La P'tit Breton's Imported Bad Service

Nov 05, 2006 18:19

Last night, for the first time in nearly half a year a close friend of mine, whom I've been keeping in touch with on the phone and sms quite a bit nowadays, invited me for dinner. Of course being Indian ie the non foodie race, she asked me to choose the restaurant. I suggested going somewhere close to Ang Mo Kio and ended up deciding on Thomson. The restaurant that came to mind was Le P'Tit Breton located somewhere next to Thomson CC along Upper Thomson Road. As I expected, she asked "Is this the same one with the problem with the chef". With a laugh I said yes. Just to go back in time a little, if memory serves me right, the chef, a frenchie, 'threw' a woman out of the restaurant for refusing to get rid of a bottle of water she had with her. Of course it was also her fault as she had voiced an angry remark at the chef when told that outside food was not allowed. The incident gave our yawn-inducing newpapers a touch of spiceyness for a short while before they went dead again.

As we entered the restaurant behind a group of 4 people. The waiter told us that the tables have all been reserved and we would have to wait 45 minutes. She was polite though. That was fine, however due to the crowd of 6 new people (inclusive of us) my friend who was behind me had not closed the door completely as she was trying to get herself into the little restuarant. From somewhere inside we heard an accented voice shouting "Excuse me could you shut the door pleeees". It was the goateed french chef shouting to us with his chin raised and nose high... from the open kitchen which was close to the back of the restaurant. There was about 3 to 4 tables of patrons in between us and where the chef was. I was taken by surprised and slightly embarrased. It was not the shut-the-door but the patronising tone. Now that was flat out rude! We are guests and my friend had only kept it open for about 20 seconds. What did we do wrong by keeping the door open for 20 seconds? Let out the smoke from the kitchen? Let the aircon out? It wasn't even fully open, how much cool air could have slipped out? Why shout?

My friend giggled and mutter under her breath "You mean on his face?!!" (as in shut the door on his face). We were told that when there is a seat, the waiter will call us. We walked out of the restaurant and walked straight into a Japanese restaurant telling each other that we will tell everyone that the chef is really indeed as nasty and rude as was reported in the papers. We have enough bad service in Singapore, do we really need one that's imported?

Interestingly if you google 'french chef singapore bad service', the first link you see is a story on stomp about bad service in Le P'tit Breton. What an ass!

friends, dinner, food

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