I was recently at a somewhat “atas” (i.e. high class) hotel, attending a somewhat “atas” meal. I don’t consider myself the “atas” kind, but then, I happen to know how wrong everything was. It’s not so much that I want to nitpick and whine about this place, but hey, they really are reputed to be of very high standard. So it was shocking to me that they could get so many things wrong.
This was a western-style set meal. I started to get an inkling that something was wrong when they forgot to take drinks order all around the table. The service staff asked maybe only half the table, served the drinks, and somehow forgot the other half. I was wondering if, like, erm, maybe… my side of the table was somehow a little less deserving. Nevermind. Maybe the staff was just really forgetful and unobservant that some of our wine glasses were empty.
Then, the confirmation that something was really wrong happened when they cleared the first course, the salad. We placed our cutlery correctly on our plates to indicate we were done. The service staff removed our cutlery, placed them in various random positions on the table (such as on my bread plate in my case). Wow. Ok, maybe there was some unknown purpose for those cutlery. Even then, you’d expect them to change the cutlery. But no… there was no further purpose for those cutlery, they just failed to clear them.
In fact, they did not clear any cutlery until just prior to dessert. Only then did they clear the table off everything, somewhat like how a Chinese restaurant would do prior to desserts.
The next course was soup. Again, I’m not trying to like say the neighbour’s serving was better than mine. However, looking around the table, it was plain obvious that the serving size was very different. In fact, some bowls had twice the amount of soup as some others. Totally unacceptable.
Midway through the meal, I was finally asked if I wanted wine. Yes, thank you very much, I do. The wine was spilt. No apologies. I think the staff did not even notice the spill.
While clearing the main course at my table, a service staff picked up the plates from seat to seat. Arriving at a seat where the guest was not yet done, the staff still absentmindedly removed the cutlery onto the table (yes, remember, they don’t take away the cutlery, they’re still leaving it on the table), and was almost about to pick up the plate when she finally realised the guest was still eating from it! Wow.
Dessert time. My dessert fork and spoon were set wrongly. They were set together at the top, with the spoon pointing right and fork pointing left. Oh well. The staff must have been a left-hander. I was busybody enough to look at other tables. There was no standard at all… different tables had their cutlery arranged differently.
At some point during the meal, a service staff came around to conduct a survey. Funny, I’ve not seen any hotel interrupting guests to conduct their own survey. The staff asked, how did I find the event? I suppose, the purpose of the survey was to find out if their service was up-to-standard. I was too shocked to know how to tell her how bad their service was. But, well, the simpler answer would have been “good, very good”. The question was about the event after all, and the event was really good. The hotel’s service was plain horrible, at least not from one that is as “atas” as this one is.
In case you’re wondering if the problem was all due to one poorly trained service staff, well, no. It seemed to me like a systematic problem. Maybe everyone that day were ill-prepared part-timers.
This happened at a hotel (which I shall leave unnamed) which is reputed for their very high standards of service. It is just quite unexpected that their standards have dropped so much.