Fortune Cuisine 八味坊 (Sunset Way)

Good food, I'd go back there again,

if not for this:

Was there on that fateful Valentine's Saturday. Not surprisingly, the place was packed. But I honestly reckon this is the kind of crowd to expect every weekend. I found this place on a particularly famous blog which rated the place 4.5/5 for steamboat and barbeque. Having that in mind, I went all the way to Clementi with high hopes and big appetite, and also hoping that I'd be able to get a table if I went there half an hour earlier.

Well, fat hope about the table. I had to wait approximately 15 minutes more that I expected to. I can understand that though, because people there were indulging in the free flow of barbeque, cooked food, steamboat and drinks (yes and drinks! Hotpot Culture/ the old Marina Bay doesn't give you that) so much that no one seemed to be leaving.

When I finally got my table, I couldn't do any barbequeing though, due to the fact that tables at Fortune Cuisine are divided into 2 sections, one with barbeque and one without. So their solution to this problem is that we get the meat hand it over to any friendly waiter who will barbeque them for us. Not bad an idea. At least your clothes don't get stinked up too bad. Judging from the crowd, I knew that we'd have to wait a long time to get our barbequed food, so the first thing we did, even before our steamboat soup came, was to grab a huge plate of meat for barbequeing.

After about 15 minutes, a waiter brought one plate to our table. Technically, it was only half a portion of what we ordered. Being there for the first time, we thought it probably isn't out yet. After awhile, we decided that perhaps they forgot (it's only normal, given the crowd that day), so we went to take another plate. And another plate. And another plate . . . . .

Ok, so nothing's coming. It's been an hour. And it has been 4 plates at least already. We highlighted this issue to quite a number of waiters around but our reply was: "Oh we're very busy today, it will be coming soon." And finally when we could wait no more, we told yet another waiter that our food has not come despite us being told so many times that it will be coming soon. Apparently, that statement drew some attention to our table. Not wanting to cause any more commotion, the waiter referred us to the manager. Upon hearing our unhappiness and how reluctant we are to pay the full price for 2, the manager gave us a discounted price and we left.

To put all that above in a nutshell, it was simply an outcome of poor organization skills. 1) The queue at the doorstep was disorganized - the manager himself didn't know who came first, who's doing the "walk-in", who has reserved a table. 2) The whole thing about giving the waiters your plate of meat and expecting it to come back is quite.. unpredictable too. You just never know if they got your table right (because they don't make it a point to label the plate with your table numbers before collecting another plate along the way) or if they'll even come for your plate (because you're supposed to leave it on a tray obscurely places beside your table) when they're all so busy and probably even under-staff.

Well, all that above was effectively just my complain of the "bad service" I received from my hour and a half or so there. Nonetheless, I will not totally discredit the place by subtly weaving the plus points of the restaurant amidst my complaints and unambiguously italicizing them.

I must say the food was good. The little meat I had was either marinated for a long time or MSG-ful, ie tasty. It was truly a spread - crispy salmon, bee hoon, curry, satay (chicken/mutton/pork), beef slices, pork slices, sausages, the usual steamboat ingredients, some sushi, tempura, free flow of juices/ soft drinks and more (I probably missed some out)! And I think it's $20ish/pax. Rather worth the money if you go there on an uber empty stomach.

I'd say worth a try. I'd give it 3.5/5 but since there isn't, I guess I'll round it off to 4 so that people (like me) who simply spot the stars will not think it's a bad place. (though I won't be going back there in the near future since I live rather far away)