Date visited: 23rd November 2012
If you are looking for a food review on Kitchen Inn, don't bother reading this post because we didn't even get that far. But if you're interested in reading a rant about terrible service, then you're much welcomed to read ahead.
As you probably know, MerlinFan wasn't particularly impressed with the kolo mee at Kitchen Inn when she visited on their opening day (see first post here). Anyway, we decided to give Kitchen Inn a second chance (since Kolo mee is our favourite food and I hadn't been there to try it myself yet) and since Hui did mention that their Kampua mee was excellent, we decided that a month was sufficient time for them to iron out their teething problems - I mean they can only get better, right?
Haha, what a joke.
It was busy when we arrived - we were third in line, and seated in a few minutes. Now we were seated at a shared table (that was expected too) which was not yet cleared. The waiter that seated us told us he would clean the table, but he removed the bowls and didn't wipe it down. The table was covered with spots of laksa/ bakuteh soup which I wiped myself. Disgusting.
Waitress 1 took the orders of the groups of people who came in before us. We were wondering why no one came to take our orders. Then the people next to us left, and the waiter brought in a new group of people. Waitress 1 immediately came, cleared their table, wiped it down and took their orders. MerlinFan had to ask her to please wipe our table which she did mutely but she rushed off before we could tell her no one took our orders yet.
Waitress 2 was passing right by me bringing a bowl of food outside and I waved to her, saying "excuse me." She MET MY EYES and then DELIBERATELY AVERTED THEM and CONTINUED WALKING OUTSIDE.
WTF. I thought it was a bit rude, but gave her the benefit of doubt - maybe she was busy carrying food outside, she would come back and see what I wanted. Nope. I was watching her as she passed, DELIBERATELY LOOKING AWAY. She didn't even come back to acknowledge me and asked if she could help or anything! MerlinFan happened to turn around and wave to Waitress 2, saying "excuse me" but she just pointed at Waitress 1 who had reappeared beside us to tell the other people at our table something about their orders.
We waited for Waitress 1 to finish talking to the other people, thinking that after Waitress 2 gestured to her, she would realise we were actually there and turn to take our order but she didn't! She just walked off again without looking once at us.
WTF!!! It was ridiculous, like she had a blind spot in her vision or something! How can you bloody NOT NOTICE NEW PEOPLE who just sat down???
Suddenly the waiter who seated us came and asked us if we were ready to make our orders. Finally, I thought, I told him no one has taken our orders yet. He said okay, and then started ushering more people into the shop!
WTFFFFF. The people right in front of us in the queue were already getting their food and we were still sitting here, being ignored as if we were invisible and looking at other people eat like èguǐ (hungry ghost).
Bloody hell, after a few more minutes of this sh*t, I just got up and walked right out (definitely not as gracefully as Green from the first post).
My verdict on this place?
The service here is by far the WORST I've ever encountered in Melbourne.
1. It was annoying enough to be ignored
and then
2. See other people come in after you be served and have orders taken
and then
3. Have to call a waitress and for the FIRST TIME EVER in my life have a waitress DELIBERATELY LOOK AWAY and IGNORE a customer. (It's not like I just waved or said "hello!" like some of my Malaysian relatives do back home, but I actually said "excuse me" okay) How bloody rude is that?
Tell me, would you be pissed off? I sure was. And it wasn't just one waitstaff, it was ALL of them! The lot! I can see how the people beside us would have a pretty good experience but to serve some and not notice others completely is just NOT GOOD ENOUGH. It just pisses the people who are ignored even more.
Where in the world did they find these waiters/ waitresses from? It's not like they don't have enough waitstaff - if you've been there, the place is tiny, not even to the scale of Mamak. They are in dire need of waitstaff who are more OBSERVANT and more EFFICIENT and HAVE MANNERS. As Sarawakians, we are mortified beyond words that Kitchen Inn presents itself as a restaurant specialising in Sarawakian food when they do not do justice to Sarawakian kolo mee hawker food and hospitality at all. In a normal kopitiam/ kolo mee hawker store there is usually a cook and 1-2 tween/ uncle/ auntie waitstaff in a hawker food court probably five times the size of Kitchen Inn and the waitstaff usually comes to take your order/ clean your table within seconds of you sitting down. That is the way it should be done.
Unlike Mamak, where I'll return despite mediocre service (although the waitstaff make mistakes with orders, they're actually not unfriendly or rude) because the food is good, the food here according to family and friends is not great enough to warrant a return.
Kitchen Inn has had it's second chance and verdict? Fail... EPICLY. And we never even made it to the food.
As a reviewer said WTF is wrong with this shop? I'll do one better and say WTFFFFF (x1000000000000 to infinity and beyond) is wrong with this shop????
Oh yes. Not returning ever again. (As if you didn't already figure that out.)
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