[Complaint] One of the WORST dining experiences ever - Marché Mövenpick

I am posting this blog entry not because I want to soil the restaurant's reputation, but to share with everyone the negative first-hand experience I had - and hopefully they will improve their services in future.

When it comes to Marche, the first thing I could think of is their famous thick, delicious mushroom soup, and the crispy Rosti that has been highly raved.

Personally, I have patronised both of their different outlets at Vivocity and Orchard Somerset 313 - and I have to say that I do love the food variety there!

Call it a honest mistake, I actually thought the outlet at JEM, Jurong East, would be the same. I was not aware that the restaurant I stepped into was "Marche Mövenpick".

It was only after a research that I realized this new restaurant is indeed under Marche, but serves different types of food. In fact, it has a different concept altogether as it mainly serves Salad, pasta, pizzas.... Well, you get the drift.

I seldom patronize restaurants; so the main reason why I was there was due to a BFF's birthday celebration. (It was just a simple 3 person dinner)

I shall not begin to talk about the long waiting time (since I have MORE to complain about as you read on), but I'll cut to the chase and share with you what happened while we were in there.

When we were served the menu, we were kinda surprised by the limited food choices (Naïve us, we still thought there would be at least a bowl of soup but surprisingly, their restaurant does not appear to serve ANY-I repeat- ANY soup at all).

Disappointed by the food choices, we had no choice but to choose something since we have already settled down after a long waiting time for the seats.

Since we were at it, one of their staff came over and handed us our utensils - by DIRECTLY placing them on the table with NO serviette and NO plate.

(I had to "steal" serviette from other tables eventually)

How clean can your table be, may I ask??

Judging by the looks of the restaurant, it appears to be quite high-class (at least to me), but I guess their knowledge of hygiene is worst than any other coffee shops. *breathes in and out*

I shall try not to be too mindful about it.

Moving on next.

Since the restaurant does not serve any soup, we would need some water in one way or another, right?

We tried to look for decent drinks on their menu, but came to discover that most of them consisted of alcoholic drinks.

Being the 3 girls who do NOT drink at all, we thought we could just order one glass to share amongst ourselves.

I was quite concerned about the size of the drink though.

I began to ask the staff, "May I know what is the size of the drink?"

"I don't know," came the reply. "I'll check and let you know."

I was expecting that she would at least check and kindly tell me the size since I have asked, but sadly enough, she didn't.

Eh, you think I asked for fun izzit?

We ordered it anyway.

When our food finally arrived, I guess I wasn't too excited about it. I remembered taking the first mouthful and I was like "Damn... Am I going to survive the rest of my dinner hour to finish it?"

With a food that came with quite a hefty price tag, I knew I couldn't afford to be a chooser.

I can't complain much about the food since it's subjective (To be fair, the food may taste awful to me but delicious to others), but I have to be honest about my opinions.

The pasta tasted kinda' bland and tasteless. Probably it's meant to be healthy? I just knew I added a lot of vinegar, chilli flakes and even sugar just to have that bit of enhancement and finish it off.

As if it wasn't unenjoyable enough already, one incident happened that MADE ME SO INFURIATED. So much that I thought I just HAVE to blog about this.

As it was a birthday dinner, both another friend and I had prepared a small strawberry cake in advance, in which we had planned to reveal it nearer to the end of dinner.

My friend lit the candle quietly below the table and broke into a birthday song for her.

At this point of time, everything seemed well... Until...

 One of the staff walked over and told us with a no-smile face.

"Sorry, you can't bring in outside cake here."

"You can blow the candle, but keep it after that."

SAY WHAT?!


 Can't you at least give us that bit of face since it's obvious that we were doing it for a birthday occasion? (And mind you, it was not as though we were throwing a loud party in your restaurant. It was just a mere 3 -person dinner amongst ourselves)

And in case you are not aware, we did NOT even consume the cake at the restaurant. The candle was ours, and the cake was ours.
 We just wanted to hand the cake to her. Simple as that.

WHAT'S WRONG?

We have celebrated birthday dinners at plenty of other restaurants before, and mind you, MOST of them even helped us to keep our cake beforehand and served to us.

We did not even ask for such request from this ridiculous restaurant and yet the treatment we received was worst beyond our expectations.

I don't think it is very nice to tell your customers off just because they take out a cake at your restaurant.
So..In case any of you are planning a birthday surprise.. You can forget about this restaurant.
They will end up spoiling your plan and I am sure you don't want that.
You've been warned.