Lousy Xmas Eve Dinner

Met up with 2 'irritating' friends of mine for Xmas Steamboat Dinner last evening @ Clementi, Sunset Way to be exact. We all agree that it sounds kind of weird to be having steamboat for Xmas but who cares since we all enjoy steamboat-ing.

We choose this place because we want to be away from the mad crowds in town. 'Older' folks like us prefer somewhere quieter and less havoc :) Based on a colleague's good review of the place, I suggested giving it a try. At the end of the dinner, I must say I've made a wrong recommendation, and its a pretty bad one :(

We had a reservation @ 7pm but we arrived around 715pm. The table's still there for us, in front of the ventilating fan outside in the alfresco area. Great! At least they took note of my request during my reservation call. The place is about 80% occupied as we arrived and were seated promptly.

They offered 4 choices of soup bases; Chicken, Tom Yum, Ma La & Seafood (basically seaweed soup) from which we are supposed to select 2. My 2 'irritating' friends made their way inside the premises to get the ingredients but they took nearly 10mins to come back with 2 barely full plates of veges and some meat. From experience, they're not those who would take so little, not especially on the first trip. Anyway, as they come back with the food items, I proceeded inside to grab more stuffs.

The first thing that greeted me as I stepped in were no sumptuous spread like what you'd see in a typical steamboat buffet-line but EMPTY trays lying there on the line!! "Ok", I tell myself... "they needed time to refill due to the crowd tonight..."

Making my way around the line, I saw a huge tray of neatly cut-up chicken-looking meat which I presumed was turkey. I wasn't firmed on this until I saw a BADLY HAND-WRITTEN label beside the tray that says "Turkey". Turning to my right, I saw a NEAR EMPTY vegetable, meatballs and non-marinated meat section! This is terrible!! Looking to my left now, there is this lady rolling up some sushi but instead of cutting them up when it was rolled up, she placed the un-cut, rolled-up sushi to one side and proceeded to roll the next one.

Moving further down the line, there stands yet another lady, 'fishing' some tempura out from the container with the mix and dipping it into the deep fryer. Next to her were some 3 trays which were filled only with crispy batter, NO tempura of any sort at all. Turning to my right once more, I finally caught sight of something decent, a pretty filled BBQ meat section. However, my relief was to be shortlived as again I spotted NEAR EMPTY TRAYS in the cooked-food section.

Making a left turn at the end of the line, there lies the dessert section which looks adequately filled for the moment but I was seriously doubting its presence later on in the evening as most of the patrons would have been done with the 'main course' and am proceeding with 'desserts'. The seafood section, somehow, is right next to the dessert section. I found this arrangement to be a little weird but am unable to pin-point the weird-ness. Anyway, as usual, there were barely any seafood left in the trays there, only ice....

No doubt we were able to fill ourselves up last evening, but the sight of 'emptiness' seriously TURNED US OFF big time! It seems to us that everything is empty most of the time. Are you under-staffed that you have delays topping up the food? Or are you simply trying to 'save cost' by putting out lesser food? Either way, they've just lost 3 potential repeat customers.

Oh, I forgot to mention that they do BBQ the meat from the BBQ section for patrons. However, it takes a damn long time to arrive. Our's were picked and handed over to them for queueing when my 2 'irritating' friends first went inside. The items arrived only 45mins later...

This terrible place, is Fortune Cuisine @ Sunset Way..... Patronise @ your own peril. Don't say I didn't warn you....