Meatworks Restaurant

text by Dave Avran, images by Shem Daniel

Meatworks is a restaurant, deli and butchery in Solaris Mont Kiara opened by the National Feedlot Corporation, a centre for production of beef opened under the Ninth Malaysia Plan. This should mean, in principle at least, fresh Beef and Lamb for consumers without having to pay exorbitant air-flown prices.

Having read good reviews about Meatworks and having it recommended by a Chef friend, Frigglive decided to drop by with a party of ten people to celebrate birthdays for three of them. I duly called and reserved a table for ten, telling them that there were three birthdays being celebrated.

It turned out to be a nightmare. Meatworks in its current state of affairs is the perfect example of Malaysians doing what Malaysians do best - turning a good idea into a horrible reality. The wait staff displayed the typical “tidak apa” attitude so common in many restaurants here. This is really sad because it has so much potential.

Resaurant Manager Mohd Faizal Zainal Abidin had resigned and left, leaving Head Chef Dino running around desperately multi-tasking as waiter, cashier, cleaner and supervisor while trying to keep the daily operations under some semblance of controlled chaos. Full marks to Dino for his efforts, but his staff let him down miserably.

The waitress who eventually took our orders after a 20 minute wait seemed bored out of her mind. I made her repeat our orders when she didn’t bother to do so. “Take note that there are 10 main courses,” I told her, my 28 years of experience in the F&B industry kicking in and warning me to expect problems.

She did not bother to ask for our drink order, and did not return to lay the table with the appropriate cutlery for each diner. So there we were, 10 of us looking at 3 small plates of uncut garlic bread with no utensils to eat. I had to get up, locate a waiter and request for cutlery.

Sure enough, nine main couses were served over the next 30 minutes. To add salt to the wound, it was my dinner that was omitted. When I checked with the waitress, she proceeded to defend herself by telling me it was the fault of the kitchen, instead of trying to solve the missed order.

From this point on the dinner proceeded rapidly into a series of frustrating disappointments with requests for sauces, water and serviettes being fulfiled at slow motion speed after several reminders

.

I pulled Dino aside and had a chat with him, expressing my dissatisfaction with the service rendered. He duly apologised and acknowledged that he was shorthanded.

Dinner finished, the used plates and cutlery were cleared and I waited for the 3 complimentary slices of birthday cake. And waited. And waited. Off I went to locate Dino, and reminded him. After a couple of minutes, He arrived with candles in the 3 cake slices and led us in singing happy birthday.

That was good, but it left the 10 of us looking at 3 slices of cake on the table without…

you guessed it, forks to cut and eat the cake. There were no wait staff in sight, so off I went to speak to the Cashier behind the counter to request for forks. She told me to ask the wait staff. Totally flabbergasted, I returned to our table and we ate the cake with serviettes.

At this point we had had enough and I asked for the bill. We waited. And waited. A wait staff approached our table and placed 3 side plates with 3 teaspoons in the middle. At first we just looked incredulously at it, then everyone broke out into spontaneous laughter.

Although Dino gave me a 10% discount on the bill, it did not make up for the dismal service, wrong food orders, omissions and overall disappointing experience for what should have been a joyous birthday celebration. To make matters worse, their prices were not cheap. We would have definitely been better off going to one of the established steak houses instead of experimenting with Meatworks.

Frigglive has sent a copy of ths review to the management of Meatworks with the fervent hope that they will get the message and improve.