In less than 24 hours, I had two very good experiences of customer service from Assa and Karpo. Considering that this is London, that in itself is quite extraordinary.
Yesterday night, after watching Rock of Ages with Malcolm, we went to eat as Assa. He'd never been there before (blasphemy!!!) and it was really near the Shaftesbury Theatre, so off we went. I ordered the sweet potato noodles with vegetables and pork, and he ordered the marinated spicy beef with rice. When my noodles arrived, I was upset when I realised there was just a tablespoon full of pork, and full of PMS-hormones, I complained. I must add that I've never complained at a restaurant before, because I dunno. Same reason why I get stepped on by some people I guess, I'm not too assertive a person.
Anyway I waved my hand to get attention, and I got the attention of someone that I presume was the boss - he was wearing a blue checkered shirt and not the usual waitressing uniform. When I explained why I was unhappy, he replied that in Korean cooking it was normal. That the pork was not meant as a main per se, but more for flavour. I was still a bit annoyed, but accepted his answer, just as long as it wasn't a case of the establishment being crazily stingy was good enough a reason for me. However to my surprise, even after apologising to me, the man came back. He explained that he'd asked the chef to cook more pork, in order to please me as a customer. Malcolm and I were really, really pleasantly surprised. It was good enough to receive a polite answer when I complained, but actually giving me more pork even when it wasn't necessary? Unbelievable!
So for this I must commend Assa, for their extraordinary service.
The next bit of good service I encountered was today, when I went to Karpo for lunch with Diego and Eugene. Essentially, I woke up late and I ended up running all the way there because I thought I was late. True Eugene fashion, he was late-r than me. But anyway I didn't know that, and tore right into Karpo (which is actually a fancy place BTW) looking frantically for Eugene and Diego. When I realised they weren't there I staggered back into the front bar area and stood about in a lack-of-oxygen haze, the bar staff nicely spoke to me and asked me if I wanted a drink, etc. And then I asked the maitre'd 'is there an Asian dude inside?', to which he replied 'Sorry, but I don't think there's any Asian dude inside'. Anyway I sat there at the bar, with a glass of orange juice, waiting for Eugene and Diego to go, half spinning myself about on the bar stool.
Eugene and Diego came after about 10 minutes, and we were seated at the back near the living plant wall. I had the risotto, which was really good. Then I ordered a hazelnut and brownie ice cream which was truly, excellent. Throughout, our server, gave us really good service. She was attentive, kept serving us water and so on. Anyway at the end, when we were about to pay, I noticed that my orange juice was missing from the bill. I waved to get attention for a good few minutes before the maitre'd noticed me and he came over and said 'where's the fire?' LOL. According to Eugene and Diego, when he arrived I said 'you forgot my orange juice' and he looked momentarily horrified before I clarified that I meant that they'd forgotten to bill me for the orange juice. Then he looked real pleased. He wandered over to the billing point and then wandered back soon after, saying that he felt lazy to punch it into the system (with a big smile!) especially since there was now a queue. Again, another pleasant surprise!
So there it goes: two experiences of lovely service from Assa and Karpo.
Yesterday night, after watching Rock of Ages with Malcolm, we went to eat as Assa. He'd never been there before (blasphemy!!!) and it was really near the Shaftesbury Theatre, so off we went. I ordered the sweet potato noodles with vegetables and pork, and he ordered the marinated spicy beef with rice. When my noodles arrived, I was upset when I realised there was just a tablespoon full of pork, and full of PMS-hormones, I complained. I must add that I've never complained at a restaurant before, because I dunno. Same reason why I get stepped on by some people I guess, I'm not too assertive a person.
Anyway I waved my hand to get attention, and I got the attention of someone that I presume was the boss - he was wearing a blue checkered shirt and not the usual waitressing uniform. When I explained why I was unhappy, he replied that in Korean cooking it was normal. That the pork was not meant as a main per se, but more for flavour. I was still a bit annoyed, but accepted his answer, just as long as it wasn't a case of the establishment being crazily stingy was good enough a reason for me. However to my surprise, even after apologising to me, the man came back. He explained that he'd asked the chef to cook more pork, in order to please me as a customer. Malcolm and I were really, really pleasantly surprised. It was good enough to receive a polite answer when I complained, but actually giving me more pork even when it wasn't necessary? Unbelievable!
So for this I must commend Assa, for their extraordinary service.
The next bit of good service I encountered was today, when I went to Karpo for lunch with Diego and Eugene. Essentially, I woke up late and I ended up running all the way there because I thought I was late. True Eugene fashion, he was late-r than me. But anyway I didn't know that, and tore right into Karpo (which is actually a fancy place BTW) looking frantically for Eugene and Diego. When I realised they weren't there I staggered back into the front bar area and stood about in a lack-of-oxygen haze, the bar staff nicely spoke to me and asked me if I wanted a drink, etc. And then I asked the maitre'd 'is there an Asian dude inside?', to which he replied 'Sorry, but I don't think there's any Asian dude inside'. Anyway I sat there at the bar, with a glass of orange juice, waiting for Eugene and Diego to go, half spinning myself about on the bar stool.
Eugene and Diego came after about 10 minutes, and we were seated at the back near the living plant wall. I had the risotto, which was really good. Then I ordered a hazelnut and brownie ice cream which was truly, excellent. Throughout, our server, gave us really good service. She was attentive, kept serving us water and so on. Anyway at the end, when we were about to pay, I noticed that my orange juice was missing from the bill. I waved to get attention for a good few minutes before the maitre'd noticed me and he came over and said 'where's the fire?' LOL. According to Eugene and Diego, when he arrived I said 'you forgot my orange juice' and he looked momentarily horrified before I clarified that I meant that they'd forgotten to bill me for the orange juice. Then he looked real pleased. He wandered over to the billing point and then wandered back soon after, saying that he felt lazy to punch it into the system (with a big smile!) especially since there was now a queue. Again, another pleasant surprise!
So there it goes: two experiences of lovely service from Assa and Karpo.
1 comment:
I love when stuff like that happens in restaurants, great service like that makes you wanna go back for more!
We went to this place called Zouks in Manchester once, and the waiter took our drinks order straight away, but the drinks weren't given to us until mid way through the meal even though we asked him about 5 times!! Anyhoo the drinks weren't on the bill, and we thought it was done intentionally due to the crappy service, but just after we paid for the bill the waiter was like 'OH NO I FORGOT TO PUT ON THE JUICE' and we convinced him to leave it since he was so crappy! ha!
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