Are you being served? Well, I'm not

Ever get that sinking feeling that silly you has been seduced by the sweet nothings of an ad even though you should know better?

I stand guilty as charged.

As I cruised to work in my car one morning, listening to my favorite radio show, a commercial came on for a new sushi kitchen and bar. It was, they gushed, to die for, the in place to dine on great food and to be seen, in one of Jakarta's best locations.

Ad victim me grabbed it hook, line and sinker: If I were a fish, I'd be served up on a platter by now.

I called up a friend and we set a date to go there on a Friday evening. Things seemed to be living up to our expectations when we arrived at the plush office building in Kuningan, South Jakarta, with a waiter to greet us as we stepped out of the elevator on the 29th floor.

"Good evening, welcome to our place," he said, beaming even more widely than the elevator attendant. "Thank you," my friend said, smiling back at him.

"Wow, what service," I said to myself.

It turned out that gullible me spoke too soon.

When we walked in, three hosts were standing and chit-chatting with each other.

We waited for a few minutes before the woman host finally realized that the three of them were not alone. Somebody was there, intruding on their gossipfest.

"Oh, two persons, sir?" she asked perfunctorily.

"Yes," my friend said flatly, upset at being kept waiting.

As we had not made reservations, we were not allowed to take one of the window tables with great views of the city, but instead were exiled to "restaurant Siberia": an oval table in the center of the room, which we shared with similar dining offenders.

"It's fine. It's our fault that we didn't make a reservation," I said to my friend, trying to calm him, as he looked as though he was getting more upset.

"Let's just order," he said.

I have to admit the food was great, and the sushi was probably the best I have ever had in Jakarta.

But no matter how tasty the food was, it could not make up for the shoddy, indifferent service.

I realize that waiting on others is not the greatest job in the world, and I am in the privileged position of being on the other side of the table, but the service was so laid-back that it was almost nonexistent.

The waitpeople, like friends gathering after a long period of estrangement, spent their time gossiping away, occasionally stealing a look in our direction but otherwise blowing us off.

We asked for the bill, which was plonked on our table 25 minutes later without so much as a thank you. As we shuffled out, the friendly faces who had first greeted us were nowhere to be seen. There was not even a "don't let the door hit you on the way out".

Now, I'm not one of those people who gets off on having others bow and scrape to them, making them feel like a little queen for a day. At the very least, however, courtesy calls for a "thank you", whether or not it's uttered with sincerity.

It made me think that, outside the flowery ad copy and basa- basi (small talk), the service industry still does not really understand how to forge enduring relationships.

A friend of a friend, who lived in the United States for about 17 years before returning home, told of calling up a bank that had offered his small company a loan.

"The operator picks up the phone and says, in this surly voice, 'yeah?'" said Indra. "She was so uninterested, it was like I was distracting her from something more important. I couldn't believe it."

Another told of going to a small day spa in South Jakarta that tacked an extra Rp 30,000 onto the bill for a massage after a two-minute dip in the Jacuzzi.

It's all about getting people in the door with lots of promises, but only delivering on some of them. The message is: We are not really interested in you, or about keeping you coming back for more, but just want to make sure that you suckers come in one by one and hand over a few rupiah.

Gotcha!

Well, all I can say is that, no matter how good that sushi is, I will not be returning to the plush surroundings. Instead, I will be sure to put out a little word of mouth to friends and colleagues about this "hot" restaurant and its unadvertised cold shoulder service. -- Dewi Santoso