Im not one for complaining necessarily - but when this mail was written to the restaurant owner of #Ocacti #Pier7 Dubai - one would expect a reply. Would you go back or recommend this restaurant to anyone? (thats a rhetorical question). Good afternoon, Last night I spent the evening with a friend at Ocacti for drinks and a meal, I feel compelled to write this mail. From entry the venue is stunning, very impressive indeed, however, the entire restaurant looked closed and the front of house staff looked surprised to see two guests, yet we weren’t welcomed. Unsure whether the restaurant was even open we gingerly opened the door, to be greeted by a sea of vacant tables. Headed towards the bar, where we sat for an hour or so, we ordered drinks, I had to repeat the order in ingredients, several times and talk the bar staff through what we were trying to order, you’d think it was a complex round of multiple drinks requiring a vast amount of skill and experience – after the order was delivered and still incomplete, I talk the barman Noel through again. The order was two gold tequila with orange sprinkled with cinnamon. We then order two cocktails a Margarita and an Adam’s Apple, they were fine, (once the staff checked the menu for the recipes) and began to make them, 5 minutes later we received the first drink, a couple of minutes later the second followed. Already you had two confused customers, thinking what is going on?! A table caught our eye and we sat down to order some food and wine, the waiter (Arabic fellow, cannot remember his name – as he didn’t introduce himself), came to our table promptly, we ordered the Cerviche, Tuna Salad and another dish, it was accompanied by a bottle of the White Wine from the Ksara Estate. The wine was delightful, great choice, thank you. The food when it arrived was presented well, the salsa was diluted and resembled (watery) soup, which couldn’t be eaten due to guaranteed spillage on our clothing. The first mouthful of the Cerviche was a disaster for the palette, The ‘harissa’ red sauce surrounding the fish was intense (to say the least) and over-powered the entire plate, with a delicate dish like the Cerviche should not be dominated so intensely. What was the chef thinking? The tuna salad was fine, tuna perfectly cooked, however, neither of us could taste anything else due to the inferno our palettes were abused by. Now, neither of us are adverse to intense spices, but it ruined our meal and simply could not taste anything else and the bottle of wine was became un-enjoyable. An hour went by, our plates were taken away and we looked around at a still confusingly empty venue. Twenty five minutes later I had to leave the table, approach to the bar where 4-5 staff were standing and ask them for the manager, we weren’t permitted to see one, so I mention that we had been sat there for quite sometime, ignored by the staff and had to come and find them to take our order. No up-selling, no apologies, just an excuse from the Arabic waiter “I didn’t want to bother you”. Coming from a vast F&B background I know this is an excuse as any waiter should be trained to keep an eye on their tables, at an eye glance come and up sell, but also engage with the customers. As you were vacant, bar us, we would have expected premium service. We order a final aperitif and call up the bill. I am usually compelled to tip due to an enjoyable experience, but simply couldn’t bring myself to offer such a compliment, when the experience was less than desirable. Not wanting to make a fuss in front of my guest, we leave, the ‘receptionist’ was no longer there and so we leave with a fiery but sour taste in our mouths. My reason for writing this lengthy yet explanatory email, is to help, offer feedback to what should and could be a great venue which I would like to recommend, instead, it’s become the single most expensive mistake of my year so far. Thank you for your time to read this mail, and I sincerely hope you are empowered to improve your staff’s customer awareness, product knowledge and service. Adam Ridgway.
Posted on: Sun, 26 Jan 2014 12:14:07 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015