After many years of frequenting the Vasant Vihar TGIF, I was glad when a new restaurant opened closer to home in Vasant Kunj and visited it yesterday with friends and family.
I was extremely disappointed with the visit for reasons which I shall detail below, but in short narrow down to poor service, even worse food quality and a disappointing ambience.
The details:
Service is SLOW and not up to the mark (estb. In VV), and I am not even referring to the delay in service of food which could be blamed on the kitchen, I’m thinking of the basics from offering menu cards, server’s menu knowledge, to service of drinks and equally importantly removal of soiled glasses and dishes from the table.
Food quality ain’t what it used to be: The unique menu and excellent quality of food served in the Vasant Vihar outlet were a great attraction, enough to overcome my aversion to smoke filled rooms (in the pre-smoking ban days).
However the food served to us last evening was a far cry from what we expected; the prawns thou fresh were coated in a tasteless batter that retained the oil they had been fried in like a child hangs on to his mothers pinki, the same was the case with the rice served along with the Chicken Veracruz, the less mentioned about the Pepperoni Pizza the better, the Thai noodles were flavorsome and delicious to taste but the noodles themselves were a disaster, hard and chewy.
The icing on the proverbial cake was the Burger, after much deliberation and discussion with the waiter who pondered over the exclusion of the Jack Daniels Burger from the menu for some time, it was finally concluded that no the JD Burger was no longer on the menu and yes I would have the replacement Burger, which arrived at about the same time everyone else on the table was about two thirds thru their meal.
I dug in hopefully only to realize the center was a cheery bright pink and undercooked, after a bit of waving about someone from the service team realized it was not a little jig I was attempting but their attention I wanted. I explained the situation and the offending plate was removed with promise of a replacement. By this time everyone else had finished eating and we were looking at the remains of the day while awaiting the chef’s latest.
When the second burger did arrive I went straight for the center to reassure myself that standards could be maintained and this was a one off incident, but I was in for a shocker, this one was a spitting image of the last with the exception that when it was still cold at the center while the extremities had been charred black. I was able to catch the eye of someone, who I now assume to be the assistant manger of the store and explained the scenario to him, it was like talking to a brick wall, thou he relented soon enough when I asked to cancel the order and send us the bill.
The ambiance – sure the music is the same and the location is good and the restaurant is larger but the décor is not a spot on the traditional TGIF restaurant which everyone loved, tacky 2x2 grid ceilings, poorly rendered digital artwork and cheap lamps are no match for the woodwork and memorabilia which adorned the walls of the older outlets.
It is unprofessional to tell a guest at a restaurant that food is delayed because of the rush, and for staff to be inattentive to the table they are assigned to while taking an order or serving, because they are looking of their shoulder at another table. If the kitchen has not been designed to produce 250 meals and the staff, both kitchen and service, are not trained to handle 250 persons at full capacity in the restaurant then the management should not allow 250 people in at one time.
To give credit where it is due the store manager did approach our table and apologize for the behavior of the staff and the quality of the food and even offered to send over anything I chose from the menu at no charge, however it was too late, our evening was over and the rest of the party had already been waiting for a while having finished their food what seemed like eons ago.
I sincerely do hope the situation will improve and necessary action will be taken not in form of reprimand but thru guidance and training to all the staff, it was a sad day when one learned from the newspaper that the Vasant Vihar outlet was downing its shutters and the new restaurant beckoned like a ray of light at the end of a long dark tunnel.