april 3rd, 2022 | time: 7 pm reservation | location: private room for 7 people | price: 1300 inr per person
this is not my first time at a fine dining restaurant so i hope the management seriously looks at these concerns and acts accordingly.
we had booked earlier in the day for a group of 6 people and we reached around 7:15 pm and were escorted to the private room by the staff.
the following is a series of concerns raised not just by me but also my friends and family members who accompanied me that day.
so consider this a collection of feedback from six patrons who were looking forward to having a fine dining experience at your restaurant.
rule no. 1:
if there are x number of people in a table, only x plates and chairs should be present (in this case 6). the extra plate and chair is just clutter and causes mild annoyance and ruins the customer experience.
rule no. 2:
water should be served and the bottle(s) should not just be placed on the table.
i usually eat at roadside stalls (most of them are extremely safe and clean unlike what some people like to believe) and small to mid-range hotels (100-200 inr per person). in those places, i don't expect the waiter to pour water for me because i know what i am paying for.
but in this case, i expect the person to pour the water (kinley water, i really hope the management changes the brand. the kinley water (in a plastic bottle) in a fine-dining restaurant felt out of place, sorry but it's just my opinion).
i asked the other 4 people on my table to pass me their glasses and i started pouring it one by one. as soon the waiter saw this, he said he'll do it and took the bottle away from my hands.
very unprofessional and serving water should have been the first thing on the agenda.
it is called fine dining for a reason and the hefty amount paid is for the customer experience (the food costs are the same across the board in any restaurant more or less).
a definite let-down first-up by the customer staff although i gave them the benefit of the doubt and wanted to make a final judgement at the end of it.
rule no. 3:
the plate size should be proportional to the number of starters or the amount of food.
my mother felt this strongly and didn't like the fact that her plate was cluttered with six starters. the starters are not even left on the table after the initial serving.
i have to ask the waiter every time someone wants any of the six starters. this is quite an inefficient system and i suggest placing the starters on the table so that the customers can eat at their own leisure.
please consider this. the customers visit your restaurant for the unique starters that you provide. by having this system where customers have to ask every time they want something, you are robbing a lot of people of enjoying the food that they enjoy.
*important note*: i don't mind asking the waiter for six, seven or even 10 servings of a food item but the majority of the population are body-conscious and self-conscious to say out loud that they want something (especially food) in a public setting.
so please understand human behavior and human psychology.
i propose two solutions:
1) leave starters on the table after the initial serving so that everyone can enjoy and we don't have to make a decision on the spot when the waiter asks "which starters do you want?". for the price i am paying, i would ideally like to have options of all the starters and eat at my own leisure and not at the pace at which the staff barges in and asks the question.
it is quite annoying to have the staff ask that question and him getting a headcount of who wants which starters in the middle of an interesting conversation with my friends and family. completely destroys the "fine" dining experience.
2) or keep coming in with all six starters every five minutes (similar to what happens in grillbox and ab's barbecue, two restaurants whose customerservicemodels i enjoyed recently).
rule no. 4:
the staff should undergo more training and improve their memory.
1) another person and i had requested hot water at the start of the dinner and were served accordingly. during the middle of the dinner, i had asked for a re-fill. at this time, all the other members needed a refill of regular water as well.
while i was away getting some food from the main course area, the waiter had poured regular water in my glass and the warm water had not arrived yet.
i was quite surprised to see it when i sat down. five whole minutes later, the waiter arrived and i told him that i requested for hot water.
he, then proceeded to pour hot water into the glass that had regular water and said "it should be fine to drink now".
i really didn't like his response and the appropriate response should have been to provide a new glass and then pour the hot water.
it baffles me as to how a top-rated restaurant does not maintain professional standards when it comes to serving its customers.
very poor, i thought to myself when i saw the waiter pour the hot water in that glass and asked me to "try it" when i had specifically asked for hot water.
(i don't want to pick on the person here since it seems to be a systemic problem in the restaurant since 2-3 people served us that night and all of them were par/sub-par).
2) reiteration of a previous point but water should be served and not just left on the table.
so far, i didn't talk about the food because the price point is for the whole experience and not just the food.
the food was somewhat average but could have been elevated and the eating experience could have been made much better with quality customer service.
food and customerserviceare two sides of the same coin and i hope the management understand that and fixes it (if a fix is required anywhere in the system).
first impressions are the best impressions especially in the hospitality industry and i hope the management seriously investigates and understands if this is one-off incident (happened due to sheer coincidence for us on that day) or a systemic problem that requires strong capa (corrective and preventive action).
i really wanted to mention all of this to the manager (but didn't have the time and was tired after a long day) because it pains me to see chef venkatesh bhatt's restaurant perform so poorly when i went there with my family. all six of us had a disappointing/somewhat average experience.
chef venkatesh is someone who sets extremely high standards and exceeds them on a daily basis and it was not a good feeling to exit that restaurant with a sense of bitterness and disappointment.
i would like to give this restaurant another chance to redeem themselves but if someone asked me now for my review, i would tell them to try other restaurants and not visit this place.
overall, poor keeping in mind the price point and the already positive reviews showered on this restaurant.