Marble Slab Creamery @ Changi City Point

We were looking for a place to take a short break and decided on Marble Slab Creamery. Ice cream is best for a hot humid day.

And so I was Q-ing at the cashier waiting to place my order. In front of me, was a patron waiting to collect her cake. The cashier was attending to her for a good 10 mins. Inside the counter were 3 staff. One was busy and the other, a guy walked to and fro within the counter with no intentions to attend to customers. And so I waited.

After the patron finally is done with her cake collection, it was supposed to be my turn. I was kinda cheesed off when the cashier did not acknowledge my existence. You know... when you see someone standing there, likely she wants some form of service or help right? She merely swing around inside the counter as if I was transparent with no intention to provide me with any service. HELLO?! I want to place order!

C'mon the weather is humid enough. I really don't need such bo chap service to make me hotter. Is it that hard to just ask if there is anything she can help me with when I am just standing right infront of the cashier? I am not that short or bamboo skinny thin that she cannot see me. DUH!

Nowadays when I complain of poor service, my friend reminds me that we customers should be providing service its no longer the days when service staff provides good service. Gosh... that is somewhat true. Many places I have visited has disappointed with basic services. That is sad. In the service industry but you cannot even provide the slightest and most basic service? Why are we still paying mandatory service charge when there is no service to speak? 

These days there are so many new ice cream parlours, cafes and restaurants sprouting out yet these service people really have no qualms in providing outstanding customer service? 

Goodness!

Anyway, we ordered the waffles with 2 scoops of ice cream. The service staff who was busy earlier served this to us and apologised for the long wait. I think she knew I was unhappy with the cashier and the KLKK - kia lai kia kee (walk here walk there in hokkien) doing nothing guy.

We didn't even want to hang there for long after we are done with the waffles. The ice cream couldn't even put my fumes down.

Terrible. I swear never to return to this outlet!

Website: http://www.marbleslab.com.sg/

Will I Return to This Outlet: Unlikely

Got Service: 

Fuli Seafood @ Buangkok Blk 275D (富俐海鲜)

Met up with the in laws for dinner at Fuli Seafood. They are located within the Kopitiam right infront of the Buangkok MRT. It's our first time there and the place is crowded. We thought the food must be good since its so packed. We were given an outdoor seating with partial shelter.

Before we started dinner, the horrible thing was I have never seen such dirty chairs b4. It was horridly dirty until the whites became dark greyish. Basically you don't wish to sit on it if you have a choice!

Secondly, we ordered 7 dishes in medium sizes for 9 of us but they all came as if the portion is for a small family. My BIL said when they dined there recently for 4 pax, they ordered small portion and its exactly the same size as what was served to us which is supposedly medium size. The entire plate of hotplate tofu was so sparse that you can count the no of pics of tofu in it.

Then the service staff are super rude! They kept serving the dishes over the head of my boy! There are ample spaces around the table. I cannot understand why she must serve if over my boy's head? What if the hot dishes fell onto him? Finally, I told one auntie to serve it to the other side, she was unhappy and grumbled. C'mon! Isn't that common sense one should have?

Another staff spilled one whole saucer of chilli sauce onto my bag. Thank god its a coffeeshop dinner so it was a cheap bag I carried. The staff attempted to clean off the chilli with her SUPER DIRTY cloth that is all greyish. OMG!!!!

The portion, dinner and service was so undeserving that I didn't take any pictures throughout the dinner.

Needless to say, the toilet is so so so so dirty until my 3 year old boy refuses to pee in it. If a 3 year old can say that, it must be really dirty!

To be fair, one of their chicken dish and the salted egg prawn is nice. But other than that, nothing else is worth returning to this place.

7 medium dishes came up to about $122. That's kinda expensive for a kopitiam cze char and all of us are not full after the dinner!

Will I Return to This Outlet: No

Got Service: 0/10

Paddington House of Pancakes

We have always seen the ads for Paddington House of Pancakes in City Square Mall and would like to try them out. We walked in b4 the lunch crowd starts and requested for a 2+1 table with high chair. The lady told us they only have 3 high chairs and all 3 are taken up. My child needs the high chair in order to sit properly and eat. So we decided we shall not dine there. And the service staff did nothing. She simply stood there without battling an eyelid and let us walk off.

I think this is not very acceptable.

1) As a restaurant, you only have 3 high chairs?
2) You are a restaurant located in a mall that is baby friendly and houses lotsa baby services and shops, yet you have only 3 high chairs?
3) Your service staff is not trained to keep customers? The least she could have done was offered an alternative like to get the high chair for my child as soon as its available, isn't it?

Poor service! Really a turn off whenever service staff does nothing to make a customer feels welcomed.

Would I return again? Maybe not so soon! There are many other pancakes places to try out. I don't think there is any loss missing Paddington out!

Nex Customer Service

On Friday evening at about 645-7pm, I took a Q no at Nex customer service to update my reward points. There were many others waiting in Q. However, there was only one counter opened. That service officer attends to mall enquiries, members, non-members as well as SISTIC customers! SISTIC customers usually horde to the counter longer. Imagine on a weekend evening... there is only one counter opened? Terrible. Nex management.... please learn from Capitaland Malls management!

The Coffee Daily

I have a penchant for rainbow stuff. I have been seeing rainbow cakes on all sorts of social media sites and knew that there is one cafe serving rainbow cakes near my place.

So after dinner, we decided to head there for some dessert.

B4 we stepped into the cafe, I was quite turned off by the outdoor seats which was so near to the entrance door with patrons smoking. I'm not pro smokers and with a toddler in hand, obviously such smoke is not welcome.

As we enter the cafe, it was narrow. Lucky we were early (8.30pm), we found ourselves a table. Seats were limited and tight. As you can see from below pictures, seats were not aplenty. Yet there were students occupying the tables with just a drink. I think that should not be allowed especially during peak hours such as evenings and weekends! They are depriving genuine patrons a place to eat and chill. There was also a lady studying and occupying 4 seats to herself with just a drink!

The good thing about this cafe is they serve unlimited old school biscuits and iced water. The biscuit is good as treats for kids.

The only thing I like about this cafe is these seats but unfortunately when we arrived, there was a reserved sign. When we took away a stool from the sofa side as we had 3 of us but the table we had only had two chairs. The two ladies sitting next to the sofa area saw and quickly went to shift the reserved sign onto the sofa. During the times we were there, no one occupied the sofa seats at all! :( #whylikethat

We ordered a slice of rainbow cake to share. I like that the cake is coated with white chocolate rather than milk or dark chocolate and how they had decorated the plate to remind us that its TGIF! Taste wise, there is nothing to shout for. The lady next to our table didn't even finish her rainbow cake. To be fair this rainbow cake tasted better than the one we had at Le Chocolat Cafe. But still I doubt we will be back for another helping.




Another reason why we will not be back. The cafe is managed and served by teens. There is really nothing wrong with teens... just that a couple of such cafes we have been to... we noticed teens are not very service oriented.

The cup of hot coffee hub ordered and when served, the expressionless girl just plonk the whole cup of coffee right smack infront of my toddler. Would a toddler drink coffee? What if the cup of hot drink spill onto the toddler? A service oriented staff should have asked who had ordered the drink and place it accordingly infront of the guest. It also does not make sense to put anything (especially if it can scald the kid) infront of a toddler.

Being sensitive and mindful to your customer is really important. That will determine if your customer feels comfy and safe patronizing your outlet. Obviously, they don't mind if the customers are not comfortable at all.




Based on the above experience, I doubt we will be back.

Website: https://www.facebook.com/thecoffeedaily75
Would I Return to This Outlet: Likely No
Got Service: 3/10

Address: 75 Brighton Crescent, 559216
Phone: 6284 8894
Hours: 12:00–10:30 pm

Nan Xiang @ Novena Square 2 (南香)

We were looking for a place to dine in. All of us are feeling under the weather so we wanted something light and non-heaty for dinner. After walking around Novena, we decided to settle here. Plus there was no Q for this outlet.

This little chinese eatery looked decent from the outside. The dishes looked good on picture.

So we were showed a table and when looking through the menu, I wanted to order seafood bee hoon soup for my boy. They had fish head in thick bee hoon soup. So I thought it should be ok for me to change the thin bee hoon to thick bee hoon for the seafood soup. But they said they dont have thick bee hoon? Hmmm... I asked if I am ordering fish head thick bee hoon soup, there will be thick bee hoon? The waitress just didn't answer direct to my question!

And so I decided not to order anything for my boy first. Instead, I ordered the 滑蛋河分to share. In case if my boy doesn't want that, I can order another dish. My hub ordered the fried rice. 

After placing the order, we waited for a good 15 minutes and food was still not served. The eatery was not packed at all. In fact, only 1/3 of the tables were taken. Some of the patrons in there were already eating halfway and those waiting had ordered their chicken rice set which is served from the chicken rice counter and not from the kitchen.

We were seated near the kitchen. We could hear the cook busy frying and cooking but during that 15 minutes, hardly any dishes were served out. We asked the waitress to check on our order and she came back saying, the order will be cooked soon. That was after 15 mins of waiting in a 1/3 full eatery. 

Another 10 minutes went by and we were still not served. The waitress went to check with the kitchen for a second time after we asked and came back telling us, he has one more dish to cook b4 he cooked ours. 10 mins ago, we were told ours will be cooked soon!

That lack of enthusiasm in serving its customers made me lost appetite. What made it worse was there were a lot of flies flying around! Gosh! The eatery is in a shopping mall and they did not ensure the kitchen is properly maintained to minimize the existence of flies?

Waitresses were standing around with nothing to do.

Finally our orders came.

The fried rice according to my hub was very oily and very salty. 

Mine isn't any better. It was so salty that I couldn't continue eating. Both my son and I shared this and we left more than half the plate full.

The decision to dine here was a bad move. The service and hygiene is terrible! I will never head back there. 

Website: http://www.hungrygowhere.com/singapore/nan_xiang/review/

Will I Return to this Outlet: NO

Got Service: 1/10

Hot Tomato @ Westgate

Picture Credit: Hot Tomato

Our family decided to dine at Hot Tomato when we visited Westgate today.

The whole restaurant only had 2 staff on the floor. One was receiving and placing guests at their table while the other takes order and serves customer's orders.

We had to wait for a fair bit although it wasn't the peak dinner hour yet.

Finally, we get to place our order. I ordered the sirloin steak set again. I also requested for the aglio olio that comes with it to be changed to a tomato based pasta. The waiter said this request cannot be done. I explained that I had done that before at our outlets with a top up. The waiter then said he would check. The waiter receiving guests came and said other requests cannot be met. I explained that my 3 year old child doesnt eat aglio olio and he cannot finish a main course by himself so he will be sharing my set. Hence I need to have the pasta's sauce based change.

No matter how we try to explain and even offered the top up, they simply do not bulge. They were not even keen to check with the kitchen if that can be done.

In a huff, we decided to walk out without eating. If they do not value customers with young kid(s), they don't deserve our patronage! Despite us asking nicely, they turned down our request which in our opinion was not something they cannot do or something that is very difficult to do.

If they had offered kid's set or kid's meal, that would have minimized the problem. If not, they should exercise some flexibility in allowing customers to make changes to their meal on a case by case basis.

I wrote to Hot Tomato after this incident and this was the reply I got from their BRAND & MARKETING MANAGER:

We hear you and understand where you are coming from but would like to share that as we are now a chain of restaurants, it would no longer be possible for us to customise the menu offerings to customers' requests.

I don't think I am very impress with that. If you had really heard me, you wouldn't have shut me out with the 'no longer possible....' Within a span of 5 days, their policies changed? And if they had heard their customers, they should have taken this as an opportunity to review, improve and not insisted they cannot customise the menu. They did none. As a marketing person, if you cannot take feedback and review what your customers want, your company will not grow. Instead of welcoming your customers to return, you shut your customers away. What a shame, Hot Tomato!

Website: http://www.hottomato.com.sg

Will I Return to this Outlet: NO
Got Service: 1/10