Service quality

[Miyavi]

Talking about thai restaurants, pubs and bars...

A couple of things never fail to piss me off sometimes.

I am that kind of people who will complain about the food if it does not match

my expectation and quality for the price and that goes for any kind of service.

i am not ask a driver or a cook to do me a favor, i PAY them.

- ordering drinks the waiter never can remember who ordered what and they never bother to ask when dishing them out, same goes for the food.

- having a romantic dinner is a pain... Happened so many times... they simply can not time the food so you can get it in about the same time, they even manage to serve you the dessert first and the appetizer after the main dish. So often someone had their food and you were wondering for 20 min how long it will take to finish your fried rice.

- Timing again... your got her food already and they tell you that they dont have some **** to make your dish and ask you to order something else.

- sitting in a small restaurant with more waiters pulling their nose at the counter than guests you have to wait 10 min for your bottle of water.

- 50 ml ice tea in a glassl stuffed with ice cubes.

- they never understand the meaning of DOUBLE. when you want a double portion of meat in your soup you will end up with 2 soups or 2 bills but not with double meat.

- they never write down what you order... i fail to count how often something was forgotten.

- in some places they have like 358 waiters taking care of your table, they will refill your drink after each sip... standing next to you and watching every movement they never mind to disrupt every romantic conversation or tab your shoulder while your kiss just to give you another ice cube.

- nose fingering

- 50 gram lamb steak for 1000 thb

[Sukhumvit_Farang]

I was once dinner at a restaurant in France (Serre Chevalier). I complained about my soup, it was too salty. My husband and I didn?t have to pay for the dinner that night. If I complain something like that in a restaurant in Thailand they will give me a mean look and with a reply like ?This is how we cook here.?

Ha - a couple of weeks ago, I was in a restaurant near my home here in Bangkok. I had been eating hamburgers there for years and for a change I thought I would try their lasagna. Big mistake. It was horribly oily. When I complained, the waitress went and got the owner, who proceeded to shout at me that "You farangs are always complaining. I don't need you here in my restaurant. Get out - now - and don't come back!" How's that for service?!

[Miyavi]

- having a romantic dinner is a pain... Happened so many times... they simply can not time the food so you can get it in about the same time, they even manage to serve you the dessert first and the appetizer after the main dish. So often someone had their food and you were wondering for 20 min how long it will take to finish your fried rice.

You might not know it but fried rice is a traditional way to end a meal.

Maybe that's the logic behind it.[/quote

you make no sense

[Geri]

- having a romantic dinner is a pain... Happened so many times... they simply can not time the food so you can get it in about the same time, they even manage to serve you the dessert first and the appetizer after the main dish. So often someone had their food and you were wondering for 20 min how long it will take to finish your fried rice.

You might not know it but fried rice is a traditional way to end a meal.

Maybe that's the logic behind it.

you make no sense

... I thought that's funny. =)

[English_George]

...It's terrible I know!

...I went into Gulliver's on Suhumvit last weekend and asked for a "Gaeng Pang".....

....traditional Thai curry, with rice....

...the next thing I know I was in a hotel with three of the bar whores and a whopping great bill....

...talk about ordering the wrong thing! (tsch)

...79

[CiaranM]

...It's terrible I know!

...I went into Gulliver's on Suhumvit last weekend and asked for a "Gaeng Pang".....

....traditional Thai curry, with rice....

...the next thing I know I was in a hotel with three of the bar whores and a whopping great bill....

...talk about ordering the wrong thing! (tsch)

...79

u may need to brush up on ur tones .... i've had the same problem !!!

and that was when i was speaking english !!!

[Loburt]

...It's terrible I know!

...I went into Gulliver's on Suhumvit last weekend and asked for a "Gaeng Pang".....

....traditional Thai curry, with rice....

...the next thing I know I was in a hotel with three of the bar whores and a whopping great bill....

...talk about ordering the wrong thing! (tsch)

...79

u may need to brush up on ur tones .... i've had the same problem !!!

and that was when i was speaking english !!!

You speak English?

[Loburt]

Talking about thai restaurants, pubs and bars...

- having a romantic dinner is a pain... Happened so many times... they simply can not time the food so you can get it in about the same time, they even manage to serve you the dessert first and the appetizer after the main dish. So often someone had their food and you were wondering for 20 min how long it will take to finish your fried rice.

maybe i'm wrong, but i think part of this is that thais traditionally tend to eat with all the dishes on the table at once or about the same time and they just take what they want in whatever order they want.

westerners expect to be served in an ordered and familiar progression of dishes.

one way to avoid timing problems is to stress to the waiter/waitress when ordering that you want the salad first, then bring the soup, then bring the main course, etc, so you have made it clear to them what you expect.

some may still mess it up anyway - probably because they don't alert the kitchen - but many will get it right.

[steevolution]

man the only way to be happy here is not to stress about stuff.

not getting what you want is often not because you are a foreigner. i have been out with wealthy thais and if they need to get something out of the ordinary (for some goofy foreigner, for instance --not me) they have a hell of a time. it will take five or six tries to get something right. lots of the time the waitstaff are from upcountry or burmese, so the communication with a bangkokian thai is not so good. (and there's plenty of nosepickin like somebody said, and passive aggressive ****--u might want somethin special and maybe u will get it... but they will make u wait and wait just so they KNO u really want it.-- pay peanuts to staff and ur staff will be monkeys)

i was with an Australian friend who has lived here for fourteen years, married to thai, has teenage daughter and barely speaks a word of thai (which to me is wierd as f**k) but he is in his own way VERY VERY THAI now. we were at a seafood restaurant. he was ordering. he had to ask for EIGHT different items on the "menu" before he finally found one that they could actually bring us. i told him, "man you sure look like an Australian... but you ain't no more!" caus where i come from the waitress woulda started takin HEAVY ABUSE after the third "no can. finish already." (we got there BEFORE the dinner rush fer chrissakes. EIGHT different selections he had to make before he got lucky... and the sonofabitch never turned a hair, never got upset, never so much as raised his voice the tiniest little bit... he just kept goin back to the menu and try try try again. sh*t. AMAZING performance of how to stay cool calm and collected.

and that's what u gotta do to survive here without dying before your time of a coronary. ESPECIALLY if ur a foreigner. take what comes, enjoy it... if it won't come to you well F**K IT, it just was not meant to be.

[venus]

complaints are good, but they must be made with common sense.

people who go to the local restaurants and expect to get western-serviced are kind of annoying.

first, you have to see what kind of restaurant you are dinning?

thai ? - all tourists must, at least, learn to understand of other cultures before complaining. thai food has no course.(there is no first the salad/ later the soup/and then main course) everything comes at the same time.

fine dinning - i was once made a wrong dish at calderazzo. i told them its my mistake and would like to get the right one. they brought me a new dish without charge. impressive?

as being a regular customer, i always get free drink at giusto. i remember that i was once popping in at the restaurant without reservation and had to wait for almost an hour to get seats. i & mate had free drinks.

if you dine in the restaurant which you are forced to pay 10% service-charged of the total bill - then you get good service.

if you dine at the local ones which, in general, people will tip B 20-50 - what you expect?

I plan to open a restaurant very soon. and i am sure if some western mugs come into my restaurant with the attitude and shout to my staff, then they are not welcome.

some people, who lack of common sense (especially some farangs with superior attitude), don't know that they are trouble-making. odd enough that they don't even realise about it.

some people, with common sense who understand that nothing is perfect, who are cultured, decent and polite know how to complain and how to get what they are deserved or things done their way.

most of thai people in general are not rough nor arrogant. we, at times need to be told and taught, naturally are service-minded. we are born in a country which has a long history and beautiful culture.

i really wonder... if you (tourists) travel to foreign & exotic country and you expect something very westernized. why don't you just simply stay only in the hotel or never bother to leave your own country at all?

dont make me go the "romantic date in any pubs or bars"

i used to date my playboy once at the dickens inn in december. there were loads of people, cold and very loud. no service, he got to get drinks fro me from the bar. still we managed to be romantic... so, maybe because he didn't spend most the night complain about everything that went wrong.?? girls in general dislike meannie. :roll:

ah that reminds me that a good mate of mine who dumped a man (who was then being a high executive at audi) simply because he shouted at the security guards all the time.

learn to be at ease and enjoy something different eh ?

[Miyavi]

maybe i'm wrong, but i think part of this is that thais traditionally tend to eat with all the dishes on the table at once or about the same time and they just take what they want in whatever order they want.

Yes, that is right, its the same in china and most other asian countries too, but i am not talking about the small traditional restaurants where you get your daily food.

It is annoying if you go to some place where you pay 5 times the price and they advertise the big selection of APPETIZERS to you just to bring you the appetizer long after you got the main dish already or serve you some crazy steamed fish first and need another half hour to make simple fried rice coz they are to lazy to clean the pen just to make simple rice and instead wait for some other table to have a similar order.

Also happened to me many times that we had ordered 2 times the same dish and they cam with a large delay. That makes no sense for me at all.

I eat outside daily 2-3 times as i dont cook at home any longer...

About the service quality, yes it sure is true that the waiters have super low salaries, however i am not talking about the small family restaurants. There are a lot of restaurants charging 3-5 times the price you would pay in some small Thai restaurant for the same dish, they can afford to train the waiters and pay them more.

There are some who manage so, i was once surprised in a thai italian restaurant by the service. The waiter was very professional, he could give all info about the wines and foods without looking them up, they also served us the correct glasses for the wines we ordered and a nice set of cutlery for the fish and meat we ordered. He even was holding the bottle of wine in a correct way.

We were really happy with the service and dining was fun... food could have been better but for a 3k THB bill for 2 people it was all fine.

low salaries are no excuse for low service when i have to pay the same price as in germany. The rent for the locations is also way cheaper, so there is no excuse at all.

Its just that they dont give a ****.

It is even getting worser at some places.

2 years ago i really liked to go to Fuji for lunch but going there now i hardly see difference to Sakura. They try to save everywhere, even cutting the fish slices for sashimi much tinner now and some dishes like the Omrice taste really bad.

You can forget most of the commersial restaurant and those franchising chains.

The money goes in marketing and location, hardly in quality and service.

While in germany poor students and kids go to macdonalds to get some cheap ass burger you end up paying here more than for some decent thai food.

And WTF you pay the same price for Starbucks in Thailand, that **** does not even have service by default.

Dont get me wrong, i dont count the pennies, i am willing to pay for quality and service but obviously not many people here experienced what quality is.

To be fair i have to say that it is mostly about foreign food, for thai food the best restaurants are of course in Thailand

I remember we used to have family dinner in a german restaurant called Schwarzer Hahn a lot, no one will probably know it but its known for good food and service. Many politicians and other wealthy people go there.

Dishes are 8 up to 20k THM per person, and most of them are worth the money as the food is very good.

Or my fav restaurant in the city i used to live, the chief cook used to come out to greet the customers who come often and ask them if the food was good, not to collect compliments but to improve the quality.

At such places i can give the soup back just because it was served to hot and its nothing about being picky.

When ordering certain fish dishes i expect the meat to have the right consistence, color and content of fluid when i slice it. I also expect the right kind of salmon.

Here there is just Salmon and period. They drop it in a pen and you get something pink swimming in animal oil with fish scales sticking out on the side.

Most of the places don't even know how to make simple things like a Steak or decent French fries.

[steevolution]

And WTF you pay the same price for Starbucks in Thailand, that sh*t does not even have service by default.

FRIENDS DON'T LET FRIENDS GO TO STARBUCKS!!!

[Miyavi]

And WTF you pay the same price for Starbucks in Thailand, that sh*t does not even have service by default.

FRIENDS DON'T LET FRIENDS GO TO STARBUCKS!!!

But chicks love to meet up there and chicks come to late by default so u end up drinking a coffee.

[Loburt]

maybe i'm wrong, but i think part of this is that thais traditionally tend to eat with all the dishes on the table at once or about the same time and they just take what they want in whatever order they want.

Yes, that is right, its the same in china and most other asian countries too, but i am not talking about the small traditional restaurants where you get your daily food.

It is annoying if you go to some place where you pay 5 times the price and they advertise the big selection of APPETIZERS to you just to bring you the appetizer long after you got the main dish already or serve you some crazy steamed fish first and need another half hour to make simple fried rice coz they are to lazy to clean the pen just to make simple rice and instead wait for some other table to have a similar order.

Look, even in places where you pay five times the price as in a small traditional restaurant (and that still wouldn't be very expensive) the staff is local and may have local ideas.

You have to be aware of that and adjust. Explain to them what you want and how you want it and you will have less problems.

You can't live in a foreign country and expect, even in expensive places, that everyone will automatically understand what you want and adjust to you.

Be clear. Explain ahead of time.

You have to meet people half way. Otherwise you will be miserable.

[Miyavi]

Look, even in places where you pay five times the price as in a small traditional restaurant (and that still wouldn't be very expensive) the staff is local and may have local ideas.

You have to be aware of that and adjust. Explain to them what you want and how you want it and you will have less problems.

You can't live in a foreign country and expect, even in expensive places, that everyone will automatically understand what you want and adjust to you.

Be clear. Explain ahead of time.

You have to meet people half way. Otherwise you will be miserable.

I think i am aware of where i am eating. besides i am not a traveler, i live here and i go dining with thai friends or my GF. Some are wealthy people, actors, musicians and business men. I let them order and we are pissed together.

We clearly tell what we want even force them to write down the dishes sometimes.

what i am complaining about has nothing to do with with ideas and whatever.

If i see that half the restaurant is half emptz and there are 7 waiters standing pulling their nose iand make me wait 15 min for a water or bring random dishes to different tables, letting someone in the group waiting for half n hour. THAT SUCKS, period.

As i wrote already i am NOT talking about traditional thai restaurants.

I am aware of the cultural aspects and i have traveled asia a lot in my life.

I enjoz traditional thai food a lot too and i eat in small local restaurants, never complaining there.

I of course can say may pen rai and accept everything as it is but i see no point doing so. I pay and i want what i pay for in return.

Some places manage to do it right but most dont.

[afook06]

miyavi: take up Thai cooking at home, then you won't have to ***** so much........

[Miyavi]

miyavi: take up Thai cooking at home, then you won't have to b*tch so much........

i am happy with traditional thai food in the restaurants.

[Miyavi]

besides, it is fun to complain

[zeusbheld]

miyavi: take up Thai cooking at home, then you won't have to b*tch so much........

from someone who *never* complains...

[Miyavi]

Is this another of those "Just something I found on the net and felt like sharing" posts you see so much of these days?

Out of interest, have you ever heard of Michael Grey?

it is based on my personal experience

Michael grey_ humm, i am bad with names... and there are probably millions of michael greys

[zeusbheld]

miyavi: take up Thai cooking at home, then you won't have to b*tch so much........

i am happy with traditional thai food in the restaurants.

Dude you need to understand that no one, under any cirumstances, replies to afook.

Trust me on this one.

where's the fun in that?

[Steel]

miyavi: take up Thai cooking at home, then you won't have to b*tch so much........

i am happy with traditional thai food in the restaurants.

Dude you need to understand that no one, under any cirumstances, replies to afook.

Trust me on this one.

where's the fun in that?

I thought it was "Give secrets away night".

My first trip to Thailand was in 1985 and at the first resturant I learned that waiters of any sex always make mistakes all the time, and that Tom Yam is Hot.. :-)

My goal.. ore dream, was to once eat out with friends, in a beautiful resturant with some of my friends and everything would go like clockwork. Everybody get what the ordered and that the bill was correct..

In 23 years that have never happened.. probably because I have been to pissed to look at the bill a lot of times.. But the essensial when taking people out to eat in Thailand, is to make sure there is a full bottle of liquere, ice and soda water on the table..

To be kind of "smart idiot farang" I have always asket to get my dessert first when I order.. In hi class resturants..

My order is always Ice cream, coffe and cognac first, and then from the start..

I have never got it my way yet.. and I have tried hard! :-)

Sirocco is problably "out" but is a great place to go if you want it the right way..

But you have to be Alien to get the dessert and Cognac first..

I am saving up an have my dreams..

One time, It will all be right and I can stop drinking the GT`s and beer..

And rest my case with no complaints..

*Cheers* :-)

[dannyboy]

As long as you understand there is no concept of repeat custom here you can never be disappointed.

When you go out to eat, expect some kind of service problem and if not, it's a bonus..............

[Loburt]

Look, even in places where you pay five times the price as in a small traditional restaurant (and that still wouldn't be very expensive) the staff is local and may have local ideas.

You have to be aware of that and adjust. Explain to them what you want and how you want it and you will have less problems.

You can't live in a foreign country and expect, even in expensive places, that everyone will automatically understand what you want and adjust to you.

Be clear. Explain ahead of time.

You have to meet people half way. Otherwise you will be miserable.

I think i am aware of where i am eating. besides i am not a traveler, i live here and i go dining with thai friends or my GF. Some are wealthy people, actors, musicians and business men. I let them order and we are pissed together.

We clearly tell what we want even force them to write down the dishes sometimes.

what i am complaining about has nothing to do with with ideas and whatever.

If i see that half the restaurant is half emptz and there are 7 waiters standing pulling their nose iand make me wait 15 min for a water or bring random dishes to different tables, letting someone in the group waiting for half n hour. THAT SUCKS, period.

As i wrote already i am NOT talking about traditional thai restaurants.

I am aware of the cultural aspects and i have traveled asia a lot in my life.

I enjoz traditional thai food a lot too and i eat in small local restaurants, never complaining there.

I of course can say may pen rai and accept everything as it is but i see no point doing so. I pay and i want what i pay for in return.

Some places manage to do it right but most dont.

Well, seeing that your "response" does not address anything that I wrote, it's pretty obvious, despite problems with service in Thailand, that in this case there's a problem with the customer.

It's no wonder you get bad service.

[zeusbheld]

As long as you understand there is no concept of repeat custom here you can never be disappointed.

When you go out to eat, expect some kind of service problem and if not, it's a bonus..............

what's interesting though is that the lack of concept of a repeat customer doesn't seem to apply at places like the meat-on-a-stick cart or 7-11... just more expensive places where i shop or dine...