Are you being served? Well, I'm not

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