06/29/08

Nice but the price

by sparrowwithabell

Given I'm from South East Asia, I'm a bit critical of the restaurant. I thought the ambience was nice. Food is good but not great.

It's probably a nice place for business trip, if you go there for food, I will go to some other South East Asian restaurants that offer that offer the same thing for a fraction of the price. Will go there on business only.

07/10/07

Good food, Shady business practice

by crazylegs1868

Had a prepaid group function at the restaurant for work, which tends to mean that opened but unconsumed wine gets taken home by guests or hosts, as they have been paid for. When the party was over, 1 server claimed that the restaurant had a policy of not giving the wine out?! Another server claimed that there were no partially consumed bottles left. I had just seen one that was about half full, and there were no other guests around, so I knew that to be false. Having had multiple such events at other venues, there are ALWAYS partially consumed bottles left. The server also seemed to have an attitude and didn't seem to appreciate my request. I am inclined to think that either the servers get to take the wine home, or the restaurant gets additional revenues by essentially re-selling the wine.

The pros would be that food was quite tasty, and the ambiance nice. The cons are that it is a bit pricey and the restaurant and/or staff were of questionable integrity.

• Pros: Food, Ambiance
• Cons: Price, Honesty

05/22/07

Poor customer service; poor management response; ill prepared staff

by katyee

I have been going to Tamarine and Bongsu (both owned by the same people) entertaining clients. At a client lunch today, we experienced something that you never believe would happen to you. One of my guests, choked on a piece of meat and would have died, had it not been for a wonderful gentleman diner who was also having lunch. The hostess who looks miserable and treats every guests dreadfully just looked at us as if we had inconvenienced her yet again. The waiter came to find me handing me the bill worried I might run out without paying for our bill (hindsight, I should not have left a tip but I did leave a 20% - force of habit). After we left and reflected on the whole experience, we realized how poorly the staff had treated us. I phoned the restaurant to point out the liability of having wait staff that are completely ill prepared in light of a crisis such as the one we experienced and how badly they had addressed the incident. Kevin, the manager of the restaurant calls me to only tell me that they are sorry and that it is nearly impossible to train their staff to learn CPR. I pointed out that learning to dial 911 is an alternative option and not looking at your customers as if they are cramping your style and demanding payment in time of crisis another wonderful resolution. Kevin not only could not articulate a good solution to rectify the matter but also proved to be just as incompetent as the staff he manages.

The quality of workforce at Tamarine does not parallel the price and image that this restaurant is trying to project. Elderly should definitely not go there because if GOD forbid, you choke, you might be meeting your maker as these people would not even know how to dial 911 much less perform CPR.