A dinner not to be remembered....

What is the commitment of a restaurant ? Quite simple , to provide a good tasting food that satisfy the need of the customer with a good customer service. Pretty basic and straight forward. Though in the end of the day for all restaurants owner is to make good money through their business, they should be genuinely sincere in providing good food and good service as well. Nevermind the price, customer will judge the justification of each price according to what I have mentioned earlier, and at the very least they need to excel in at least one of the major discipline.

Recently I had dinner at newly opened , second branch of Chop N Steak at Serdang. They have another outlet at Kampung Baru so I believe.(Correct me if I am wrong). First and foremost, the name of the restaurant is really funny. It doesn’t rhyme. What a name (I believe it come from combination of chicken chop and steak. But then again, it still sounds funny. What a name.

Entering the restaurant, I would easily guess that this is a Malays restaurant. From far, you can spot the yellowish ugly lighted sign attached with thousands of bulb that is quite exclusive to only Malay restaurant. That work well with any “Tomyam” and Thailand cum Kelantanese restaurant. Not really gel with western concept restaurant.

I must admit, entering the restaurant, I am very skeptical over the quality of this restaurant. Not to condemn anyone (and hopefully no one will get offended) Malay usually failed to run a good western concept restaurant. To name few would be Mama Chop and Papa Grill and the Big Plate. Quite an embarrassment for me tosay this(sounded like i didnt support the bumiputra business). But don’t get me wrong, I know a few good Malay restaurants who serve good western food. Absolutely delicious such as the one in Cheras Damai (has been featured in Jalan Jalan Cari Makan) and Abg Eddie at SS13 (Unfortunately, Abang Eddie decided to move to somewhere else and I couldn’t find his new restaurant). Like Chinese who most of the times failed to produce a good nasi lemak, or Mamak always failed to produce good satay, Malays seem never understand the fundamental of producing good western food.

Well, I tried my best to remove my skeptism. I want to let them prove themselves. So I choose to check it out sincerely.

First thing first, like usual the customer service. No one greet me the moment I entered the restaurant…sigh, no one escort me or show me where would be the available table(it is not hard to find one) even though I can see a bunch of waiter/waitress waiting at a corner lazily chit chating.I try to ignore this

Secondly, I check out their interior design. They have been trying hard to make an impression, well good effort a part from their failure to have a clear massage on the direction of the design. At one point as if they are trying to imitate a western look cottage house made of tree trunks, and at another angel they are trying too look like a wooden ship and at another angle they are trying to be funky as well. Miss match of material is everywhere. Pity, this is the problem when you refused to get an interior designer to help you designing your restaurant. Most of the restaurant owners arrogantly refuse the facts that successful restaurant like McDonald, KFC, Victoria Station etc really pay attention on the interior design. They understand well that the design concept can play a huge part in creating a good business.(At least at Yo Sushi (my  blog on 9/3/2008) really do well in their design.

Well, I guess this is not important to some. Let’s try the food. Yummy Yummy..

I checked the menu and look for steak. There is only two way you can tell whether the food in any western restaurant would be nice or not ? Try their steak or fish. They can always do well in chicken.

At the menu, the price stated is reasonable and affordable., thus I quickly made up my mind and ordered sirloin steak, and as usual I requested it to be medium-rare. I also ordered watermelon juice.

Within a minute, they send me my drinks. That is quick. Good!!! But wait a minute, didn’t I ordered watermelon juice, since when it is in yellow color and taste like orange? Luckily I am too tired and didn’t want to create a chaotic situation. I accept it unwillingly.

Then come my order. They serve the steak with coleslaw, baked bean,half slice of roasted potato, weird looking bun and black pepper gravy. First I tried the coleslaw, unsurprisingly tasteless (I would say one of the best coleslaw I ever had is from Nandos, cold, sweet , crunchy fresh and juicy. Perfect) Then I tried the baked beans and potato. Not bad but nothing great. The exact same taste like any other baked bean taken out from can. Well I love that anyway, shouldn’t be complaining too much aite..

Then the moment of truth come. I tried the steak. First of all the steak is a thin layer of meat. Well, that is ok., perhaps due to the “thinniness” (well, honestly there is no such word…hehehe) the steak should be soft and tender. I took my knife and slice it. And I looked at the chunk of meat that I just cut. Where has all the reddish color gone? Do they know how to cook a medium rare steak? Ain't it suppose to be bloody red in color.Sigh…

Then next step is I put it in my mouth and chew. What a terrible feeling, I feel like chewing a rubber band. It is hard, and has no taste of meat. I couldn’t take it. It is so frustrating. Gone is the sweet flavor of meat, gone are the juice that should have been dripping of it the moment I chewed it, gone are the soft and tender texture of the meat. Gone is my dream of having succulently sumptuous steak that evening. All gone. This is as good as eating black pepper flavored rubber band. Yuck….

Earlier yummy yummy...i take that back!!!

Exasperated, I decided to quickly finish my meal. Then I went to the counter to pay for it. I want to end this terrible experience quickly but I forgotten to bring the bills. One of the waitresses notices this and walks slowly to the counter to bring the bills. Unfortunately the cashier didn’t notice her coming so she asked me for thebills.At the time I was busy taking my wallets out from my pocket so I couldn’t answer her yet. She became impatient and suddenly asks for the second time in a very loud tone….I rest my case

All in all, they don’t deserve any of my rating. They suck a lot. They don’t deserve single cents from me anymore. Highly not recommended.0 star

For reference, my rating on other local western restaurant

Mama Chop Papa Grill - ½ Star for their effort

Big Plate - ¾ for their ridiculous and wasteless attempt

The one in Cheras Damai (I couldn’t remember the name ) - 2 ½ Star for delicious food (but still lacking of good service)

Abg Eddie @ SS13 (R.I.P) - 3 star for good food, good service and good price

San Francisco Steak House - 6 star for being one of the best so far, of course we need to compare apple to apple so to be fair they are better than Victoria station 4 ½ star