Lousy service at Subway Cafe
Sunday, 25 June 06

Today my family and me decided to drop into Ampcorp mall in Petaling Jaya for lunch. At the escalator leading down to the basement, we were handed a flyer extolling the virtues of Subway Cafe (SC) and its culininary delights. We decided to give it a try. This was precisely at 12.10 noon.

I had misgivings the moment we entered. There was a heavy lingering air of stale beer and cigarette smoke. We were seated by a waitress with a heavy baritone voice. We ordered.

I ordered chowder soup and mushroom steak. My daughter ordered nasi lemak. She is 6 years old and found the photo in the menu attractive. It ended there.

My wife ordered a sea food platter.

The customary hot rolls and butter came first. The rolls were stale and tasted sour. The 10 second microwave treatment did not do a thing. The butter was served in 3 dollops squeezed out of a cake icing cone, where the stuff is squeezed out from a cone, if you know what I mean, into a little plastic saucer you find in Chinese restaurants used to serve cut chilli and soy sauce. The roll, as I said was already sour.

The 60 second microwaved chowder came next, with what looked like recycled sotong bits. The potato chunks in it tasted rotten. I pushed the whole dish aside. Then came the main course, mushroom steak. The plate consisted of raw local vegetables, like shrivelled cabbage, shrivelled long beans, a whole tomato and dried carrots, all uncooked and 6 and a half pieces of solidified, keropok-like French fries that had seen better times and what looked like a piece of meat and 2 pieces of mushrooms generously drenched in a gravy that did not smell right. I mouthed a forkful of steak, chewed once and spat it out, never having eaten last night's satay gravy and dried meat, called jerky in the US mid-west.

AARRGGHH, my mind went. I pushed the piece of "thing" away, and tried the mushroom. Again last night's satay gravy hit my palate with next-to-rotting mushroom that smelled like the sewage canal in Kajang. I was so disgusted.

Now the nasi lemak. Also microwaved, the piece of chicken was drenched in the same satay gravy from last night, the sambal was sour, and the peanuts/ikan bilis tasted burnt. (Over microwaving). The rice was overly dry. My daughter managed a couple of mouthfuls and found the orange juice more interesting.

My wife's seafood platter came next. Nothing to crow about as well. The same mandatory dried uncooked veggies and dried fries.

In the end, we refused to pay for the steak and nasi lemak. The staff accepted this as an every day occurence and smiled when they gave the change for the drinks and seafood platter. When asked about the bad food, all they could manage was "new chef, lah..you know.."

Thank you.
Victor Bala
Petaling Jaya    [25 Jun 2006 08:29:11]

Food:    Service:    Ambiance:    Overall: 
Recommended Dishes: NONE

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