The King Has Finally Arrived Totally Not Worth the Wait

The King has finally arrived and his not worth the long wait. It took them almost one year (or more) to finish and open Chowking in Eastwood. Everyone was excited especially me because I love their luriat and pancit. It opened on Saturday with big balloons and big speakers.

Come my Monday shift, I asked Yanie to come lunch with me at Chowking. I was really excited of the two-storey establishment until I saw the very long line at the cashier. The store has this two counters and only one is working thus the long line. I figured it's worth the wait in the line so Yanie and I stayed. I got myself their Shanghai Luriat and Yanie had siopao. The cashier gave me a number but no receipt. Apparently her register ran out of receipts so I said I can get it later when the food is served. Yanie got ourselves a comfy place with a cushioned chair in the corner. While we waited, Yanie played her favorite game in her mobile. A lot of people were coming in the waiters were all busy. The wait now is unbearable so I called on to a waiter and ask to follow-up our food. Then we wait a little more...

While waiting, one of the customer who was also waiting, stood up and went to teh cashier and demanded his food. He was irate and almost shouting. When he got back to his chair, still without his food, he slammed the plastic number (used for tracking) to his table. Another girl from a different table stood up and asked to be refunded her money because her food has not arrived yet. It was chaos. A lot of people were irate and waiting for their food.

After more than 30minutes, our food finally arrived without the soda and Yanie's coffee. I didn't start eating because I was thirsty so I waited for my soda. 10 minutes passed... another 10minutes but my soda was not yet served. I called another waiter and then another and then another until finally they gave me our drinks. To top the inconvenience of waiting so long for our food, the rice and pancit were dead cold. There was no chilli sauce and soy sauce for my siomao. The meal was a disaster and I hated the service.

If I were to rate the experience from 1 to 10, 10 being the highest, I would rate it 1 for the following reasons:

(1) Poor customer service - This includes the wait time for the food to be served. Usually if the food is not ready yet, the drinks can be served first but with the experience, the drinks came when I am almost done with my food

(2) Food - The food was served too long thus when it reached me, the food was dead cold.

(3) Cleanliness - Other tables where customers already left were left unclean. The floor was sticky and wet as well.

(4) Organization - It seemed that the waiters were disorganized and didn't know which food belongs to whom. This causes delay as well. I also noticed that they have limited people. They should hire more crew to accomodate the number of people eating.

(5) Set-up of the place - The kitchen is in 2nd floor so waiters need to go down to serve the food. Again this causes delay. There were only two cash registers for such a big place.

I didn't get the worth of what I paid at Chowking. The experience was really terrible. Sucks!