A friendly, helpful, respectful and thoughtful character is a crucial ingredient in the service industry. Place such a character in the front layer of any service provider and pretty sure that would not disappoint. I had had my wonderful experience here in this land of the smiles 3 nights ago.
Wonderful Guy aka Wonderful Hubbs, yes, we are signed to oath now, choosing to burden each other for life, took yours truly out to dinner at an italian restaurant not too far away from his office. It was worth the 10minutes or so walk from the nearest train station. Going in, they scored highly for the first impression the ambience gave out. Slow, sweet jazz music was playing at the background, not too loud yet the lyrics were still clearly heard.
Waiting for our food, I noticed they had lined their table top with a big piece of white paper, what we usually call mahjong paper here. When Wonderful Hubbs mentioned that we could draw on the paper using the crayons provided, I was pleasantly surprised. No wonder they had the container of crayons ready almost at each table! I had noticed that first difference when I said down on our table.
Of course I hands went to work. Who could resist the blank space in front and the colourful sticks of long, almost new crayons? That's slightly off the truth. Wonderful Hubbs started first, with his favourite words, in his simple SMS style, written upside down for my reading benefit.
Each of our servings or queries were accompanied with unselfish smiles and gentle body language. Nothing was rush, no fidgeting shown to us when we took such a long time to make up our hungry minds, not a negative remark with a negative intention.
What I liked best was the waiter, in her own raw way, was quite professional. When Wonderful Guy asked what music was playing, she actually said, she would check it out, not the usual lackadaisical answer we so often would get when we asked waitresses here on something not on the menu. She did check it out, going to the extend of allowing us to copy it when we asked. She allowed a moment of cheekiness, asking us to copy the songs into the thumbdrive as well.
But seriously, it is just quite difficult to get good service here in middle range restaurants. When we asked if we could get some cuttlefish grilled instead of fried as in the menu, she didn't give a straight no or worse, I don't know look. Instead, she actually went over to check with the chef in the kitchen first. That, to me, was really great service.
So thank you. You really did good! Kop kun-ka na ka, kun!
