This is NOT a review, it is a rant. Read only if you are interested, otherwise skip it. This is my experience in regards to the worst customer service I’ve faced in a very long time. It did not happen just once – that is forgiveable but nope. Not once, not twice, not thrice but four times. I gave them multiple chances but nope, no redeemable qualities there.
If you have been to Yarl, I am sure you’d agree that food there is good. I’ve be a patron there for years, way before they underwent an interior beautification process and I’ve got no complains in that aspect. Never had a problem with customer service either all those years but it seems like once the Covid pandemic hit, it took a downturn. I’ve excuse the first 2 offences due to the MCO. I was well aware of the difficulties the F&B sector was facing and so, I decided to forgive and forget but fast forward a year later and you’re still messing up? What’s the excuse then? I’ve lost half of my income during this period, life was difficult financially but no one excused my errors. I dont get off easy because the pandemic hit. Such is life … shit happens and you deal with it. The people that offended wasn’t even the boss. As he would be the one who’d face the brunt of the financial loss during this period, can be forgiven if that was the case but nope. It was the manager and a self righteous, egoistical waiter. So, what is the deal?
It started off with small things. Like how I ordered a takeaway of Masala Chicken Tosai and then I head back home, open it up and realised that there was no chicken, it simply was just Masala thosai. To you, it may not seem like a big deal, to me it was. I utterly dislike Masala Thosai. My man who loves it decided to order it one night while we were dining in, for us to share. The deal was that I take half a thosai and the chicken while he eats the rest of the thosai and all the masala. I did not have high hopes because I did not think there would be much chicken, the masala would be plenty and so, what was there for me to share but to my surprise, the chicken portion was generous. Both of us liked it. I got my part and he got his. Dining in was fine but when order takeaways, they charge me for chicken masala thosai but only gave me masala thosai. Once I reach back home and open it up, realized there was no chicken, there really is nothing I can do besides to eat it reluctantly. The alternative would be heading back to Yarl and ask them to do me a new one. However, judging from their recent attitude problems, I thought it would be a wasted effort. They’d be more likely to accuse me of eating all the chicken and then claiming they gave me little to none rather than actually rectifying the issue.
The next mistake would be when we called to enquire whether the Kottu Chicken Idiyappam was available during brunch. We were aware that in the Menu, it was clearly written that this dish was only available in the evening – we have written about Yarl (Yarl Restaurant @ Brickfields – Sri Lankan yumminess. ) and so, we have the Menu. Hence why rather than just show up, my man called in the morning to inquire about it. He liked this dish very much and was going to meet up with his friend at noon, he wanted this friend to try it. So, he called and surprisingly, was told that it was available as long as he ordered it before 11 am, which he did. It did not occur to him to ask who was speaking on the other line because most of the waiters working at Yarl has been around for years, we were sure they knew their own menu by now. This was our mistake, I suppose. So folks, when you call – make sure to note down the name of the person you’re speaking to, just in case some bullshit happens. Anyways, when my man arrived before 11 am to order, pay and collect, he was instead told that it was not available during the day. Say whattt? An argument soon took place, besides asking ‘who was it that gave us that information’, their tone was rather accusatory. This was bullshit. Anyways, some words were exchanged and finally, they made him that dish. These guys were not even a bit remorseful, they say they are sorry but its just to get you out of the door.
As frustrating as these mistakes were, we still went back to Yarl … because food was good … but then came the big screwups. So, as we were dining in one night, this particular waiter attended to us. Lets call him The Uncle, shall we?? (I mean no offence. The Uncle reference is solely for the purpose of this rant🙏🙏) Most of the waiters at Yarl are younger guys, this particular man seem to be the only one that was older, perhaps in his 50s? So, this uncle came and took my order. I ordered Chicken Masala Thosai and Kottu Chicken Idiyappam. It was the same dishes we ordered every week. Yes, there was a time we were there every saturday, for dinner. None of the other waiters had issues with the order, none except this uncle. So, I told him my order. This guy was so confident in his ability to remember that he did not jot it down. The other waiters, they can remember the orders, this uncle though as I later will learn – cant remember sh*t. So, he took my order with his brains and went off. Came back a few minutes later to clarify on my order. I did not think much of it and gladly repeated it. After some time, he comes back again, again to clarify the order. At this point, I was getting a tad agitated. It was rather clear that he could not grasp the details, so why not do us both a favor – take a notebook out and write it down?? I repeated the order anyways, nicely. Some time passes and the Uncle reappears, this time to check wether I ordered kottu chicken puttu or kottu chicken idiyappam. So, for the fourth time I repeated my order. His reply to this was that the kitchen made the wrong order (kottu chicken puttu instead of idiyappam) and that he will tell them to remake it. Come on lah, uncle.. who are you trying to bullshit? You are the problem. I had to repeat my order 3 times to you and I am pretty sure it was you who told the kitchen the wrong order. It was not the kitchens fault. All this is bad but the worst of the lot happens now. So, he tells me that he will ask the kitchen to rectify the error, right? He then makes me wait, made it seem like the kitchen was making a new dish for me. They weren’t though because he ended bringing the very dish that I told him was wrong, the Puttu dish. The very dish he blamed the kitchen for doing it wrong. The very dish he made me wait for under the disguise that the kitchen was rectifying the error. It was all bullshit though. This uncle realised he messed up but did not want to get scolded by the kitchen and so, he’d rather manipulate the customer instead to cover his ass. What a cunning and manipulative assho**. Whats worst was that he quietly brought out the wrong dish, placed it on my table and quietly walked away. When I called him back to point out his mistake, he had a very innocent demeanor.. the kind with a “I dont know anything and its not me” attitude. At that point, I was irritated and I proceeded to give him a piece of my mind and then, repeat my order for the last time. The other waiters were all busy, this uncle was who I was stuck with. Halfway through repeating my order though, this uncle walk away. Who does that? What kind of waiter walks off half way through a conversation with a customer? Is his ego that big that he cant take the heat for his errors? My man saw this and it was obvious to him that the uncle was not interested in any way to own up. So, he got up, went to the counter at the back and told them to get the order right this time. Then the manager came over with his ipad and I had to repeat my order again. Understandably, at this point, I was repeating it in an agitated tone, guess what the manager told me? “Dont get angry at me, I am just here to take your order”. Wow, I was flabbergasted, truly. When a customer walks up to the counter and tells you to get the order right this time – does it not tell you as a Manager that there is an issue here?? How can you not care? I am a loyal customer, been eating at Yarl for years and you treat me like this? Whats worse is that the uncle never once apologized neither did I receive any apology for this fuckup from Yarl. At this point, I am sure lots of people would say “enough of this bullshit, I am done with Yarl” and I was at that point but my man lovesss Yarl and so, I decided to give it a last try but the dislike for this restaurant was already brewing.
My final visit to Yarl was end of February, 2021 and as you can guess, they messed up again. The difference was that this time, I’ve had it. So, over the last few visits prior to this one, we began noticing that the chicken in the chicken masala thosai started reducing, hence why everytime we put an order, we remind them to put more. This time, the chicken was the least amount we’ve received. On top of that, unlucky for these guys that I hate Masala thosai. So, rather than simply cutting into it and eating, I end up opening up the thosai to separate the chicken and masala. There was literally just 3 very small pieces of chicken on one side. Its almost as if it was masala thosai with accidental chicken droppings. These pieces I put aside and then called the waiter. Guess which waiter was available? The uncle. For some reason, all the other waiters were crammed behind the counter which left only the uncle at the front. So, we called him and told him about our issue, he then said he will check with the kitchen. He came back a minute later and told us that the kitchen said some of the pieces were shredded, we apparently did not see it. Are you for real? I’ve been eating Indian food for soo many years and on top of that, I’ve been eating chicken cooked in variety of ways for 33 years. Mince chicken….shredded chicken… fried chicken…steam chicken….roasted chicken…chicken cooked in gravy and etc. Different textures and taste but its still chicken. It ain’t a shapeshifting, color changing thing, you know? You think I dont know how chicken looks like by now? We then proceeded to push the masala around to show the uncle the lack of chicken, that what the kitchen said was bullshit. Both of us got pissed. My man and I both voice out our anger. There was some gender discrimination here with the uncle. When my man voiced out his opinion, the uncle respects him. When I do, he does not even have the courtesy to look at me and talk. If my man was sitting next to me, then atleast I can tell myself that maybe the uncle suffers from “mata juling” or something but my guy was sitting opposite me with a table in between, so it is very obvious and disrespectful when I speak to the uncle and the uncle replies me but his whole body, head and eyes are all facing and focused on my man. To a person outside, they’d easily assume that the uncle was talking to my man instead of me. So disrespectful. Lets not forget about the previous order blunder where this uncle walks away in the midst of a conversation, while I was still talking to him. This was a continuation of that nonsense. Anyways, because we were so pissed, our voices were raised, in no time the manager came over. I was still in conversation with the uncle while my man was talking to the manager when again, the uncle walks away halfway through a conversation. What kind of waiter does this shit? There were clear mistakes and I was within my right as a customer to voice my opinion. Anyways, after going back and forth, the manager finally said that he will ask the kitchen to do us another thosai and to prepare another for him so that he can judge the dish for himself. Our thosai arrived … with no difference. Still very little chicken. There was a big difference between the thosai we ordered months ago for the first time and now. I might as well not order it again because now, there is nothing to share with my man, might as well he ate the whole thing himself. At that point, we’ve had it. We told the manager that we aint coming back anytime soon and his reply was “come on sir, you know me. You know me, sir. You’ve seen me here for years. Come on, sir” .. what on earth does that even mean? Yea, the manager – a nepali looking guy… we’ve seen him for years but he never has attempted to build a rapport with us. There was this other guy though, worked at Yarl for years, served us many times too .. he, we had a bond with. We have even bumped into him elsewhere in Brickfields and he was always friendly and approachable. Sadly, he has not been around since the CMCO. Now, if he said the exact same thing the manager said, it made sense. We had a bond, the manager though, no bond there. On top of that, he rarely smiles and rarely is friendly. Of late, he seemed more interested in making sure the Grab Food and Food Panda orders are running smoothly than the customers in the restaurant. On top of that, after his whole “dont get angry at me, I’m just here to take your order” previously, I dont think much of him. It was clear from the get go that these guys are not interested in rectifying their mistakes and making sure it does not happen again. Not at all. What they are good at doing is appeasing you and then as soon as you leave, its forgotten. Hence why the same mistakes keep repeating. I usually do not do this because my friends and I prefer remaining anonymous in regards to this blog but I was so pissed off by the lack of responsibility here that I told the manager that I blog and I was going to write about this episode and guess what – zero f**ks were given. They simply dont care. I also told them that their service sucked and that no good food was worth this much of a hassle. That I wont be back anytime soon. I seriously needed a break from these guys and their mess. Again, zero f**ks were given. No one cares.
I left a negative review on Google, in hopes that they would respond to me because they do respond to reviews. I used to send eateries a private message via FB because I really dont want to make a big fuss about it but in almost all cases, when its a complaint, you’d receive no reply at all. It got me wondering whether people higher up in the management actually reads it or was it the same people that did wrong. Was the reason I got no reply because the offender read it and quickly deleted it so that no one else knows of it? Or was it because its a private message and no other customers have read it, so not replying was okay because as long as nobody knows … who cares, right?? Being respectful and sending these restaurants a private message wasn’t any use obviously. So, best do it this way. Anyways, I wanted to know about the thosai the manager ordered, did he think the thosai I received was acceptable? On top of that I thought the gender discrimination and the blatant disrespect that the uncle had going on needed addressing too. However, the review was on there for a whole month and I received no response. So, I deleted that recently and wrote it here instead. I feel like this was too much of a f**k up for me to not write about. As I mentioned early on – this is the worst customer service I’ve experience in a long time.
