we had been waiting! Immediately, I was handed the bill. So what exactly is wrong? Why did they keep us waiting? And if you realize there is no bill to my table, shouldn't you get it done? Rather than come tell me there is no bill? So am I supposed to walk out without paying?
Really disappointing!

The entire experience is not pleasant at all except for the food. I was quite upset. The table next to us wanted to order food. They called for the waiter three times and each time they were returned with a 'Give me 1 min'. I am not sure after how many minutes, their order was taken. They were not served iced water after asking for it several times. I told the lady I think it would be faster for her to get the water herself at the counter which eventually she went to get it herself.

I will not come back to this outlet at Tampines. It was simply horribly lacking in service. I may give the Tanjong Pagar outlet a try but not anytime soon.

Also the music in the restaurant was way too loud for comfort.

Thank you Chicken Up for such a memorable first experience with you!


Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ChickenUp
Will I Return to this Outlet: No
Got service: 1/10 (The Filipino guy saved them. Otherwise I would give a ZERO.)