Poulet at Bugis Plus: Lovely Roast Chicken, but Service Staff Need Training

I seriously don’t mind Thai Express but B has a disdain for it. When I told him Thai Express was behind Poulet, he was willing to try it out because I sent him some rave reviews by bloggers, enticing photos included. But those were invited reviews and I wanted to try it for myself. I have to say B agreed with their assessment about the Ox tail dish and I really liked the roasted chicken. The sauce was a bit too sinful and buttery though. Wanted to just have the salad at first but decided to just share the chicken instead. I won’t rave about the onion soup but it was really all right.

The only downer was the service when we were being led to the table. We requested for a booth seat as the place was relatively empty. The staff said no, but then the manager came by and told her to give us the booth seat. She then made both us and the manager uncomfortable by asking him whether he was sure and she didn’t look happy that her decision had been overturned – I can understand that, but not in front of the customer. That was really unprofessional. Maybe I’m making a mountain out of a molehill, but I felt peeved. This just boils down to poor training but it was a bit of a put off for me. I really am dismayed at the levels of service in Singapore.

I have to agree with people on twitter who gripe about it. Singapore really needs to buck up and we should introduce a tipping system like they have in the US. So far the service I’ve had in every other country has been better. We could learn a thing or two about courtesy from our neighbours in Malaysia for instance.

But my overall assessment is that I would definitely have the chicken again and perhaps try one of the desserts next time. I’ll cross my fingers and hope for better service. They probably would have been nicer to us if this has been an invited review, but that’s why I don’t do it. I want to see how regular guests are treated and I will bitch about it if I’m seriously annoyed. I have to say kudos to the manager though. He was welcoming and I’m grateful that he gave us a good seat having no idea that I would blog about it. Also I wish they would serve free iced water instead of just room temperature tap water.

Here’s a breakdown of the cost which came up to about S$22 per person which is not bad for a good western meal. The surrounding and the high ceiling, it was all quite pleasant:

Oxtail – S$15.80
Poulet Half – S$15.80
French Onion Soup – S$5.80
Total with tax – S$44

About bookjunkie

Blogging about life in Singapore & recently cancer too.
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6 Responses to Poulet at Bugis Plus: Lovely Roast Chicken, but Service Staff Need Training

  1. Mel says:

    Was there for the first time last week too. Yup, the chicken was great. Service was alright as I believe the guy serving us was the manager.

    • bookjunkie says:

      Yeah I found the manager much better. Guess food service managers have a hard time as most of the staff are young and probably not long term.

  2. Pingback: New Dining Options at Bugis Plus | White as milk

  3. angry says:

    I was here on 3 feb 2013 and totally disappointed! . The waiter and waitress were not only rude, serve ppl first although I came first on the orders, they used nets function to deduct my savings account even though I said credit card function!! The ‘best part’ is the charge slip still remains a ‘visa’ transaction rather than ‘nets’ transaction!!! As a consumer, how will I know on the spot that the merchant has charged wrongly especially the charge slip is not reliable?!!!!

    • bookjunkie says:

      oh gosh looks like you had worse service than me.

      • angry says:

        This is the first time I’ve experienced and realised that merchant can just anyhow deduct $ from our bank without our acknowledgement I.e. key in pin etc. (For info., mine is a credit card which link to my savings account so that i can serve as atm card as well). Worst is consumer will not know accurately where the amt has deducted from due to no indication on the slip. This is the greatest flaw! I have sent my enquiry to MAS, Nets and Uob yesterday. Will update here on the status as this is really serious. This incident really let me think twice about combining multiple functions in 1 card.

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