Lunching At A Not So Tranquil Garden

Have you tried the Gardens Lifestyle Store & Cafe over at Mid Valley? I went there for the first time on Wednesday and what I thought to be a nice lunch under the plastic tree, while being serenaded by live piano music played in a huge birdcage, became a screaming (yes, I did scream out of frustration) affair for me. The people who had lunch with me, and quite used to see my ugly face when I'm angry; was just laughing merrily when they saw my "black" face over extremely shoddy service and worst of all, over-charging. Can you imagine the cafe supervisor overcharged us by almost RM100 and didn't have the courtesy to explain when we inquired?  My GM paid for the bill and I only got to know the exact amount when I returned to the office. I asked for the bill from him and was shocked when I saw things charged but weren't served to us. Do they think I'd keep quiet about it? What did I do after? Raise a complaint over to their HQ people.  I don't deal with mere store managers when I'm pissed off. I go straight to the upper management.

There are more stories about it, but the first, the lunch itself...

Our table, overlooking that nice piano in a cage

Cappuccino Viennesse

Ice water is charged RM1 (no refill, and the staff will get surly if you do ask for a refill! A Longan Blast and Ice Lemon Tea

Coffee in a floral cup

Spaghetti Marinara

Tandoori Pita

Peking Duck Pasta

Fish & Chips

Grilled Norwegian Salmon

Grilled Barramundi

My own lunch - Grilled Australia Prime Aged Sirloin Steak

We were supposed to have some cakes too, but as some of us waited up to an hour for our food to arrive, I decided to cancel the cake order. That's not all, we had to wait for like, half an hour for the staff to print out the bill!

The problems at this cafe stems from the couldn't care less attitude of the wait-staff (they are so blur, I had to shout at them to bring the orders to the correct person in our party of 30 pax), supervisors not doing their job, and food served to other customers who came later than us despite us pre-ordering our food before  our arrival. Maybe they've never experience a big party coming in for lunch before, and maybe if it was just a  party of two, the service would be way better, but for me that's such a lame excuse. If you can't deal with people, don't work at the frontline. Or maybe you should go work at McD instead. You'd be excused if you act like some mindless zombie there.

But on the bright side, the HQ people (I talked to several) were really nice and quite efficient  (this includes the nice receptionist too) in dealing  with my complaint. They did an investigation immediately and held a meeting to address the issue. The marketing manager called me a few times after that to assure me that they are taking care of the matters and invited me out for lunch to discuss it further. Them immediately addressing my complaint was already enough to make me happy and forgive everyone but I sincerely felt that all the "blur" staff at that cafe including the managers should be re-trained on how to work in a F&B business! And they've just lost a few top management customers in my company who already banned me from ever making reservation there ever again.

That's why folks, service is important so that you don't lose customer. Rectifying the issue afterwards is commendable, but sometimes it can be a little too late...

I'll give the cafe another chance, but like I told the marketing manager, I sure hope the staff there won't sabotage my food by spitting on it if I ever return there for my meal!

And folks at work, if you are reading this, more photos of the farewell lunch over at my FB account including the birthday cake cutting.