Great Food But Service Bullocks

I don't knowlah about these Malay restaurateurs, most times they have great food but lousy service and vice versa, so at the end of the day most will close shop. After reading the review of Mengkuang Cafe in the Star, I brought my family over to break fast at the shop after countless times passing it by because we thought it was just another mamak shop located in a sports center. They really have great food like the melt in the mouth roast lamb and the heavenly kopi kiasu served with ice cream, with really good pureed mushroom soup and tasty hokkien mee.

Sit outside, you should get better service than we did

I must say that the food and drinks served there was par excellence, far surpassing our expectations. But it was our bad luck I guess to be seated in the private cum karaoke room for the breakfast meal because after the initial starters of mushroom soups and spaghetti for my kids were served, there was a long delay in the serving of the mains even though our waiter helpfully followed up on our order. What got my goat was when the guy who I assumed was the captain had the cheek to ask me what my order was when I went out of the room to check on the servings that I asked for the owner to come in and explain what is the hold-up. The owner's brother in law who came in instead further stoked my anger further by giving me a fairy tale story that my order is still in queue to be prepared when I asked him if they had lost my order. Come on man, it has been more than half an hour and you have served some of my order, and there is only about six tables occupied. So what queue are you talking about. I definitely lost my cool there and specifically asked for the owner to come and see me after this.

Great food man but your service sucks!

His bad luck then as I surely berated him for this shortcoming in service and told him yes his food is great but his service leaves a lot to be desired, though our attending waiter was good. I suspected that since his menu was small for the day as they could not hold their planned Ramadhan buffet, our orders were hijacked by the waiting tables outside before it reached our room as it seemed that there was no systematic method to identify which meal was for whom, as lo and behold after our complaint our meals were served within minutes. Anyway the owner passed over some complimentary fruits to pacify us and apologised profusely for the delay and assured us that in their Ramadhan buffet that will start today there will be no such delay. But this begs me the question that if there is no improvement in service, will the buffet line be replenished in a timely fashion as our buffet crowds are famous for being wont of being able to clear up the buffet stations in a dramatic fashion.

Alas the cooking is so good that I think I will still risk it by going for the buffet this weekend. I want another cup of the kopi kiasu! Anyway I got a 10 percent discount for making the fuss, so the moral of the story is make some noise if you are dissatisfied, as at least you can let off your displeasure and let the establishment take note of their shortcomings. I really hope this place get their act together, as a place with good food at good value is a rare find indeed, and I do not want to see bad service bringing them down. Good Luck!