| Warning: If you get a balding guy as your server, prepare to tip more or be shuuuuunnnned.
Was there on a Sunday evening for dinner with 5 friends. The overall standards of the food and ambience of the restaurant was good. However the service was less than satisfactory.
I have had lunch here before, but this was the first time for dinner. The queue was relatively long and I had to wait for an hour to get a table. The manager was polite and tried to get us a table asap. However there was a group of 9 people who came later but were given a table before us. The excuse given was that there was a designated table for reservations.
Once I got a table an hour later, the food came quickly enough. However the bottomless Tostada chips I ordered was anything but bottomless!! When I asked for a refill of the chips after the first serving, I was told by the server that there were no more chips available. I felt cheated as they should have informed me when I was placing my order.
Halfway through the meal I tried to get a refill for my Bottomless drink. The waiter I asked for the refill snappily informed me that he was not our designated server and walked away. Which was slightly understandable except our server was nowhere to be found. And instead of just snapping at us, he should have helped us look for our server or informed him that we needed a refill.
But the cherry on top of the icing was when I was told to pay the bill halfway through my meal as the server (balding Malay guy in his twenties) said that his shift was ending. It didn't take a genius to figure out by the way he was acting that he was expecting a tip. The meal cost 123 dollars and I paid 150. I left a 2 dollars plus tip on top of the service charge as I did not appreciate having my meal interrupted and was disgusted by how obvious he was being about expecting me to leave a tip.
I was seated near the cashier so I had a clear view of him as he returned to it. He took the tip and threw it into a box and slammed it close, mumbling something to his colleague as he did so, causing her to look over at our table. So don't tell me that I was being overly sensitive when I said he was expecting us to give him a tip. It was incredibly rude of him to do that in full view of any customer who happens to just glance over at the cashier.
I know this is an American chain restaurant, but this is Singapore. Unlike in the US, there is a 10% service charge included in the bill, customers should not feel any obligation to tip on top of that. Even in Europe, locals don't tip on top of the service charge included unless the service was exceptional and the 'service' I received on this occasion was anything but.
Overall, I like this restaurant because of the good food and big portions but the rude servers definitely put a damper on my experience. I recommend this restaurant for people who enjoy being judged on how much they tip.
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