Good Food, But the Service Really Needs Improvement
I have been eating at this old-established restaurant in Singapore for many years, and the duck has always been one of their signature dishes. The food is genuinely good, which is why I decided to come back again after several years.
I was a member back in 2020. After COVID, I was told that the membership benefits had been cancelled and that I would need to sign up again.
Earlier this year, in May, a friend brought us their Angelica Duck takeaway. It was really good, and I thought, “It has been so many years since I last came here. Maybe it’s time to come back.”
So we did.
During that visit, my family signed up for the $9.90 membership. We paid the membership fee on the spot because we wanted to enjoy the member benefits. The membership was registered under my family member’s name.
Today, we came back for lunch.
A staff member asked whether we were members because customers are required to order through the app. We showed her the app and explained that we had already signed up during our previous visit.
She immediately told us that we were not members and said that the app “cannot be wrong”.
We gave her the phone number and asked her to check. After checking, she came back and told us that there was no membership.
Naturally, we asked what happened to the $9.90 we had paid in May.
She then asked whether we had another phone number.
I gave her my work number, and suddenly our membership was found.
We were then told that the membership had actually been registered under this number, not the number we had originally provided.
The issue itself can happen. Systems can have mistakes, and customers can also make mistakes.
What disappointed me was the attitude and the way the situation was handled.
Instead of simply saying, “Let me check for you,” we were repeatedly told that the app could not possibly be wrong. The tone felt dismissive, and it almost felt as if we were being blamed for the problem.
Unfortunately, this is not my first unpleasant experience with the service here.
Years ago, I asked for dry tissues and was told, “We don’t have dry tissues. If you really need them, I can give you kitchen paper used for absorbing oil.”
I still remember the tone and attitude of the staff member that day.
And after all these years, dry tissues are still not provided.
Customers order through the app themselves, dry tissues are not available, and even wet tissues are chargeable. With a 10% service charge, I honestly struggle to see where the service is reflected.
I want to emphasise that I am not writing this review to ask for compensation, a refund or anything else.
I am writing this because I genuinely feel disappointed.
This is a well-established Singapore brand with good food and a history worth preserving. I actually wanted to support the restaurant by coming back after so many years.
But in today’s F&B industry, good food alone is no longer enough. Service, attitude, courtesy and the overall guest experience matter just as much.
Perhaps the staff did not intend to be rude. Perhaps this is simply how they communicate. But from a customer’s perspective, the way something is said can be just as important as what is being said.
Good ingredients and a good chef can bring customers back once.
Good service is what makes customers want to return again and again.
I sincerely hope the management will look into this, because it would be a real pity to see such a long-established and well-loved brand slowly lose customers because of something that should be relatively easy to improve — service attitude and customer care.
The food is still good.
I just hope the service can become equally good.