Haiku (City Bowl)

Saturday, January 3rd, 2015

Reviewed by Dennis Faber

We went to Haiku on 28 December for dinner and were told that we had to leave the restaurant at 9pm. The restaurant was only half full and obviously not fully booked for the evening. The waiter was not very interested, showed us the menu and insisted that it was different from the one at Haiku Waterfront, which in fact is identical. We know, because we had dinner there the evening before. We started with Thai coconut soup and that was okay, nothing special, we prepare a better one ourselves in a blink of an eye. The prawn tempura was soggy, the Japanese garlic fried rice was not fried and was delivered stone cold. We sent the rice back and it was heated (probably in the microwave). No cutleries were offered, the assumption was that we were eating our entire meal with chopsticks. The wine was not poured at the table, we were not offered a look at the wine bottle prior to pouring. The beef dish, the vegatables and the chicken dish that we ordered tasted good as well as the ice cream we had for dessert. As we were not at all impressed by the unattentive service from our waiter and had to send back the rice, we left a small tip. On the way out the waiter came after us, asking if there had been anything wrong. we explained to him that we didn't feel very welcome, we were not impressed by the service and as an example we told him that the rice was served cold and had to be sent back. he replied: 'So, it was just the rice?' We were appalled by the remark and were not going into further detail. We just left. The food is not bad, although very much overpriced, but they should really improve on their attitude and their service! At the Waterfront we received a better service and the staff there is more friendly and attentive.