Flaming Hot!

What better way to start the new year with a good new year dinner with friends? Well, I thought there’s no better way to celebrate the new year than filling the tummy and being merry with the good friends that I’ve been blessed with. But 1st January 2011 did not start right for me. Everything seems to go go wrong on the new year’s eve, and things got worst on new year itself.

Mamarazzi, Smallkucing, Cynthia, Princess Breanna and I went to this Flaming Steamboat Buffet Restaurant (Danau Kota Branch) on new year’s day, thinking that we’d probably have a good time over there, but we were annoyed instead.

Okay, first of all, I’m willing to overlook the fact that when I called up to make a reservation a few days before my friends and I were to dine there, they were rather impatient. I also can overlook the fact that the man who picked up my call did not even asked me for my phone number as well as neglected to give me the booking number for my reservation, after all, there’s always email, and I can always email them to place booking (trust me, emaling them is much more effective than just calling them, talk about the Facebook and Gmail era!)

But what I’m not willing to overlook was the fact that though Flaming Steamboat has advertised that free-flow soft drinks was part of the deal, the machine dispenser was….well, it was spoiled…and when asked…I was told that the machine has been spoiled for some time. My question is… why nobody bothered to fix this as the soft drink dispenser is part of Flaming Steamboat commodity, considering that they’ve been advertising free-flow drinks in their promotion brochures and website?

Some drinking cups were not thoroughly clean, and coffee machines were not turned on. Oh boy… this is definitely not a place for coffee addicts. You’d get cold coffee if you’re to pour it from the coffee maker.

And another annoying things is that there’s no chocolate fountain either. Melted chocolates were served in a small bowl…not on two separate fountains as advertised. Disappointing and rather a turn off, but then again, I am not all evil food critique. I was not pleased with the slow service and negligence on utilities and whatnot, but I can say that I’m quite okay with the choices of food that they have, though Mamarazzi and Smallkucing informed me that the choice of food was not as much as advertised.

Mamarazzi and Smallkucing went on a counting spree and wasn’t amused when they discovered that not much finger food was on the spread and there wasn’t exactly as much choices as advertised. (SIGH…ads can be misleading, people… do keep that in mind) And I was only informed that there was 2 hours dining limit when I arrived. Apparently, they neglected to put this up in the ads as well. (Negligence again…Flaming Steamboat really ought to work on their negligence issue)

Anyway, there’s varieties of food to choose from… there’s the usual noodles, seaweed, eggs,etc.

Soup comes in 2 flavours by default. Tomyam flavoured and the clear soup. Nicely done, one of the best steamboat soup base I’ve ever had.

And what’s a steamboat dinner without the seafood? Well, I have to give credit where it’s due. The seafood was abundant and it was fresh too, and I think Mamarazzi alone consumed at least 2kg of huge, king prawns.

See… this is what Mamarazzi consumed… and that’s her plate alone. And you can say that I had a fair share of these too… more or less, I consumed as much as what Mamarazzi consumed. I’m quite nuts over those fresh prawns… what can I say? LOL.

Anyway, the dining experience would have been better if the service is good. I’m disappointed in many ways… the service and all, but if you’re willing to overlook that and just concentrate on the food, then this place is for you. You see, I’m not that harsh when it comes to food. As long as the food is good and the price is reasonable, I can be rather docile. But… it really upset me because this is the first time I brought my friends to eat here, and I was really hoping for a better first time experience dining in this place.

Okay, I know that this is not a book review, but if I were to rate this place, I’d say it’s a 3.5 out of 5 stars, and I would really appreciate it if they improvise on ‘details’.

Cleffairy: This world is not perfect… but one should strive for perfection. It doesn’t matter if you failed, but the effort definitely counts.

18 comments

  1. claire says:

    I think when they saw or heard that you were coming with your gang, they purposely “made” spoil so that u all wont come again.. rugi ma.. ate so much the previous time! :p

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