"Gosh, I'm typing this now in the mrt, making my way home from school. Reckoned I might as well type something instead of "Draw Something"! I'm hooked to the game.. Drawing as much as I can so that I can purchase my first set of colour paints LOL."
Korean UFO Roaster Buffet
Anyway! Here's to the ultimate Korean BBQ place at Marina Cove that deserves a post of its own. A classic example of how any dining outlet in Singapore (or anywhere on earth, in fact) should NOT be. Appalling level of service, gimmicks to fish for customers then not performing anything as promise. Gimmicks will always be gimmicks.
Some background story..
My ex-tutee saw a promotion on Streetdeal.com earlier this year, purchased some coupons to give my lil sisters and myself a korean bbq treat!
Splash of pretty amazing pictures and tonnes of promises. Free-flow of Sri Lankan Chili Crabs, Chicken Rice w Scallops+ Drinks+ Fruits+ more than 100 fresh meats, seafood, vegetables & MORE! ? Eh?
Hmmm.
Finally, taking a stab at the highlights featured on Streetdeal.com,
Highlights
- Enjoy an Eat-All-You-Can Adult Korean UFO ROASTER+ Steamboat Buffet for adult only $15.90!
- Free-flow
of Sri Lankan Chili Crabs (mini flower crabs in bland gravy?), Chicken Rice w Scallops (invisible scallop?) + (diluted) Drinks+ Fruits+
more than 100 fresh meats, seafood, vegetables & MORE Really? no. no. NO. NO!!!!
- Restaurant has 300 Seating Capacity 300!? ha-ha bad joke.
- 2 options of dining environment: Air-con ventilated / Alfresco
- An ideal friends and family dine-out venue with lively surroundings
- Entitled to 2 plates per person. No request for change of plates.
- Independent environment. Wash your plates, refill your soup broth, learn to deal with limitations and expectations! Simply an experience of a lifetime! An ideal friends and family dine-out venue with lively surroundings
A check list:
[ ] Air-conditioning?
We're lucky enough to even be sitting near an air vent. Else, please do suffocate from the stale air. Zero circulation and warm as hell (not forgetting that it was 30 degree that day). Tough luck.
[ ] Setting? Quite a significant number of tables and chairs in a tiny shop space (I don't understand why it looks so nice, spacious and toasty in the pictures). There's a UFO sitting right there on every table. Occasionally, you'll see a mini..... Hmm, pot?
2 plates per person. One-off provision. Did I not mention that they're tea plates? They're smaller than my hands. Sorry, Korean BBQ UFO and what have you, my hands are so huge they span across your face.
The UFO which only looked awesome. The food turned out so dry.
[ ] Food?
So they claimed, unlimited, best chicken rice, chilli crabs and whatever more. No wonder a claim always stays a claim and nothing more. I'm going to be nasty with my comments but give me the freedom to speak up for the rest of the visited or sadly, visiting customers.. some of us will be victims since there's a whooping number of 3k++ who purchased the coupon.
From an objective point of view, food was terrible. There's hardly a time where we can go wrong with barbeque. It is normal to have it not-so-tasty but it really seldom sucks. Agree? Yet this place did it again. One stop shop for bad food, service and environment.
Starting from the sauces. There were 4 different sauces. They claimed that we could diy 100s of sauces. Well, the math made sense.. Only that the sauces were so bad I didn't want a "bad on bad on bad". Yucks.
I can't even bring myself to mix anything together because it'll just be a congregation of all things crappy. It's a Korean BBQ place with no Korean BBQ hot sauce. Ok, fine... Their Thai chilli had a strong taste of cream soda (I think). It tasted like soft drinks in a sauce form. We even had Thai chilli in Sweden that's a million times better than this one here. The sauces were described to me, by the staff, as "Spicy", "Sour", "Sour" and "I'm not sure". Here's an A+ to you, UFO.
The marinated meat was too salty. The cooked meat? Terribly dry. I don't know if that's the result of the UFO but it certainly wasn't "juicy" as they've claimed to be.
Marinade salty - dry and salty
Chilli crab tastes like crap . Even chilli tastes better than the chilli crab gravy. Too starchy. Even Peiyi could tell us, " I think I cook pre-mix also better". Sigh.
As for the "chicken rice with scallop"? I'm guessing they're all donning the invisible cloak. I see no scal-lop. Not surprised though..
I wish I had a lot pictures (i usually snap too many photos for my own good) but my situation disallowed it. The heat, the service, the food, the loud and noisy staff screaming at each other. I wanted to stab some worms.
[ ] Service?
Speaking of service. Of course, you pay a premium to get service. Fine with us since we got a coupon deal. But this has got to be the worst ever.
Due to the nature of their staff, I had to play the role of a translator to a group of 7 angmoh grown men. Never mind this because I love talking to people and helping wherever I could. But the one thing that's truly unforgivable was when I saw ONE UFO and ONE POT to.. not 1, not 2, but 7 GROWN UP MEN. How is that remotely possible? How are they suppose to enjoy their food when every single one of them will have to stretch out so far just to be in contact with that crap of a scrap metal UFO? I hate how this 'restaurant' did it because this is the worst representation of acceptable service. They're not even locals. They're tourists / visitors who will go home with an impression that Singapore is 1-to-7. What absurdity.
Not forgetting to mention, everything there was SELF-SERVICE. Well, I love self-service. But this place brings a brand new definition to self-service. (I can throw in 9,999,999 likes to this statement). There's a buildup to it because it started off with being acceptable to ridiculous.
1. Take your own drinks
2. Grab the kettle from outside and fill your own 'steamboat'
3. Wash your own cups and plates
Peiyi filling the pot. Please do not misunderstand that she was happy because she's smiling in the picture. She's smiling only because she's paiseh to be in the photos. eg. I am also not happy as I type this post though I type :) right now. I am feeling like !#$%^&* now.
WHAT IS THIS WORLD COMING TO. Yes please. Come to our country because we welcome you. We don't hate you for the fact that you are foreign talents. But can you please don't provide us with such level of 'service'? We are paying customers. Yes, we're not kings and queens but I think we deserve every right to enjoy a minimal level of service. HELLO MY COUNTRY WE FREAKING PAY FOR ALL OF THESE WHATHAVEYOU SERVICE CHARGE AND TAX. I now know why they charge rocket high taxes in Europe (or at least that I know of). JUST LOOK AT THE SERVICE. LOOK AT THIS NONSENSE.
THERE THEY ARE SCREAMING AT THE TOP OF THEIR LUNGS ACROSS THE STALE SPACE IN THEIR STRONG ACCENTS (nvm this) AND LAUGHING LIKE MAD AT EACH OTHER'S LOUSY JOKE YET THEY REFUSED TO DO ANYTHING DESPITE BEING SO FREE. I reckoned they're probably busy directing people to do everything self-service. Bravo. Brava. Brahead.
Also, since I mentioned Yoshinoya, can I also add that this amazing "Korean" BBQ(?!?) does not give me a single piece of serviette / tissue / toilet paper / rough paper / rotten paper. We need to pay 30 cents for it. REALLY? DID YOU JUST SAY THAT TO ME. I wanted to kick the tables and chairs, throw the crabs on the floor, smear the starchy 'super awesome crab gravy' on their grimy walls.
I KNOW WE BOUGHT A COUPON DEAL BUT CAN I PLEASE HAVE A FREAKING PIECE OF TISSUE OR AT LEAST A NEW CUP. IM NOT EVEN ASKING U TO WIPE MOUTH FOR ME OR FEED ME. IS IT THAT TOUGH?
After typing this entire post, I've accumulated enough anger. But what I finally thought of is...
1. With the massive emergence of online deal sites, the "good deals" might really not be good.
2. Please merchants, if you want to do a deal, do it graciously. Do your business like how you do it even when you don't offer a deal. If you're going to treat your customers like dogs (thanks for the description, Chinapal), don't offer a deal. Why do a deal when you are so unhappy about it? Just so that you can earn on these "account payables"? Service is service. Bad service will mean bad business. Your sales figures will see exceptional results in the first round of deal but if your service sucks, get ready to pack up. Leave.
3. Don't be cheated by the pictures, the words, the beautiful picture that merchants paint for themselves.
Don't even want to go on about this. I'm so skeptical about deals-anything now.
My final thoughts by the end of this visit..
After this meal, I died from hypertension and angst.
Seoul garden ure ten million times better. I'd also rather eat 2 full meals at Macdonalds, bust my calorie intake limit, feel guilty but happy. Why? I can sit comfortably in an air-conditioned area, be given plain water in a new cup when I ask, get serviettes to wipe my mouth, wipe my hands, wipe my feet, wipe my face. Also, I can put my trays back to the deposit area and not having to wash my tray. Macdonalds and fastfood joints anywhere, you provide such premium serve. Be so proud of your business model.
I really hope this place is not yet dead. I hope someone googles up this restaurant and finds this post. I hope someone can tell me I am wrong. But I am almost 99.9% certain that I am so not wrong about this.
Korean UFO Roaster Buffet
East Coast Park, Near Macdonald
1000 East Coast Park
B15 / 17
Marine Cove
Singapore 449876
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Will add a dash of happiness to this by posting some irrelevant pictures of my sisters and Peiyi..
Super mega fantastic loaf of bread which is so light like chiffon i'm gonna call it the chiffon bread from JuzBread!!!!!!
P.S. If you look at these pictures and think that this place is decent, can I please assure you that it is merely the quality of the pictures taken by my camera. Pictures are taken with an Olympus Pen E-PL2, 14-42mm kit lens. I'm no photographer but the camera is decent. Not the restaurant nor the food. I don't even want to give them a single bit of credit, except for the strong motivation for me to type such a post.
