Thread: Are customers really needed?

Yesterday's two shortlists had Shenanigans in common, the new one opposite soi 13 on 2nd Road, so that was our venue with me, B and L all decided on what looked like an excellent value Wednesday Special T-bone steak with trimmings at 195...female companions went a la Thai.

So far so good, less than 25 minutes after ordering our drinks and bread arrived, and within another 20 minutes this was followed by our starters. Now all we needed was our steaks, 2 well done and one very well done, to round off what could be the beginnings of a pleasant evening. That's all.

After latching onto several waitresses to complain that an hour ought to be enough to cook even a very well done steak, and the expected remonstrations that it's not their fault, fair enough, but there are too many customers and the kitchen cannot cope, one lone steak arrived, well done as in brown rather than bravo, and its bastard owner (L) began to tuck in without so much as a token offer to share, which decency would naturally compel B and me to decline but the offer may have demonstrated a moment of culture somewhere in his otherwise miserable upbringing. Not really, we're buddies.

Mine arrived about 10-15 minutes later, confirmed by the waitress as very well done in order to identify which of the two hungry farangs ordered it, and I must confess B had no chance of a morsel as my knife slid through it, revealing a pink streak running from just beneath the surface that turned to mild then bright red as we neared center. This got me cranky, but as with the previous hour it was virtually impossible to get the attention of the cruelly overworked service staff, but that's no consolation when you're hungry and have food in front of you but cannot eat it.

Now it's pointless returning an uncooked steak to the kitchen when you know the place is in chaos, and common sense says if it takes more than an hour to undercook a steak it'll take even longer to cook it properly, and by then you're looking at starvation vs a plate of cold chips, and when I pointed it out to her she shrugged so I asked her to bring over the manager.

I wasn't into making a scene, but that's because I falsely assumed a farang manager and that anyway the difference between rare and very well done ought to be plain even to a Thai. Not that there's much any manager could do other than apologise and scrap it from my bill, because I wasn't prepared to wait for a recook or replacement, but I have always had a good time at Shenanigans, never a problem, this was a new one possibly with teething issues, and for these reasons wanted to alert the manager that there is a problem, easy enough for him to identify the source, and then either dust off more workers for tomorrow or not, but either way he has the intel and whether he uses it is up to him.

I also noticed that a few tables seemed to have possibly similar time and quality complaints, and finally got the attention of my waitress attending to nearby complainants despite the fact that she was clearly trying to avoid eye contact...amazing how effective a yell can be when you're on your hind legs and the people a waitress is listening to are distracted by your calls....eventually she came over and I asked what the delay is with the manager.

She looked distressed, walked off, and about ten minutes returned to say...wait for it...the manager is too busy to see me but he will try and come later.

Well, you can imagine the silence at our table. I have heard dumb to preposterous excuses before but this one took the Darwinian cake. The manager is too busy to see me? Immediately I knew and staked my claim to the others that it must be a Thai manager, L and B were thinking in sync and began to move so that I could get out as mrs k went into shrink mode. I recalled a line from childhood...if the mountain doesn't go to Mohamed then Mohamed must go to the mountain.

I followed the waitress towards the kitchen, she stopped by the closed door, took a deep breath and walked in, then turned to me and shrugged in the direction of a Thai surrounded by lots of smaller Thais listening to orders or the wisdom of the Buddhas or whatever.

When he saw me he immediately turned hostile and told me to get out of the kitchen...big mistake, because at this stage he knew nothing about me or why I was in the kitchen, but even a room temperature IQ should've hinted that if I am there and escorted by a waitress there is probably a good enough reason, rather than just another dumb farang that doesn't know the difference between a kitchen and the loo.

I confirmed first that he is the manager, yes, then that he is too busy to see customers wishing to complain, YES, which set me off, in the kitchen, verbally hacking away as he tried to entice and then literally drag me outside, at which point I shrugged my arm away from his grip and made it clear he understood that if he touches me again one of us is going to end up lying down. At this point he started apologising - without knowing what for! - but for some insane reason still tried to urge me outside - another blunder! He had an irate customer ranting at him in the relative privacy of the kitchen, where he had already lost face if that was an issue, and was actually coaxing me outside, into the restaurant area, where other dissatisfied customers were already complaining, and may also have been outraged in receipt of knowledge that the manager was too busy to see them, possibly due to their total lack of consideration for turning up and giving his people orders to expedite.

Ok, if it suited him I could go along with moving into an environment that instantly places him on the back foot. THEN he asked me what my problem was, which I explained loudly but without shouting, noticed some guy nodding from nearby, and then that my small and easily resolved problem with the food was irrelevant because now I want him to explain why the manager is too busy to attend to customers.

I was not uncomfortable with the attention of those close enough to realise what was going on, but reckon he suddenly did not want to be there when I asked if it was true that he told his overworked waitresses to tell customers he was too busy to see them...he confessed, apologised, and then cocked it up with the dismissal that my meal would be free so I should go back to my table and stop shouting, which I wasn't, at least not till he turned to walk off and then turned back even faster when I did go into shouting mode to explain that without customers he would have no restaurant to manage and that I'm blaming not him but whoever put a monkey in charge of a supposedly serious business venture, at which point he may have realised this stupid farang was on a roll because he started waiing and apologised several times, assured me he would hire more staff in future, that he would in future make himself available for customers that asked to see him, and that my meal would be free...once these four criteria were met it was pointless giving him a harder time so I backed off.

Needed the rant, but Shenanigans has lost the three of us and all of our friends for a long time to come, not that they know it or care.

The Dining Adventures of Walter Mitty.

That's why I go to McDonals when we are eating out......Oh Crap we dont have a McDonals out here.

No self respecting chef will serve a steak, very well done.

^
that's what I was thinking.

blue, very rare or not at all.

Just cut the horns off, wipe its nasty old ass, and serve it..

Originally Posted by Lily

No self respecting chef will serve a steak, very well done.

Indeed. Maybe it was a cunning ploy to ensure that customers of that ilk don't return to upset the chef.

Try Sukiyaki thai style, that way you get all the ingredients piled up on the table , like a DIY surf 'n turf with veg in soup, Whack it in the wok of boiling water and eat with a raw egg.

Use the waitress for beer only

Could very well be the reason,
If somchai ever tried to serve me a ruined [well done] piece of beef, he would walk funny for a while with that ruined steak up his ass, along with my shoe.

I've never been to the new Shenanigans, and I'll think I'll leave it until New Year or longer until I bother. It's not a cheap meal either, apart from the daily special.
I wasn't particularly fond of the old one, but the service was never a problem.

An appalling way to have your steak indeed, but I'm guessing the reason it was well browned outside and good and pink inside is because they had not properly defrosted it before cooking. Ergo, they had probably sold more of their daily special than anticipated.

Don't have a cow man, it was just a little misteak, don't go crying over spilt milk... really, it's nothing to beef about, it's udderly pointless so stop milking it.

Originally Posted by Lily

No self respecting chef will serve a steak, very well done.

In4zip redded me for that disgusting post.

Great OP, Keda.

Good style.

serve you right for going to a restaurant with that name anyway keda

shenanigan // n. (esp. in pl.) colloq.
1 high-spirited behaviour; nonsense.
2 trickery; dubious manoeuvres.
[19th c.: origin unknown]

Originally Posted by Lily

No self respecting chef will serve a steak, very well done.

Apologies, was breaking in my teeth after a major overhaul few months ago and with the exception of Tuna Paul's place before he snuffed it this was my first steak in Thailand and very well done should be easiest to chomp at.

Originally Posted by keda

Thailand and very well done should be easiest to chomp at.

quite the opposite.

Good OP Keda (well done) but a well done steak is a sacrilege. None the less, if you the customer want it that way, then you should get it well done.

If you want decent steak in Patters you gotta brush off the dust from ur wallet and go to Manhattans.
I never ask a thai for something that could possibly be beyond them and have learned that there is no underestimating this rule

Originally Posted by Norton

Good OP Keda (well done) but a well done steak is a sacrilege. None the less, if you the customer want it that way, then you should get it well done.

Another reason is that I have never trusted the freshness of seafood, which carries over to meat, with the real or mistaken belief that well done across the board must be safer than medium. But thanks for the pointer, a heathen I am not, and will ensure in future that flesh of dead cow will be no more than medium burned.

Originally Posted by Marmite the Dog

Originally Posted by Lily

No self respecting chef will serve a steak, very well done.

Indeed. Maybe it was a cunning ploy to ensure that customers of that ilk don't return to upset the chef.

My first thought.