Hao Xiang International (Ang Mo Kio Ave 4)

This zi char stall has many outlets - I'm not sure about the others, but short of having a gun pointed to your head, I suggest you give this one a wide berth.

You may have heard of this zi char stall - it has been featured on some TV shows. That's how my mom came across it, and that's how we ended up patronizing this stall on a Monday night. Now hear my tale of extremely bad customer service from a business who doesn't believe that pissing off customers is bad for business.

We ordered the dishes featured on TV - some sort of stir-fried, long bean lookalike served with pork floss, flat roasted chicken, milk powdered crayfish and some other form of fish.

Let me mention up front that those dishes were average at best, the chicken was tough and not the least bit juicy, while the long bean lookalike was just mediocre. The milk powdered crayfish does deserve special mention, banking purely on its novelty rather than taste. I like the combination, but I have an inkling that other zi char stalls might fare better if they took a shot at this dish.

What about the fish, you say? Well, it never did arrive. We almost finished the three aforementioned dishes and the fish still wasn't here. This was half an hour after they served the first dish. So, we asked one waitress where our fish was, and she never got back to us. We asked a second one, and she never got back either.

The third time round, my dad went to the counter to ask about the fish again, but was told that it was "coming soon". After waiting another 10 minutes, we decided to cancel the order of the fish since there was no point waiting. Do note - no apologies were offered.

At this point, I was still trying to finish my milk powder crayfish when the waitress promptly brought the bill to our table. Now I was pissed. I told her that we have not called for the bill yet, and just because we canceled our order of fish, were they afraid that we were going to run away without paying?

Still no apologies from any of them. This was absolutely ridiculous, it was absurd to treat customers this way. We weren't even being difficult when we asked for our fish, we were just, clearly, tired of waiting.

With incredulously rude staff & sub par food standards, I don't believe I'll ever step anywhere near this stall ever again and I suggest you don't either.