This is to share with you the less than desirable experience at Frangipani for dinner last night.
ARRIVAL AT FRANGIPANI
We were seated by 8.20pm last evening. The table we were offered was at the very end of the restaurant on the right hand side, next to the ‘service table’ which also has the computer.
To begin with, the table was dirty with bread crumbs and left overs from the previous usage. When I pointed this out to the steward, he simply brushed it off and let the crumbs fall on the floor. Then when I tried to take my seat, the chair also had food left over from previous usage. It was already a bad start to a celebratory dinner (which we were otherwise looking forward to). Five star standards and mannerism? I don’t think so.
SOUPS and BEVERAGES
We promptly ordered for a tomato and basil soup. This was served within two minutes literally (which created at instant doubt on the preparation). No, sooner had my wife started to try the soup, we realized that it was nothing but a boiled tomato puree full of salt and with no basil (nor any other) flavor at all. We instantly brought this to the attention of the person taking care of our table. The soup was then changed to an asparagus soup, which was delicious.
At the time of initially ordering the soup, I had also requested for a virgin mojito. This took 4 reminders and 40 minutes to be served. I also overheard a discussion after 20 minutes of ordering between the stewards as to what was a ‘virgin mojito’ and then they realized it meant ‘non alcoholic.’ I was quite taken aback that the Trident (former Oberoi) hotel has people interacting with the guests who do not have such basic knowledge? The irony was that the beverage that arrived after 40 minutes, was full of sugar syrup and flat soda (no fizz). I have no idea what exactly did the bar tender prepare. We had to return the drink as it is. We finally settled for 3 rounds of the safe option of fresh lime soda sweet which was OK.
POOR RESPONSIVENESS AND ATTITUDE
We were a group of 4 people in total. Our guests (another couple) joined us only around 8.45pm. We had one drink and food menu kept on our table for our guests who were expected any moment. However, without permission one of the lady stewardesses simply picked up the menus from our table leaving us to once again hope that someone from the restaurant team would attend to us. Despite so many waiters around Frangipani, it would take a minimum of ten minutes, loud actions and plenty of ‘excuse me’s’ for someone to attend to us. Sitting right next to the ‘service table’ all we could hear was plenty of the restaurant stewards and stewardess grumbling about something or the other going wrong and talking in ‘road side Hindi language’. I must reiterate that the staff were polite to us but their attitude was unprofessional and lacked hospitality. We had to get the attention of 5-6 people at different intervals as our server was not around when we needed anything. Overall, a very poor experience in terms of the service quality.
MAIN COURSE
Our guests ordered for an asparagus soup (one portion split into two). This was meant to be their first course. However, it took about 30 minutes to serve the soup and two reminders. The soup was served without spoons. When we requested for spoons, they provided us with dinner spoons instead of soup spoons. Of course we were only glad to continue with our meal so we did not say anything to the steward. As expected, the food was served almost immediately after the soup, leaving no breathing time between the first and second course. ( I can assure you that my patience was running out but I was unable to reprimand the steward as we were the hosts for the evening).
We placed our order and announced that our meal would be completely vegetarian. We requested the steward for suggestions on what to order. He promptly asked if we would like to try some fish? VEGETARIAN = FISH? I don’t think so. After a deep breath, we ordered our appetizer and dinner together. Our main course order was simple. An Arabic mezze platter, a pizza primavera, aglio olio penne pasta and a mushroom risotto. However, the steward managed to mess this up. All items except the aglio olio penne pasta were served. We waited patiently and this entrée did not arrive. When we reminded our steward, he looked confused and insisted that we had not ordered the penne pasta. We then reminded him that we even requested that instead of spaghetti we wanted penne instead, to which it instantly appeared that he had indeed forgotten our request. So, after some delay, the pending order was also completed.
DESSERT
After some time we requested another steward for the dessert menu. The steward seemed to resist giving us the menu and insisted that we took a walk to the other end to see the desserts on display. We insisted twice for the menu before they provided one. I was completely shocked at the kind of service we were being subjected to. One of our guests was an expectant mother and was unable to get up but why did the Frangipani representatives insist that we walk despite us specifically asking for the menus. Finally, while the two ladies were perusing the menu, we men took a walk to the dessert counter.
I must inform you that I was the host and we were dining together to celebrate an occassion. While we remained patient and polite all through the evening, I was absolutely upset at the kind of service or lack of service being meted out to us. Soon after the dessert, I settled the bill and we walked out. DEFINITELY NOT FIVE STAR QUALITY!