We all know that Singapore restaurants' services suck, BIG TIME.

And damn, their advertisements are veerry devious. Once you read it, you're trapped! Trapped I say!

Here are two examples. One from personal experience and another I heard from Ken.

One day, Alex, Ken and I were walking around Marina Square in City Hall when I crashed upon this advertisement ::

Mmm, BiBim Bap, good food. Being a virgin city girl, I don't know how tricky city advertisements can get. So I naively suggested that hey we should go eat in Seoul Garden since it's so friggen cheap. C'mon, S$3.90 for a bowl of food and soup!

So off we trotted to Seoul Garden. But suddenly, my sub-conscious kicked in and say " Yo stupid, something doesn't seem quite right " and damn right he is.

I vaguely remember something about Seoul Garden in Xiaxue's blog. How she went there for her birthday and the service there sucks! and other people also comment on the staff's lack of professionalism.

But oh-oh, we're already in the restaurant and being serve by the supervisor.

In my opinion, they should hire another supervisor cause this one can barely understand English or he choose not to understand it and I must say, he has good acting skills.

This is our not so smart conversation to get things clear::

Lisa :: Do you have to order a first BiBim Bap to get the promotional price for the second one?

Supervisor :: Yes.

Lisa :: So, let's say I order three BiBim Bap, will the third one be S$3.90 as well?

Supervisor :: Yes yes.

Lisa :: Okay then, we'll have three chicken set and a free flow of drink.

Supervisor :: That will be S$26.00.

Lisa :: I'm sorry? Shouldn't it be S$21.30?

Supervisor :: No, S$26.00 is correct. $8 for the first one, $3.90 for the second one, $8 for the third one and $2.70 for the drink.

Lisa :: But you just said that the third one will be the promotional price as well.

Supervisor :: Yes.

Lisa :: WHAT? The things you are saying are very contradictory!

By now, I was in a very argumentative mode and my voice was getting louder so Ken just dragged me away and made me sit down.

He said just calm down okay? No need to argue with this kind of people. I said fine, just give me a look at the receipt.

On the receipt, there is a 10% charge for service. That is way more that GST which is 5%. I wanted to be very bitchy then so I said loudly : What? They are charging us 10% for this kind of crap service?. I got a pretty scary stare from the supervisor then but it is surprisingly satisfying.

So we sat there and waited... for atleast one hour before the food came. One hour to make three freaking simple dish. To make it worse, it was the wrong order. We ordered CHICKEN not BEEF. I called for the supervisor and told him that. Good thing he still has a sense of conscience, he actually apologised. But I changed my mind about him one minute later because he gave our food to the workers there with MY spit on it! I should have listen to Alex when he told me to eat as much as I can and mess the dish up.

After this, we waited for another 30 minutes and we quickly finished our meal to get out of the restaurant. No discount or cash rebates or anything. Just a cold smile and " Thank you, please come again ".

I vowed then, I will never set my feet in a restaurant again, unless it's one of those first class one like the one in Genting Highlands called The Olive.

Another of my favourite food is of course, sushi! especially the one with salmon sashimi. Pure heaven. So how can I resist a sushi buffett as above? Well, after Ken told me the horrors behind this advertisement, I resisted!

Now, take note of the sentences on the bottom left hand corner of the signboard. It says :: " Add $8 per person to enjoy free flow sashimi. Valid on Weekdays 3-6pm. " with the same maroon-ish colour!

Okay, so you say " so what? same colour, big deal ". But read on.

It happened in Marina Square as well. Ken was hungry. Lookng upon this sign was like finding an oasis in the middle of Sahara Desert.

So again, off he trotted into yet another restaurant after promising me not to fall into their corporate trap again.

He told the waitress in there that he was there for the sushi buffett. It was Friday 12pm. The waitress took him to the sushi train conveyor belt so he started eating.

Two hours later, he asked for the bill. Guess how much it was? S$40.00!! It should be S$15.00 for students. So he asked the waitress how come it was so expensive? The waitress told him that it was by the colour of the plate the bill was charged.

Okay, WHAT THE FUCK? Ken specifically told the waitress that he was there for the SUSHI BUFFETT and she didn't have the sense to tell him that the sushi buffett is only from 3-6pm on weekdays?!

And they shouldn't put the validity under the sashimi with the same colour! That is screwing with your mind. I bet the advertisement designer studied psychology before because normal people would think that the time only applies for the sashimi and not the sushi buffett.

I tell you ar, that waitress has no shame in tricking the customers. Workers always forget that if there are no consumers then they will be no business. So this kind of restaurant only do what we called a " one time business " which means that they rely on new customers and not the regulars.

Only time will tell when the restaurant will fall due to lack of customers. Sure, Singapore has a few millions of consumers with big fat never ending wallet and a huge stack of credit cards but they cant go through years after years of relying on new customers. Surely, words will begin to fly about their misleading advertisements.

Beside, food courts food are much nicer, cheaper and straightfoward. You can't go wrong with them. * thumbs up *

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