Visited Lady M cafe at Orchard Central twice. The first time I was there was probably when they just opened, and hired sufficient well-trained staff to ensure that customers were attended to albeit the long waiting time for a table and for food to be served. Nevertheless, I wasn't too angry about the 40min wait.
But things went downhill quickly when I returned again 2 weeks later on 26 July 2015. There was little waiting time for a table, but their service crew were just absolutely horrible. Because there was a large group of 7 before us, and we saw several tables for 2 or 3 available, we asked one of the waitresses if we could be seated first. She was reluctant to attend to us, asking us to sit at the long table near the counter instead, but agreed to our request anyway.
Cake counter for takeaways
Long table near the entrance on level 2
So everything that could go wrong in a restaurant went wrong at Lady M Orchard Central. We were seated at the table by the waitress who was unhappy to serve customers. But she did not hand us any menu, and no other service crew member took note of us. I'm not asking for great service nor was I expecting tired service crews to keep smiling, but I hoped that service crews at F&B establishments realise that customers expect to be served if they were seated.
So yes we ended up sitting there for nearly 10minutes watching other service crews getting scolded by other customers for long waiting times for their food to be delivered and whatnot. I thought we were very reasonable people to give up waiting to be serviced and decided to self service by getting our cake from the counter upstairs. However, my boyfriend had lined up for 10mins only to be told that they would not sell us the cake because the counter only catered for takeaways. Well, I didn't want to do that either but your service crew was just not even trying to handle the situation.
He returned and we managed to get a waiter's attention thereafter and placed our order. I was kind of irked by his incompetence because it took him 3mins to register our order while he left us staring at him in awkward silence as he stared at his phone. Well yes I understand that technology probably replaced manual orders but that was pretty rude and awkward. It just sounded plain stupid to ask us to repeat our order again after the awkward silence when I only asked for 1 item. Did you even try?
We ended up waiting for another 10mins hoping that a slice of green tea mille crepe will be delivered quickly to us. But we were disappointed once again. In that 10mins, we saw that same waiter getting scolded by other patrons, and him apologising without knowing how to handle the situation. It just drove me nuts being in Lady M that day.
I guess I ran out of patience and got the unwelcoming waitress who sat us down to cancel our order. My boyfriend still maintained his composure and nicely requested for our order to be cancelled. I expected some sort of apology or some sense of regret/remorse from her but I was greeted with her poor attitude instead. All she said was "cancel order ah?" with an icy rude tone and glaring eyes. Her rude attitude was outrageous. She just turned around and walked off as well. Like dude, you know you didn't have to take up that job if you didn't want to. I'm never returning to the branch at Orchard Central if I see that she is still working there.
The contrast in service and coordination from the 2 visits was too much for me to handle. What happened to the pleasant and efficient service crew from the opening weeks?
Salmon and avocado panini, with chips and coselaw
Checkers cake ($9)
Green Tea Mille Crepe Cake
with Earl Grey Tea ($5)
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