GEMS of Singapore-Definately not Tong Shui cafe

I have been to Tong Shui ( TS ) at Zion Road for many times. However i've been let down by the poor service each and everytime. Only reason for me going back time after time was the atmosphere and the plasma TV showing SCV Chinese movies. Apart from that, food wise so-so, drink wise so-so.

But service wise, honestly, very terrible, Perhaps we were spoilt by the crew at TCC GWC, but there were many areas which i have not seen any improvement over my last few visits.

1. TS serves a bowl of peanuts and packets of wet tissues to customers when they were seated. However as we noticed, some tables were served accordingly, some, like ours, we missed out;

2. Waiting time for your order, be it drinks or food takes forever to come. Wondering if the Plasma TV's there to keep the waiting customers entertained;

4. Even to get our bill takes 20 minutes!

We ever did went there once on a weekend evening and TS was packed. Asked the staff if there were any seats available and the reply was food and drinks have to wait for 45 minutes. WTF. I mean if the service was good, we wouldn't mind waiting a bit longer on a busy day but for Tong Shui, it's a NO-NO. But then again, even on a weekday we always have to wait for around 20 to 30 minutes before we are served our orders. Sometimes our food came way before our drinks.

There are a few pointers i noted. Firstly, even on a busy weekend, there will only be max 4 staffs running the cafe. Ever once we saw a gentlemen, whom we presume was the manager, reprimanding a staff. In the name of god, do it somewhere else, do it after work, do it some other time but now when the cafe is busy. I mean even for a weekday like today, with slightly over 25 customers( not even half filled ), the 2 staffs were hardly enough to handle the flow.

Secondly, the knowledge of the staffs were hardly adequet. Being in a service industry myself, i understand the importance of good service rendered to the customer and how important that each and every paying-customer gets certain level of good service here. When i want to know how a cheese baked chicken wings tasted like, i dun expect to hear " chicken wings baked in cheese loh".

Front line staffs should be able to answer queries from customers with regards to the product they carry. Be it students working part-time or what nought, they should be trained and re-trained.

As such i am very very disappointed by the standards of service there. You forgot about the complimentary tibits and wet-tissues, you made me wait for my orders like i would for taxis on a Friday night, i asked you for the bill you said okie but went on to clear tables after tables, you forgot about the complimentary fortune cookie when you bring my bill over. Come to think of it, you dun deserve the service charge i paid for.



You know what, i will definatedly give Tong Shui a miss.