Service with a Snarl at My Elephant

The restaurant business in this country has always had a major failing and that's service. Many restaurateurs understand that service is important but there are also a number of them who pay lip service to the idea of service, but have absolutely no idea what it means.

A recent story of Service with a Snarl. And I want to emphasise that this account was related to me by my family members and so arguably is heresay. But as it has been corroborated by all the parties present (7 pairs of eyes), I consider it reasonably accurate and reflective of the incident that took place.

Recently, my family went to have dinner at My Elephant located at Happy Mansion in PJ. Now, I've eaten there twice and found the food to be reasonably good, although perhaps a trifle bit on the pricey side for smallish portions. But generally had a good impression. However, as you will see, it is now on the Condemn List and it has been so condemned because of what happened when my family members tried to eat there recently.

A family member had made a reservation for 7.30pm on a Saturday. This reservation had been made 2-3 days in advance. Upon arrival, the party (yours truly excluded but this is not hearsay since I have corroborated the account with all the family members present) was told that their table was not ready and still being occupied.

The party of 7 that occupied the table had arrived at 6.30pm and were still eating by the accounts of my family members. My father was displeased by this and kicked up a ruckus. My sister-in-law demanded to see the manager.

Now here is where it gets interesting. The manager came out and declared to my family that "a reservation entitles you to come here and wait, and does not entitle you to a table". A shouting match soon ensued to which the owner then told my family members to 'get out of my restaurant'.

Btw, this whole incident was witnessed by my 83 year old grandma. So said owner/manager clearly not only has no idea of service, but lousy manners too.

Now, let's examine the situation here. Yes, the customer has lost their temper and berated staff for not having their table ready. Well you know what? They're entitled to be pissed off. It behooves the customer to turn up on time for their reservation. And so it behooves the restaurant to behave suitably contrite when they've buggered it up. The correct response would have been to seat the customers somewhere, ply them with drinks and snacks on the house, and try to get the table that is being occupied vacant.

The wrong and non-service friendly response is to scream at them to get out of your restaurant. The food and beverage industry is a 'service' industry and as they say, the customer is always right. Screaming at your customers to get out is the purview of at best, a 5 star michellin chef, not a neighbourhood Thai restaurant. And which planet is the owner of My Elephant living on (and what water is he drinking) when he says that reservations do not entitle a person to a table but the right to wait? Then why bother to make a reservation? Why not just come and wait? Or is the reservation in My Elephant simply shorthand for 'right to sit on a bench if we let you and possibly eat the food if we think you're worthy'?

If you are Gordon Ramsay or Joel Robuchon, I can understand. If you are Alan Ducasse, or Thomas Keller, I might even be willing to tolerate this kind of diva behaviour. Mind you, none of these guys take that view about how someone should be treated in their restaurant.

You're a little Thai restaurant, making bog standard average Thai food. You don't get the right to behave this way. Who the hell are you and what the hell is so amazing about your food that you have such a monumental sense of entitlement?

Furthermore, it is plain stupid to have 2 seatings so close together, especially when Malaysians are not known for turning up on time for their reservation. Where this occurs, it is imperative that the restaurant inform the customer that they have to vacate the table. The customer with a reservation, who now has to wait for their table, will only get more irate when they see the people at the table are mid-meal and not likely to finish for ages.

When the owner/manager screamed, lost his cool and lost control, he not only lost our party as customers, but the party behind us who had also made a reservation and who also soon realised they had no place to sit.

Now, as stated earlier, I was not there at this restaurant when the incident occured. But with 7 pairs of ears hearing a restaurant owner screaming GET OUT OF MY RESTAURANT, I'd really like to see Mr Doo Dee explain his reason for losing his wig in this way. The owner/manager's berating of the customers (irrespective of what transpired before) as far as I am concerned is absolutely unacceptable and wrong. This is not how a restauranteur should behave.

And to provide some comparison of how restaurants SHOULD behave when they have boo-booed, I present several instances where I have received rotten service, and how the restaurants in question understood the meaning of going the distance, in so far as keeping the customer's experience sweet and retaining their patronage.

KNK Yakiniku, Sri Hartamas

Now, that is a VERY SMALL restaurant (not unlike My Elephant) and where space is at a premium and a reservation is a MUST. We had a party of 7 as well and when we arrived, our table was still being occupied. The staff on duty were suitably apologetic and hurried to find us a table. The party occupying our table did not seem likely to leave for a good 30 minutes to us so we started to order first. But the minute the table was free, the staff moved us there. And, they put a 15% discount on the tab. And they were scuttling around making sure our food came out quickly. And they were constantly apologetic.

And they didn't scream at us.

Kura Japanese Restaurant in One World Hotel.

My father ordered beef teriyaki set at Kura on our first visit but requested the beef be in cubes and not strips because that's the way he liked it. The order came out in cubes, but with no teriyaki sauce on it. We chalked it up to a miscommunication and left it at that.

Visit #2. Order repeated to the staff and we made sure they understood we wanted beef teriyaki, but cubed beef and not strip beef. Again, it came out in cubes, but with no teriyaki sauce. And both times, the staff that took the order stated it was a) possible to have the variation and b) understood the order.

The second time it came out in cubes but sans teriyaki sauce, we sent it back and my father demanded the 10% service tax be knocked off the bill. Some noisy discussion ensued but the management not only knocked the 10% off, but a member of the kitchen team came out, handed his card to my dad, and told my dad that he would personally serve my dad's order if my dad came back. So we went back.

TWICE.

And both times, the member of kitchen staff in question not only made the order perfectly (beef CUBES with teriyaki sauce, medium rare) but the restaurant also gave us complimentary salads both times, almost as if to make up for the boo-boo on the first two occasions.

Now that's service.

Umaiya Japanese Restaurant, Damansara Utama

We were a party of 3 and our food not only came out in bits and bobs (with the sashimi and sushi coming out last!) but the service was appallingly slow. The manager on duty was contrite, insisting that the sushi and sashimi counter was backed up. Unfortunately, I didn't buy into her explaination since I actually observed the sushi and sashimi chef for 15 minutes trying to figure out what the hell was going on. (yeah, I'm one of those customers who likes to 'watch')

Despite being 'backed up', the sushi and sashimi chefs continued to make sushi and sashimi at a leisurely pace, as if there weren't several furious and irate patrons waiting for their food. Now if you've watched enough Asian Food Channel, you'll know that when the kitchen is in service mode, it's a madhouse and the chef's are all moving fast fast fast! So imagine how it looks when a patron who is WAITING for their food, observes the chefs at the counter behaving as if it is a quiet lunch hour rather than a busy dinner service. And no, I don't buy the theory that sashimi and sushi is tantamount to making art and the chef should be allowed to take his time. There is pulling up your socks and pick up the pace whilst maintaining a standard and quality of output, and taking your own sweet time, impervious to the chaos breaking out on the floor.

It's chefs like that which land the front of house people into trouble. A restaurant's front of house and back end have to function in tandem with each other, like an orchestra. Front of house needs to do their part in making sure the orders go in correctly (see Kura's situation) and managing the customer's expectations. (ie: we are a little backed up with the sushi counter - would you mind waiting?). Back end needs to deliver the RIGHT orders, in the right sequence (in this case, sushi and sashimi SHOULD come out first, before the main courses unless otherwise stipulated) and pick up the pace when it gets busy so that the front of house is not left with screaming irate customers watching the person who came in after them get their food first because some nimrod in the kitchen decides it's faster to make agedashi tofu instead of beef teriyaki.

The table across from us had sat down earlier than us, and received their sushi roll order after us. That was how disorganised things were.

On our way out, the floor manager, aware of the snafu, pushed 2 15% discount vouchers into our bill and apologised profusely again. We returned. And got superb service the next time around.

But for every instance where the restaurant staff (or owner) has shown themselves to be above and beyond the call of duty, there are matching instances of service with a snarl (or worse, a blank stare). More stories to come....including the tarty tale of why I refuse to patronise Delicious.

But in the meantime, readers with their own Service with a Snarl stories, please feel free to send them to me via comments or email (I WILL PRINT THEM). As for My Elephant, we may just be one family, but you can betcha we'll be doing everything we can to make sure everyone knows about our rude encounter.