Wagamama has a FRIEND

Even longer ago, back at the start of the month, my brother and I went for one of those Groupon deals. It's festering across the world, these online deals for restaurants and services like massages, or even a getaway to Thailand, or laser treatments, or teeth whitening...

From KuaiZi

One starts to see a terrible trend happening, with bad restaurants proposing deals and putting up photos of food that looks much nicer than what they really are online, cutting the price ridiculously by 50% or more, and then providing terrible service for these "coupon holders" when they claim their vouchers. Then, for this really bad service and food, one can only think: well, I saved myself $xx, really can't expect it to be anything really good." Or perhaps when something doesn't go according to what you expected and you complain, the staff will simply shrug his shoulder and say "the coupon doesn't specify that you'd get what you described". The savings, however, are so tempting because they make it seem so big, that food adventurers cannot help but fall for the same old tricks, time and again, hoping against hope that this time, maybe this time, the deal will genuinely be a good one. Think of the savings! The new food place that you might gossip to your friends next time!

From KuaiZi

On the other hand though, think of the savings you make if you DIDN'T buy the deal in the first place, and think of how you wouldn't be disappointed. I've been skeptical about these deals online and haven't bought myself one till two nights ago, urged by my brother. Haven't gone for it yet, but hopefully it'll be good because online reviews dictate so. Haha, who am I kidding, I hold on to no expectations when it comes to deals online, however, he's been treating me to quite a few meals, and so far, only one is worth mentioning and worth its value at all, and that is Kobe Jones. Thought I'd return the favor and treat him sometime. This entry, however, is dedicated to Kuai Zi, a place which I hope closes down as soon as possible.

From KuaiZi

The place is beautifully decorated if not a little gaudy with the flashing lights and all, but nonetheless, very nice.

 Though I didn't buy the deal online, I saw it advertised in a Chinese magazine which my brother brought home. They do deals online, which, I read on eatability, many fell for and bought, only to be sorely disappointed and in some cases, angered. I saw its special menu for CNY on their website, to which they provided in explicit details what sort of dishes we would get.

From KuaiZi

The entree was good enough, we were quite happy at the start actually.

From KuaiZi

Ox tongue with mushroom...

From KuaiZi

Prawn... scallop, everything's fine so far...

From KuaiZi

Not a big fan of raw oysters, my brother took this one.

From KuaiZi

I forgot.. but cute enough in its small bowl.

From KuaiZi

Part of their special- abalone for CNY.

From KuaiZi

Everything was great until we got to the mains and I realised that a few of the courses were missing, namely the "Slow braised beef and ox tail white soup in a Chinese clay pot" and "Kuaizi Signature Spring Chicken & prawn Quenelles". When I called over the waitress to explain that two appetizers out of the 6 on the set menu were missing, she said that they have changed the menu and that she'll show me the new menu. This was in the middle of our meal, not before.

From KuaiZi

The mains? Not so impressive. Taste was very bland, ingredients not that fresh. It seemed as though they valued quantity more than quality at this point. Opposite for the entree though, which was very strange.

 5 minutes elapsed, our desserts were brought out. I asked the waiter who brought it out about the missing dishes. He too, said that the menu's been changed and went looking for this elusive menu. We could see him talking to the chefs in the kitchen and presumably the boss. He brought the menu to us and we saw that the two dishes were replaced by a salad and a dim sum platter. When we stated that even those two replacement dishes never came to our table, we were already disappointed as we were very much looking forward to the soup. Nonetheless, we were assured that the two dishes would come shortly. Meanwhile, we finished our desserts.

From KuaiZi

Don't let the appearance fool you (it's really just Stanley being awesome, he can't help it). This was really just cream and nothing else. Don't get me wrong, I like cream. Very much. But this was stated to be tiramisu on the menu.

From KuaiZi

And this mango pudding? Even instant pudding tastes better. Nothing like the sort you get at yum cha.

From KuaiZi

Caption: what is this I don't even....!!!

 The two dishes came. I cannot describe how terrible it was, we could hardly believe it ourselves. The salad was a clump of green leaves drenched in some greasy cheese sauce that tasted completely off, with no sense of presentation whatsoever. The dim sum platter consisted of what could only be frozen dim sum from a box in the supermarket's freezer section, deep fried in a half-arsed manner (read: half cooked), chucked onto a plate with a saucer of sweet chili sauce. These weren't even put into individual servings- we were expected to share them from the one plate. This was a far cry from the earlier dishes we received, which were all meticulously presented. Definitely not something to be expected from a fine dining restaurant.

 Needless to say, those "replacement dishes" went back to the kitchen barely touched. I could not bring myself to eat the dim sum, but my brother tried one and said there was a bad smell to it.

From KuaiZi

Such a sorry looking mess.

You'll see this post on eatability, where several other people have written pretty much the same thing. To top off the experience, they miscalculated the bill, which wasn't really a big deal because it was easily fixed, but it just felt like a huge disappointment, with one bad mismanagement after another.

Verdict? Unforgiveable! You've been banished to the list alongside Wagamama, begone!