Good outside but not so good inside

As I drove off he looked so gobsmacked that I half expected him to run after me shouting that he’d told me to park opposite and how dare I disobey!
The parking attendant is part of the team. He or she is the first person that customers see and if he’s this bad, it’s really easy, in this day of cell phones, to call your friend and change the venue. There are dozens of alternatives in less than a kilometre.
This week I went to Cork Road where there are two restaurants between King George Road and Connaught Road. One where the parking attendant wears a pith helmet, which is always busy and the other which is largely empty. I chose the busy one and the parking attendant was polite and helpful did his job properly.
It was very hot and the place looked shady and inviting as I wandered past people hunched over their laptops towards a pretty pool covered with fallen jacaranda petals .
I was offered a table on the verandah — mistake number one. It was too near the noisy room where they write the menu on blackboards; rather sit under the trees to the side, probably cooler too.
It’s also where the waiters hang out to chat — mistake number two. In the photograph of them hanging, the table in the foreground is mine!
The place seems massively overstaffed but there is much building going on under the jacaranda so maybe something wonderful is about to happen and they are all on some sort of training programme?
When my friend arrived we were asked to go and order our food from the blackboard but it was so noisy in there that I hastily ordered the spiced butternut and coriander flan served with rocket pesto and assorted garden greens simply because it was three or four down of the eighteen choices.
“Ah that one is finished Madam,” said a waiter behind the counter.
“Finished at midday?” I queried. My friend breeds Arab horses and had a 2 o’clock meeting so we were having a very early lunch.
“Yes, finished,” he confirmed.
“It’s that lot out there,” said my friend. “They’ve been hunched over their computers gobbling US$10 butternut and coriander flans with their cappuccinos and lattes all morning!”
So I ordered a penne rustika served with plum ripe tomatoes, black olives, red and yellow peppers topped with parmesan cheese at the same price. My friend chose the Chicken Tikka salad also US$10.
The food came in good time, the portions are generous and both dishes were well cooked and presented. We ended our meal with a cappuccino and a latte which were delivered with the offer of bringing the ‘cheque.’ I think our waiter was a trainee but without the enthusiasm one hopes to find in a learner.
Then a skinny young woman who we’d never seen before came and snatched away the cash and confiscated the two sweets that had come with the bill!
It’s a convenient and pretty venue, the food is good but the service wasn’t good and I found the staff too noisy. I wonder what the less popular place is like?
– Email: gjeke@yahoo.com