Latest Condemn List Candidate: Marmalade Cafe, BSV II

One of my favourite places for Sunday Brunch is Marmalade Cafe. I like going to the one in Bangsar Village II.

I've had my fair share of people who wonder why I have brunch there, declaring the food to be variously 'weird' and 'tasteless' and cardboard. They have some winners on the menu (the salmon carbonara is not bad, and I do like their ricebowl options). Mostly, it's a good place to eat because the food is a reasonable effort at reducing the 'bad quotient' of most foods. It feels healthy, without feeling, like it's inedible. The staff are accomodating to requests such as serving the poached salmon with only brocolli, or cutting the amount of rice. And when it comes to weekend brunch, they have some interesting options beyond the usual boring eggs and toast.

They are the only place I know that does wholegrain pancakes. And since I'm on a bit of a health move, I try to chose wholegrain where I can and so Marmalade Pancakes are a good way to indulge without too much guilt. A friend likes their Green Eggs, and their French Toast is quite good too.

All this is a thing of the past.

Two weekends ago, we were at Marmalade and we noticed new menus.

New menus usually means, new prices. And sure enough, Green Eggs were up by RM2.

Now, obviously, prices going up is nothing to bat an eyelid at. It's surprising these days if you go to a restaurant and prices HAVEN'T gone up and portion sizes have said the same. But I'll get to what's objectionable in a bit.

At Marmalade, not only were the prices UP, but items had disappeared from the dishes. The Green Eggs usually come with 2 slices of mozzarella cheese, and avocados. The avocadoes were still there, but the mozzarella cheese had disappeared.

The wholegrain pancakes are usually served with cream cheese. Usually I get the waiters to get the chef to stick it into a separate saucer. Admittedly the last few times I have been there, I've not actually seen any cream cheese on the pancakes - this time I was there, there was a barely visible swipe on the pancakes. Now, it could be the waiters just decided that I was a health nut and since I always asked for the rice to be removed from my dishes, that I'd perhaps like not having any cream cheese on the pancakes.But here's the thing, that Sunday, I didn't ask them to take it out.

The French toast usually comes with a tumbler/shot glass of vanilla yoghurt. But given that the Green Eggs had come sans Mozzarella cheese, it was no surprise that the French Toast arrived with a container the same size as the miniature containers for chilli and soy sauce in the hawker center.

Now, I know dairy products have gone up in price but is it necessary to engage in these reductions AND embark on a price increase?

In all fairness, Marmalade has been frank by producing a new menu and indicating clearly what they are removing, and publishing new prices. Points must be given for not being deceptive (although of course, if I had my nitpicking ways, the waiters/staff should have been trained to tell customers that the Mozzarella Cheese was being removed).

But as far as I could tell, cream cheese was still part of the pancakes although I noticed in my copy of the menu, it was glued on. And there was barely any (not to say absolutely none, just BARELY ANY) cream cheese in my pancakes.

Am I harping? Yes I am. But as far as I am concerned, what aggrieves me is that there is no reason to cut back AND raise prices. I would be okay with a raised price for the same product - that after all is what inflation is all about. I would also be okay with a raised price, and say a slight cutback - one slice of mozzarella cheese vs two. But a bare scraping that's nearly not visible to the naked eye of cream cheese? And cutting back yoghurt by 2/3rds? Inflation means prices go up and if you've raised your prices, then you've address the inflation issue. But to charge more, and give less feels a lot like daylight robbery.

So what if Marmalade's argument is - we can't raise the price enough to cover our costs?

If an establishment is confident of the quality of the food that they are offering up, then they should be confident enough to increase the price to the level needed to maintain standards. And confident that the patrons will believe enough in the food to pay that higher price surely?

To increase the price AND reduce the amount of product, is a recipe for disaster for any restaurant. Patrons, specifically the REGULAR PATRONS, will notice. Admittedly, not all regular patrons will notice, whine/bitch and then blog about it. But they will notice.

Whether or not patrons will then translate that noticing of up price, decline in quantity and ingredients, into less visits, or simply not frequenting a place like me, depends. Significantly, it will probably depend on how easily you find a substitute for wholegrain pancakes, or green eggs or French toast. Unfortunately, there are hardly ANY places that do the wholegrain pancakes (although I am working my damndest on the chef at YogiTree). Green Eggs are a sort of niche dish of Marmalade as well so finding that substitute will probably be a challenge as well bar making it at home yourself. As for French Toast, one could make it oneself or visit Kim Gary and eat their heart-stopping version.

My friends and I, after contemplation, decided we will probably be going down the path of not frequenting Marmalade. And we will have to find another brunch place. I will miss the magazines, and the place. And the coffee was something else.

But I have put it on my condemn list. Which means, on principle, I shall not be frequenting it any more.

What's on your Condemn List?

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