All was right with the design and usage of materials for the tables and chairs. The air conditioning was broken that day - I was informed of it by the not-so-cool air in the restaurant, and by a sign at the main door mentioning a doctor being called to treat the air conditioning. There were however numerous standing fans placed around the restaurant to keep the patrons cool.
This particular restaurant ran different from the one near SAM. This one required you to get your drinks before placing your food orders at the cashier. The numerous floor staff will then bring you your food when it's ready.
The menu were made of textured paper, worn out, and slightly dirty. They were seemingly placed at random tables, perhaps having 6 or so tables share 2 menu. It was still all fine then. The variety of food offered seemed to be lacking, severely, when compared to the SAM outlet. Half of its main offerings were only available during lunchtime on weekdays.
After D placed the order, she came back with the second problem with that restaurant. There weren't any menu at the cashier. So you could either memorize your order and relay them to the cashier, or run back to your table hoping that your menu hasn't been taken by other patrons.
Then I tried opening the glass bottle of root beer. The metal cap had jagged edges like those of beer bottles, but apparently, the cap was meant to be twisted open as with plastic bottles. So I gave it a go. Having sliced a strip of flesh off my thumb on the eve of an O'level paper from a similar bottle in the past, I twisted warily. The cap wouldn't give way, so I took a piece of serviette from the kitchen counter and wrapped it around the cap, which finally came off after a hard twist. The serviette was stained with rust from the cap. Imagine cutting your fingers on the cap, tetanus comes for you.
Then came our garlic chilli cheese fries without forks, but in a decently large quantity. But we were tricked once again. The garlic chilli cheese came in the form of a dip. The menu's description of the dish had led us to believe that the additional condiments to the fries came as some sort of powder, on or within each fry. How disappointed we were.
Our main dish soon arrived, sans utensils, and I began to notice a strange division of workload among the floor staff. A single old man in his senior years would be the only person heading out of the restaurant to clear the alfresco tables, empty rainwater collected on some of the chairs, and to sweep the floor outside, while the remaining floor staff, all in their teens or early twenties served the supposedly air conditioned section of the restaurant. The younger floor staff would stand by the kitchen counter to chat with each other, occasionally taking a dish to a patron's table, or clearing an empty table of dishes. Then I noticed 2 young female floor staff standing before one of the fans, essentially blocking any wind from the fan from reaching patrons at 2 tables.
Then there were the young staff who brought food to the alfresco tables. While they were walking back in through the side door, they encountered 2 greedy pigeons who even while trapped between the glass partition and the staff, took a few more beak-ful of food before trying to find a way to escape. After they came in, a young staff (I can't remember if it was one of the two girls) opened the side door, and I thought "oh, they'll have some pigeon issues soon".
I was right. Not long after, the daring duo strutted their way in and started eating food on the floor, weaving between the feet of patrons. Several noticed and expressed amusement at the creatures' actions, all the while, the young staff stood by the kitchen counter indulging in their conversations. It was about 5 minutes more before any staff took notice and one of them proceeded to chase the pigeons out.
One of it strutted out. But the other strutted to the side door before taking flight back to the middle of the restaurant. That one staff set about herding the bird out once more, but this time the pigeon decided to make its escape and flew. Straight into a glass partition, with a pretty loud thud. The bird repeated it's charge towards supposed freedom 3 or 4 more times, flying and crashing above dishes of food. The staff member finally caught the bird in his hands the moment it fell after crashing into the glass partition, and brought it out to who-knows-where. There were no apologies to the patrons of the restaurant save for a whisper of sorry when the bird strutted past my feet. I pity those who find pigeon feathers in their food after the fiasco.
My dine there was finally marred by a young staff who came to clear the dishes while we were still drinking. He walked up, stood by D - a tad too close I would say (not the jealous boyfriend speaking) - and without so much as a word or nod, started clearing our plates.
We both thought the food there was overpriced. The prices would seem just slightly overpriced if it were a normal restaurant. But since its mission and vision touched on being environmentally friendly, doing their corporate social responsibility, and declaring something along the lines of there not being service charge because it is their pleasure to serve, the pricing of food is seen is severely overpriced. It's akin to McDonalds charging a dollar or two more for each meal, and then act extremely environmentally conscious and responsible, and ask if you would like to donate money for a children's water fund.
So in summary, what was unpleasant at Food For Thought (Botanic Gardens):
- lack of menu at the tables
- lack of menu at the ordering counter
- lack of variety for their main dish compared to the SAM outlet
- rusty and hard to open bottle caps
- inaccurate description of french fries (akin to labeling a hot dog with a small cup of cheese as "cheese hot-dog")
- staff that serves the food without the utensils
- staff members that block the fan on purpose while chatting with each other
- staff that foolishly and repeatedly open the side door
- staff that took ages to notice of the pigeons
- staff that seem to leave external clean up to the oldest member
- staff that offered no sincere apology nor checked on the food of patrons
- staff that rudely cleared our table
- overpriced food and drinks for a business that supposedly does not focus on profits alone
So instead of 9 or so floor staff who do nothing but chat amongst themselves, serve food and food alone, and clear tables, why not employ just 3 of them to clear tables and sweep floors. There won't be that many of them to leave the side door open, nor block the fan. I personally went to the kitchen counter twice, once for utensils, another time for serviettes, so I don't see why I couldn't handle collecting my own dish.