Kitchener Road
North-East, Singapore
August 2015
Merlion Wayfarer made a lunch stop at Saizeriya City Square near Farrer MRT recently.
For this outlet, service is (really) basic:
- On entering, you are pointed by a "cardboard man" to the direction where you ought to be seated.
- Cutlery and food are placed on your table with a clutter.
- Staff can hear you but still walk past. In fact, the recommended way to alert them is still by using the beeper system.
- When staff want to clear your table, it is done with gestures. No words will be exchanged.
- Food was thrown away before it was finished because the diner was at the Drinks Station.
- The Nescafe Allegria machine serves only "Milo", "Milo", "Milo", "Milo", and the labels on the fruit punch machine are so faded that you can only choose the orange-coloured drink or the pale yellow drink.
Sitting near the Drinks Station has its advantages. In the short 30 minute meal, this is what occurred:
- A male staff takes a cup and fills it with Milo. Finding it suspicious, he calls his kitchen colleague and makes a phone call to his HQ.
- Being the afternoon lull period, a lady staff takes a cup, rinses it thoroughly on the water counter before filling up with the drink she wants.
- A young staff wiping the drinks counter washes her dish cloth with the water from the cold drinking water tap.
It was fortunate that the food was really value-for-money. For just S$6.90 (no ++), one gets a simple salad, a freeflow drinks bar, and a main dish (pasta or rice).
Generous Thousand Island dressing on the salad topped with roe...
Authentic-tasting basil pasta...
Merlion Wayfarer really likes Saizeriya for its Italian theme and economical Italian-French food and really hopes its management can get its act together soon.
