Cafeteria il Lido

Well we were pretty excited when IL Lido first opened here in Suntec and couldn't wait to try it out. So we were really looking forward to our lunch but what we got was the total opposite of what we expected.

Here's what my table of 5 ordered:

Minestrone soup - A concoction of ONLY frozen peas + carrots + corn with a tasteless tomato (if there is) soup base.

Chicken soup - An uninviting mixture of chicken mashes + peas (AGAIN). Chicken stock in clear water does a better job than it.

Mushroom soup - A tat bland but is the only decent soup available.

Cabonara pasta - Very plain with FEW bits of bacon sprinkled over.

Mac & cheese pasta - Really just macaroni and cheese. Dont expect anything else.

Clams Aglio pasta - Clams were not properly cooked resulting in it being smelly.

Italian club sandwich - Decent. The only 'saving grace' of the table.

Warm water servings - The waiter managed to spill all 5 glasses of water on the table. BRAVO.

My ratings:
Food = 1 : Lousy soups, less than desirable pastas
Ambience = 2 : Exactly as named - Cafeteria
Value = 0.5 : For $12 each I could get much better food from pasta mania. (Yes its THAT comparable)
Service = 1 : For spilling waters, not knowing which table to serve the food to and not knowing what is the food served, i think 1 is a pretty generous scoring.

Conclusion:
Please bring NYDC back.
(Note: NYDC used to occupy the premises where IL Lido cafe is now)

Food was served quite slowly even when the restaurant wasn't very packed. The food is average. We ordered 1 pasta, 1 4 cheese pizza, pork chops, roast beef, chicken dish. Part of the roast beef is raw.

Waiters did not seem to be clear of the daily special. One waiter told us there was a special pasta of the day. Next waiter who came to serve us said there wasn't any.

After our dinner, before we finished our drinks, the waiter asked if we wanted to order dessert. We declined the dessert option and 1 min later, the bill was thrown on our table. We thought, there was a slight queue outside the restaurant and so, we decided not to hold up the tables and proceeded to pay. Upon settling the bill, we realised they did not give us a 15% discount which was advertised in the TODAY paper. One waiter said he'll check and he took the credit card back to the cashier. He came back and said that the cashier will reverse out the discount for us.

After a long time, we asked if the bill was ready. That same waiter said, it'll take a while. Then he repeatedly said that we as customers should let them know that there is such a discount before we pay so that the restaurant can give us the discount accordingly. He said it not once, not twice but three times. By that time we were really very angry, because his tone indicated that its our fault for not letting them know about the discount!

It was a bad experience with mediocre food. We will definitely not go back there again.

First off, they were unaware of a promotion for UOB Cardmembers, and insisted that we had misread the UOB website. So they decided to check with the HR Manager (if he even exists), in a room in the back. After around 10 minutes, one of the staff came out with a printout in his hand, presumably from the UOB website. He gave the curt excuse of "the management did not tell us" and "we only opened last week".

Ordered Lasagne, Mushroom Chicken, Garlic Long Beans, Chicken Consome, a Latte and a Soyachino.

No comment about the drinks.

The Garlic Long Beans was ordered in an attempt to get my daily dose of vegetables. Word of advice, don't try it. The garlic was overpowering, and so was the olive oil. Half of the beans were undercooked, while the other half was over cooked.

The missus had the lasagne, which was rather chewy, and tasteless in my opinion.

The Mushroom Chicken and Chicken Consome arrived after 2 unsuccessful attempts to get the attention of a "service" staff, most of whom were crowding behind the counter chatting amongst themselves, while some were "busy" laying out cutlery.

Now get this, there were only 2 customers in the entire establishment. Me and the missus. And it takes almost an hour to prepare a Mushroom Chicken and a Chicken Consome.

I was beginning to wonder if the chicken responsible for laying the egg that would hatch into the chicken that was to be slaughtered for my meal had been hatched itself yet.

Well, the Mushroom Chicken was a plate of 3 pieces of pathetic looking chicken fillet lying on a bed of mixed vegetables (read: peas, carrots, maize), over-seasoned with mixed herbs and nothing else. There was hardly any taste to mention of, other than the herbs.

The Chicken Consome resembled oily water with peas and lumps of chicken. And it tasted exactly like that.

But what killed the entire experience was probably the attitude of the "service" staff. Note the quotation marks, as I am still unsure if what we got there was "service".

Normally I don't mind bad food if the service is reasonable.

Unfortunately, paying for the service charge here is not justifiable.

The food may be affordable ($5.90 for the Mushroom Chicken etc.), but scores little or no marks for taste and presentation.

Try it at your own risk, it may be that my tastes and expectations are a tad high, but having worked in the F&B industry before, this place fails miserably.