Another date night, another new Japanese restaurant to try out.
Kengyang and I decided to dine at The Public Izakaya by Hachi for our latest date night and it was a night full of extreme emotions. I was initially incredibly pleased with my bowl of Tuna sashimi and rice, but the entire experience really ended with a sour note. Let me explain to you why...
Talking about the amazing tuna sashimi bowl first - this was heavenly. I felt like as if I had a sashimi don flown straight from Japan. It was THAT fresh. Zero hint of fishiness and I was basically on the verge of tears after my slice. Kengyang didn't really believe me so I had him try a slice. Kengyang is a man who hates anything fishy. He's the ultimate radar for fishiness. If something is just slightly fishy, he wouldn't eat it. So yes, I had him try a slice and he was so shocked that there was indeed no fishiness AT ALL. He even said that he would order this dish again, and this is coming from a man who rarely eats raw fish. It was so, so good. Even the rice beneath the many many (I counted 13, wow!) tuna slices was spectacular. Cooked to perfection and every single bite brought me to rice heaven. An absolutely excellent dish.
And then things got pretty unpleasant.
I was slowly savouring my dish and after finishing half the dish, I realised that Kengyang's order hadn't arrived yet. I thought maybe I ate way too fast but no, it had been 20 minutes since my bowl of awesomeness came! We got the attention of a waiter and asked him about it. He said he would check, but he never came back. Okay, nevermind, we got the attention of another waitress and asked again (this was like after 10 minutes of waiting for the waiter to update us). She went to check and once again, she didn't even update us. Finally, Kengyang's dish came 5 minutes later (total of 35 minutes of waiting) and it was mediocre. The chicken sticks were amazing, but the minced pork needed seasoning. Kengyang was not impressed by this bowl at all. The delicious chicken was let down by the bland minced pork!
Also, isn't it like basic courtesy to get back to a customer who asked a question? We asked two servers on the status of Kengyang's order and none of them got back to us to give an update. ?!
When the bowl finally arrived, Kengyang asked the waiter if his order was forgotten. The waiter hesitated and said that it took some time to prepare the dish. Excuse me?! 35 minutes for this bowl?! If you forgot, just say so and apologise - we are not monsters and we won't reprimand you. Some more Kengyang asked so nicely!
If the rice supply has finished and hence a new batch of rice has to be prepared again, then tell us! An update will be great, instead of us sitting there looking around like fools.
Luckily my eating speed is way slower than Kengyang's, so when his came, I still had like a quarter of my dish left.
A restaurant that serves some amazing food but marred by questionable service. I was so angry halfway through my meal because Kengyang didn't have anything to eat yet! ZZZ.
Such a pity really because that bowl of tuna sashimi slices atop rice was really amazing.
Perhaps it was just a bad night. Perhaps I was just unlucky because everyone else looked like they were thoroughly enjoying their food.
The Public Izakaya by Hachi
100 Tras Street, #01-09
Singapore 079027
No comments:
Post a Comment