Made a reservation for a Sunday evening for 8 persons. Decided against their set dinners and chose ala carte instead.

20 minutes to get the attention of the captain/manager to take our orders, only to have him back with us 10 minutes later to inform us that 3 of the 7 dishes that we've selected are not available.

I'll have to take my hat off to the captain/manager, when he came back to inform us regarding the dishes that weren't available, he had no menu in his hands for us to choose, instead, he verbally flooded us with the choices. Excellent memory for being able to quote up to 15 different dishes at one go. Unable to create a mental picture on the items, we went with what he suggested.

5 minutes later, captain/manager came back to inform us, 1 of the 3 dishes that he suggested, ran out. Selection game began again.

Dinner was served at late 8ish, after the 2nd course, there was no rice still, reminded the captain/manager 4 times. Finally he appeared, still with no bowls of rice in his hands, to say that they ran out of rice, thus they needed 5 - 10 minutes to cook.

4th course served, still no rice, approached the service staff instead, and the lady rushed to the kitchen and appeared with rice immediately.

The most annoying thing was I was having a can of Coke, and the staff kept coming to the table to check on the Coke. Mind you, they weren't refilling my glass, but simply lifting the can to see if there was any more left. Once they have lifted it and realized that there was still some amount left in the can, they simply replaced it back on the table, EVEN THOUGH MY GLASS WAS EMPTY. This was done by 3 different staff. Superb training.

The staff were all very well trained to clear the tables, irregardless whether was there food or not. They would swoop down on us and clear the tables, even if there was still food on the dishes. And one staff actually asked me to quickly take the remaining food and put on my side plate so she can clear.

Now, the food:
- Peking duck, scrawny & poorly sliced. Kudos to Ming Jiang
- Deep fried chicken, dry and tasteless. KFC wins this round
- Steamed fish, fresh and bland. Poh Ke wins
- Sea Cucumber & Broccoli. No comment
- Sweet & Sour pork. Good
Can't remember the rest... insignificant...

Had individual portions of desserts.
- Honeydew Sago. Will be very popular with diabetic patients
- Mango Sago. Refer above
- Yam Paste. Refer above

I understand that regardless which eatery, once it is the weekend, they will be busy, thus a lapse in service and food. But for a restaurant that has been in Singapore for more than 77 years? How do they do it? There's only 4.4 million people in Singapore for them to con. And don't tell me, they haven't finished conning these people over a period of 77 years? Amazing...

Food Court rule. And sorry Mum... for a screwed up birthday dinner