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2011-11-19
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Haven’t been here in a while, but I have always liked it, especially the salad with grilled octopus. Since we were in the neighbourhood and in the mood for Western food, we thought we would try it again. Two of us had dinner here on Thursday night, and the place was nearly full and very noisy at 8 pm. To start with I ordered a glass of wine. Unfortunately I had to ask a couple of times before the manager brought over the bottle to pour it for me. He literally emptied it into my glass, and
To start with I ordered a glass of wine. Unfortunately I had to ask a couple of times before the manager brought over the bottle to pour it for me. He literally emptied it into my glass, and didn’t bother to bring a new bottle to give me a proper pour. I ended up with only about 75% of what I would consider to be a glass of wine by the glass. A bad sign of things to come…
We were rather hungry and ordered the pate, onion soup and Caesar salad to share as starters (the octopus salad is no longer on the menu ), and then fish n’ chips and angel hair pasta with tiger prawns for our main courses. Annoyingly the fish n’ chips came very soon after our appetizers. After we finished this first round of food, we waited about 10 minutes for the pasta to come before we asked a couple of waiters about it. They said they would check, but never came back. After all of the waiting, we were no longer very hungry so we called the manager over again and told him if it wasn’t ready, to cancel it. He somewhat rudely barked back that it was too late to cancel the order, and that it would be ready soon. When the manager came to clear our half-full plates, he looked rather glum and didn’t say a word. If I were the only adult in the kindergarten, I might be cranky and sad looking too. As I mentioned in the title – lousy service!
As for the food:
1. Caesar salad – Okay, nothing special.
2. Onion soup – My wife thought it was too sweet and not oniony enough. I thought it was just okay.
3. Pate – Good and creamy, but only 3 small pieces of toast to spread it on. The caramelized onions on the side probably tasted better than the onion soup. Sadly, this dish was the highlight of the meal.
4. Fish n’ Chips – By the time we got around to eating it, it was a bit soggy. Maybe the way it was wrapped in paper didn’t allow the steam to escape. The fish was good, but there was too much soggy breading. As for the chips, they were fried well, but were mostly broken bits and pieces. Another thing I didn’t like about this dish was the vinegar came in a ramekin, so you have to pour it on or dip your food into it. I prefer a bottle so that I can splash some on my food. At least the ketchup and tartar sauce were okay!
5. Angel hair pasta with tiger prawns – The prawns were rather small and way over cooked. This dish was so unappetizing that we only ate half of it. However, by this time we were so tired of the place that we didn’t bother to complain.
I had been thinking about giving the new branch of this chain, J.A.R. in Central, a try, but will probably give it a miss. If the service at such a long established restaurant is so bad, it would probably be worse at a new location.
I guess my final action as we were leaving this place was a fitting conclusion to a forgettable meal – I felt compelled to delete the phone number for this place from my phone.
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