Hello... Restaurant!

As part of my weekly 'new food' campaign, I decided that this Saturday I would try the "Kantin Aneka" at Lucky Plaza, which food I did not get to try the last time, as I was stuffed.

As my mouth watered (eeck) in anticipation, I made my way up to the 6th floor, to be greeted by the signboard "My Favorite Cafe". Erm.. what on earth? Seems that the stall, which was supposed to be only about 3 weeks old, has closed down. (Well, they did ran out of chicken last week...)

Not to be daunted, I went to find the "Es Teler 77" (name mispelled in the Lucky Plaza website) stall instead, as it was said that the Lucky Plaza stall serves better tasting fare. When I finally found the stall, it was kind of half open. (The metal grille for when the stores are closed was still halfway down, and there were nobody in sight.) The clock showed 11.45am. I was thinking, "Do these people know how to do business? A food stall that is not operational at lunch time. Great."

I got the feeling that today could be a "No Indonesian food for j00! kind of day", until I remembered that there is another stall there that I wanted to try. It is the "Ayam Penyet Ria".
Off I went again to hunt for the stall and this time, I found a live one!

I was actually quite impressed by the decor of the stall (can now call it restaurant!). The lighting was warm, and the furniture leads to a cozy feel. The ambient music could be better though, and they need to wedge the wobbly tables, as well as screen off the kitchen better from the dining area. (Constructive criticisms here!).

Now, to my pet peeve. Service is practically nonexistent! As I walked into the store, no server greeted me. As I walked to the cashier, no server greeted me although there were 2 of them "doing dunno what" just behind the register. I decided to go end find a seat on my own, and waited a while. Still no server came to attend me, or gave instructions on how to order. I finally noticed the 'order sheet', filled it up, and proceeded to the cashier. (The register broke down at this moment.) Luckily the boss was there by then, and he asked me to just sit down, enjoy my meal and pay later. As I was eating, I continued to keep an eye on the servers, and I'm sorry to say, they really, really slacked. I could have told the boss about the service level I guess, but hey, I'm not a paid consultant.

The food was actually pretty good. It tasted authentic, but slightly on the 'light' side (not as heavy in taste as the ones back home). The sambal is potent, good for those who like it hot and pungent. The dessert, however, was badly done. I ordered 'Es Campur', which means 'Mixed ice', that tasted like a mixture of 'Ice Kachang' and 'Chendol' (not so good ones at that). I might be back for the food and decor, might...

Something else kind of irked me. They translated 'Ayam Penyet' as 'Smashed Chicken'. 'Penyet' is a lot closer to 'Squashed' rather than 'Smashed'. And the chicken was not even in a condition near enough to justify being called 'Smashed' (It was a little tough :P)

On the other hand, lucky Plaza is really turning into Little Philliphines. Even the starhub advertisement there is in Tagalog...

Update (23Nov2005)!
It seems that Kantin Aneka is only open on Sundays. There is chance to try it out yet!