La Forketta (Dempsey)

La Forketta? Forget it Lah!

You would think that there would be some proper service standards in an atas area such as Dempsey. But NO, thanks to La Forketta, I can relate so well with people who experience bad service which sticks out like a sore thumb. So appalled, I am mooting for this place to be renamed to Forget it Lah! as a tribute to this abomination of a restaurant.

Arrogant twits for wait staff It is clear as glass that the GEMS (Going the Extra Mile for Service) programme never saw the light of day here at Forget it Lah!. None of them even displayed a hint of a smile. Either the wait staff all have facial muscular disorder and will suffer traumatic cramps upon smiling and keel over and die, or they are all extremely buey gam wan (read: pissed with everything, everyone, every time). I'll do you guys a service here by providing some revelation: The only wait staff who have such a privilege of not smiling is one with a French accent as thick as the Great Wall of China. Don't confuse French and Italian cuisine. Hell, even French waiters smile readily for that matter.

Like customers owe them a living While we can live with wait staff that give the buey gam wan look by simply ignoring them, it is a whole new level when they just take their own sweet time for everything and telling you off for it. While I believe there should be staff welfare, but there is also welfare abuse. At Forget it Lah! we know it is the latter. While seated at a corner, I saw many wait staff standing outside relaxing and taking puffs of smoke while the restaurant was occupied at every table. (Full because, surprise! Slow service = slow patron turnover) So basically, patrons have to wait for not only the food to be prepared, but also for the wait staff who need to take their break after every dish served to the table. Yes, I am sure waiting tables is a life-and-death-kind-of-stressful profession that warrants that kind of de-stressing activity. I don't even want to imagine how the stinky toxic from cigarettes interact with the food.

Cheating your money with bread and water With bread automatically served, you are also automatically charged an exorbitant price for the plain old roti. You are forced to order their atas water because they can't afford proper plumbing in Singapore, where the water is tested to be purer than any atas mineral water and can fight tooth decay. There are ways to do business, and there are underhand ways to do business, but there is the Forget it Lah! way to do business that is in a league of its own.