in the calm before the storm, no one would really ever realise how big or the storm might be, or, sometimes, if there would be a storm. and thus it was the same tonight.
we started off the night great. bookings in 3 different sections, and this being a monday, it promised to be a leisurely gait.
what.. a… LIE.
at about 7.30, the first signs of trouble started. there was no more soup left, and 4 of the baby ribs left, and absoutlutly none of the ribs left at all. that took about 1 and a half hours to empty the kitchen of them! soon, there were no mash potatos left. no this and that. it’s as if some monster came and gobble everything up.
somewhere after that, the kitchen ran out of dockets for food orders. no one noticed though. so while the waitresses kept on taking orders, the kitchen was busy making the earlier orders. by the time they eventually realised there was no more docket papers, 30 mins have passed. orders that went through were not printed, and still no one realised.
it was only 30 mins later that when the first customer started whining, that we realised something was wrong. of course, it took longer than that to realise that it was the stupid broken dockets that caused the problems. no one told the customers that though, and one grumpy customer after another started going off at the waitresses, spare me, coz i started diligently avoiding eye contact with any customer.
this is where i feel the kitchen wasn’t being fair. we had a big important reservation tonight, however, they didn’t wait as long as most customers did. yer the kitchen insist on rectifying the mistake by cooking THEIR food first. we had families with little kids still not having their dinner after an hour, it was like 8.30 pm, the babies were getting restless. still, kitchen couldn’t be bothered.
of course, they were also pretty stressed and upset too, since alot of customers were whining and we were down there telling them to hurry up, hurry up. they started slamming plates at us, throwing plates at us, it was a pissy chaos.
most of the customers were all right when it came to me. i guess either i looked noobie or they thought i was the cleaning lady. however, one woman will stay in my memory of that place.
she was one of those lucky few who got her orders done after the dockets were refilled, so her orders went through fine. i could see her chicken meat was ok cooked, but she insisted it was slightly pink, and returned it. kitchen cooked it and return it to her table. and still she returned it claiming it wasn’t cooked. kitchen recooked it again, amidst all that chaos, and she came screaming back to us.
“i tell you what: forget this whole thing. i am utterly DISGUSTED. i have brought it back twice now, and it’s still not cooked!” stomp stomp stomp.
now, even though i don’t cook much, and all i cook is chicken, i could see and smell that it was definitely cooked. it was the usual cooked white meat inside that you could see, no pink bits, no smooth sections. it was definitely a cooked piece of meat. the chef got really upset and started hollering, saying how the fuck was that not cooked..
us girlie waitresses just stood and shook amidst the fury of the great lord chef.
and then there were unreasonable customers. but judging from the delay of the food, i guess we really can’t blame anyone for their unhappiness.
of the entire night though, i was happy about one thing: my trainer said she’s going to elevate me to learning how to waitress and perhaps start taking orders soon. considering how the other trainee took a month or more before she started taking her first order on her own, i am actually surprised.
the thing is, in most places, they took 3 months before they decide that i was eligible for waitressing trainings. so effectively, i have never served a customer that way before. i am nervous, what if i get all retarded and ask a customer to go eat shit and die?
damn….
”
i love those 2 kids.