Expecting too much

[hocuspocus]

Can someone please update me with the situation at the U.N.Irish bar in Chiang Mai, last time we visited the place it smelled very badly of urine and the tables were infested with ants. The manager, when we complained said he would take our complaints on board.

Also I know there was a topic running about the Game bar in Hang Dong after it opened as the prices were too expensive, well I know the prices have come down but the standards have dropped drastically. On our first visit several months ago, we asked for draft beer and all the lower cost brands were sold out,only the 220baht Hoegarden and Guiness were available. Early this week we dropped in there and I had 2 pints of draft Chang and a meal for two and it only came to around 500baht. This lunchtime we visited again for a repeat of early this week. We were very disapointed this time, I ordered a pint of Chang and was told it was finnished so I ordered a pint of Leo at 95baht only to told that it had finnished as well but I was told that Heiniken was available at 120Baht a pint. A few minutes later I was told that the Heiniken was finnished as well but I could have a pint of Guiness or Hoegarden at 220Baht a pint so I told them what to do with it. My meal order was Chilli with rice. While I was patiently waiting for my Chilli I sipped on a glass of water. When the Chilli came I was amazed that there was no meat or chilli beans in what looked like tomato mush. I asked my wife to see if she could spot the meat or chilli beans and she had the same result as me, it reminded me of a Monty Python or Faulty Towers sketch. So stormed up to the bar and asked them why I had no meat or chilli beans. By that time I had had enough and told my wife we were leaving but she insisted we paid for the water, which we did.

Is it me or I am expecting too much from restaurants in Chiang Mai. Next time we are going back to Kellys at Mechocke Plaza where we have never had a bad meal and a big bottle of Red Horse is only about 70Baht.

[Phrafarang]

I went to the quiz night at the UN Irish last Thursday, I have no complaints, the food was pretty OK, the beer was fine and the toilets were odour free

[hocuspocus]

I went to the quiz night at the UN Irish last Thursday, I have no complaints, the food was pretty OK, the beer was fine and the toilets were odour free

Thanks for that, we will make a return visit there, the food has always been good there but it was the ants and smell that put us off.

[PostmanPat]

Looks like someone got out of the wrong side of the bed this morning!

I am a regular at UN Irish which is admittedly an older building but the only smell I ever get is food or booze, just the way it should be, attentive staff, decent food, and never ever been troubled by ants in there.

I ve also visited the newly relaunched Game Bar several times and enjoyed excellent Mexican food ( the Monday special), so good I went back the next Monday. Also have always had the 95 baht pint and its always been available.

Edited July 25, 2015 by PostmanPat

[daoyai]

The aromas of Chiang Mai are often determined by wind direction, the curbside drains are pungent as are the flowering trees.

Edited July 25, 2015 by daoyai

[hocuspocus]

Looks like someone got out of the wrong side of the bed this morning!

I am a regular at UN Irish which is admittedly an older building but the only smell I ever get is food or booze, just the way it should be, attentive staff, decent food, and never ever been troubled by ants in there.

I ve also visited the newly relaunched Game Bar several times and enjoyed excellent Mexican food ( the Monday special), so good I went back the next Monday. Also have always had the 95 baht pint and its always been available.

Agreed that the UN Irish is always good for food and drink but the last time we went there it smelled of urine and we had lots of ants on both tables we tried. I had the 99 baht chicken special at the Game Bar last Tuesday and we had no problem and I had 2 pints of Chang draft but today was a lot different. People will not go to the Game Bar if they keep running out of draft beer and the food is substandard.Out of the three times we have been there they have run out of draft beer on two occasions and there has been very few customers in there. We would like to make it a regular place to visit as it is only five minutes from where we live.When offered beer at 220 bahts a pint it was no problem for me to go and buy some large cold bottles of Chang from Rimpings (about 4 for the price of a pint from the Game Bar) .

[chingmai331]

Too bad things here are not like in China, at least at the restaurants. There, bring your own booze whether beer, 'bai jiu' or wine, is very common. This, IMO, is because the competition is so great for the meal that the restaurant owners must tolerate the customers who bring their own.

The univ students carry in whole cases of beer to the 2nd floor and drink with a few food dishes. The rich guys carry in expensive bottles of the white kerosine (bai jiu) and all are welcomed.

[LarryBird]

The Game and it's staff are lame.

[DLock]

I was at The Game a few months back. Ordered starters and mains. Mains came 15 minutes before the starters, which wasn't so bad. Just annoying.

Went there on Thursday for lunch. Ordered a burger cooked medium. It cam back raw in the middle - like mushy minced beef. Nasty.

To their credit, they did redo the entire meals again, but what I thought would be a quick lunch...wasn't so quick.

Maybe I'll try again in a few months...or maybe for late breakfast...pretty hard to mess that up.

[hocuspocus]

I was at The Game a few months back. Ordered starters and mains. Mains came 15 minutes before the starters, which wasn't so bad. Just annoying.

Went there on Thursday for lunch. Ordered a burger cooked medium. It cam back raw in the middle - like mushy minced beef. Nasty.

To their credit, they did redo the entire meals again, but what I thought would be a quick lunch...wasn't so quick.

Maybe I'll try again in a few months...or maybe for late breakfast...pretty hard to mess that up.

If we try maybe in a few months time the first thing I will ask is if they have any draft Chang or Leo, if not I will be walking away. If they can turn out good food at a reasonable price along with some reasonably priced draft beer then we would be regulars there. But at the moment I would rather drive 20 kms to Kellys. The manager really needs to get a grasp on things before it is too late. I would not mind bottled Chang or Leo as long as it came in large bottles instead of those stupid small bottles.If they run out of draft all they have to do is go across to Rimping and buy a couple of boxes of Chiang or Leo but I guess that would be too easy.

[NancyL]

hocuspocus -- are you saying you smelled urine at UN Irish Pub outside the men's room? At your table? What does this say about their other customers? I rarely smell this odor around Chiang Mai the way you did in big cities in the U.S. where homeless people hang around and pee outdoors. Oh, you do smell it sometimes here when walking on the footpath, but not often. You're saying you're smelling it inside a pub/restaurant? Remarkable.

Are you a competitor of U.N. Irish Pub?

How about The Game - Chiang Mai? You go on to mention them in one post.

Edited July 25, 2015 by NancyL

[LarryBird]

A bar running out of beer is like McDonald's running out of hamburgers. It's a bit of a shame too, because The Game is actually a beautiful, well built structure.

[hocuspocus]

hocuspocus -- are you saying you smelled urine at UN Irish Pub outside the men's room? At your table? What does this say about their other customers? I rarely smell this odor around Chiang Mai the way you did in big cities in the U.S. where homeless people hang around and pee outdoors. Oh, you do smell it sometimes here when walking on the footpath, but not often. You're saying you're smelling it inside a pub/restaurant? Remarkable.

Are you a competitor of U.N. Irish Pub?

How about The Game - Chiang Mai? You go on to mention them in one post.

We smelled urine in the area close to the kitchens where you go though to the toilets. I know there are often smells as you walk around Chiang Mai. I admit that this was about 6 weeks ago but with the combination of the ant ridden tables (the ones with table cloths and mats) and the inability of the staff to move us to another table without ants and the apparent lack of an apology we decided we would not visit there again until we had heard that things had improved. We have been regulars there for a number of years but we are not prepared to put up with service like we received when there are too many places to choose from. We would also like to be regulars at The Game but until that improves we will not be visiting there again. I am not a competitor of any restaurant or bar but I just like good value for money.

[TheAppletons]

We smelled urine in the area close to the kitchens where you go though to the toilets. I know there are often smells as you walk around Chiang Mai. I admit that this was about 6 weeks ago but with the combination of the ant ridden tables (the ones with table cloths and mats) and the inability of the staff to move us to another table without ants and the apparent lack of an apology we decided we would not visit there again until we had heard that things had improved. We have been regulars there for a number of years but we are not prepared to put up with service like we received when there are too many places to choose from. We would also like to be regulars at The Game but until that improves we will not be visiting there again. I am not a competitor of any restaurant or bar but I just like good value for money.

I was there around the same time (six weeks ago) sitting out on the back patio and there was a very strong and unpleasant urine-like odor. I mentioned it to one of staff who told me they had just sprayed some chemicals on the trees surrounding the patio and that was causing the odor. :shrug:

[MisterTee]

I went to the quiz night at the UN Irish last Thursday, I have no complaints, the food was pretty OK, the beer was fine and the toilets were odour free

Thanks for that, we will make a return visit there, the food has always been good there but it was the ants and smell that put us off.

Remember the old saying, "Every fox smells his own hole."

[arunsakda]

A good friend has been a Chef for years. In his business he says there are always people sending back perfectly good meals to the kitchen, and who expect freebies and extras.

"Noo no Mr. and Mrs. Smythe it was your anniversary LAST week, no free puddings today".

Now he says by far the biggest irritant is social media. He sometimes has people coming in with an air of self-importance threatening to rubbish him anonymously on TripAdvisor the moment they sit down like they are some kind of influential restaurant critics. They best thing to do is ignore them. Every good place has many good reviews, then you see some terrible stories. If you link to these negative posters you will find they hate everything and trash every place they go.

Edited July 28, 2015 by arunsakda

[StefanBBK]

A good friend has been a Chef for years. In his business he says there are always people sending back perfectly good meals to the kitchen, and who expect freebies and extras.

"Noo no Mr. and Mrs. Smythe it was your anniversary LAST week, no free puddings today".

Now he says by far the biggest irritant is now social media. He sometimes has people coming in with an air of self-importance threatening to rubbish him anonymously on TripAdvisor the moment they sit down like they are some kind of influential restaurant critics. They best thing to do is ignore them. Every good place has many good reviews, then you see some terrible stories. If you link to these negative posters you will find they hate everything and trash every place they go.

Honestly, no reasonable chef should expect a 100% guest satisfaction all the time. People have different tastes and expectations.

I do like social media from both guest and operator sides. When I go to a place I don't know I tend to check it first online. TripAdvisor being my preference.

I tend to differentiate between general trends in rating versus one off remarks.

No point of fighting the developments, just go with it and as business owner or Chef, respond to criticism professionally.

[hocuspocus]

A good friend has been a Chef for years. In his business he says there are always people sending back perfectly good meals to the kitchen, and who expect freebies and extras.

"Noo no Mr. and Mrs. Smythe it was your anniversary LAST week, no free puddings today".

Now he says by far the biggest irritant is social media. He sometimes has people coming in with an air of self-importance threatening to rubbish him anonymously on TripAdvisor the moment they sit down like they are some kind of influential restaurant critics. They best thing to do is ignore them. Every good place has many good reviews, then you see some terrible stories. If you link to these negative posters you will find they hate everything and trash every place they go.

So I guess a chilli without meat or chilli beans should have been acceptable. I am afraid I vote with my feet.

[arunsakda]

If you did not care for the Chili you should have sent it back and asked for something else in exchange. Leaving without paying for a dish you ordered is a crime in many jurisdictions known as "defrauding an innkeeper ". It is true here people don't care and my expectations have dropped accordingly.

Recently I got take out 3 nights in row from 3 different places. All 3 times the order was incorrect in some way.

Spaghetti Carbonara in Italy or any truly authentic restaurant does not contain ANY cream at all. I know how Carbonara Spaghetti is served in this country so I asked server at an Italian restaurant "very light on the cream please", when the dish arrived the noodles were literally floating in a bowl of heavy cream, like a lot, maybe 400 ml. So I sent it back and the Chef/owner (Italiano) came out and told me "I know, I know but if We donta' make it like a' this people no like a'. I ordered something else.

Another place has a fresh Mozzarella and Tomato sandwich including PESTO on the menu. When it arrived without the pesto I complained and the farang manager came out and told me he could put pesto on it but "we have never served it to anyone that way". I pointed to the menu description and asked him if "perhaps it should be a cause for concern" he just silently looked at me as if I was crazy and had no reply.

I

Edited August 1, 2015 by arunsakda

[Frank James]

A good friend has been a Chef for years. In his business he says there are always people sending back perfectly good meals to the kitchen, and who expect freebies and extras.

"Noo no Mr. and Mrs. Smythe it was your anniversary LAST week, no free puddings today".

Now he says by far the biggest irritant is social media. He sometimes has people coming in with an air of self-importance threatening to rubbish him anonymously on TripAdvisor the moment they sit down like they are some kind of influential restaurant critics. They best thing to do is ignore them. Every good place has many good reviews, then you see some terrible stories. If you link to these negative posters you will find they hate everything and trash every place they go.

If I owned a restaurant and somebody came in with a threat like that ("rubbish him anonymously on TripAdvisor") I would tell them to hit the road, and refuse service. That is outrageous, and also hard to believe. What could you possibly hope to accomplish, coming on like that? I know the world today is is a lot ruder than it used to be, but are there really such people as that?

[arunsakda]

He told me about a guy who stood up in the dining room and suddenly announced "these scallops are spoiled/off" and made a scene so other diners could hear demanding his whole dinner be comped and also ordered something else. The other diners thought they were fine That guy did end up getting booted out. It is pretty risky denying service in the US due to discrimination laws unless there is a disturbance to order, threat, intoxication, or belligerence. Thanks to the 1st amendment people can say pretty much anything and even TV News does not need to be factual.

Edited August 1, 2015 by arunsakda

[arunsakda]

I just talked to my Chef friend and thinking about my post I asked hime to explain again exactly what happened. The scallops were on the daily specials menu and were just as nice as can be. "They other diners thought they were fine" meaning other orders were served with no complaints.

The dude was a "young Asian (American) guy with a hot Asian chick". They had already had drinks/appetizers, etc. before the disturbance in the dining room. When my friend came out of the kitchen he had some words with him and offered to replace the scallops with whatever else he wanted but no way he was going to get a free meal. At some point the kid said he was going to write him up on Yelp! which is another site popular in the states, and my buddy could not care less. The guy ended up getting his appetizers for free anyway because he was asked to leave for disturbing other customers and they just wrote it off. He said the girl looked embarrassed but did not say anything.

This is just a grifter scam, as old as "waiter there's fly in my soup"

Edited August 6, 2015 by arunsakda

[Chiengmaijoe]

hocuspocus -- are you saying you smelled urine at UN Irish Pub outside the men's room? At your table? What does this say about their other customers? I rarely smell this odor around Chiang Mai the way you did in big cities in the U.S. where homeless people hang around and pee outdoors. Oh, you do smell it sometimes here when walking on the footpath, but not often. You're saying you're smelling it inside a pub/restaurant? Remarkable.

Are you a competitor of U.N. Irish Pub?

How about The Game - Chiang Mai? You go on to mention them in one post.

He did say that the manager would take the complaints on board, but your response was to regard it as unlikely and accuse him of lying and being a jealous competitor! As it is, the owners took the complaint seriously, found the source of the problem and fixed it.

They responded exactly as I would have done, which means that you don't give the management at UN Irish the credit that they deserve. Most business owners like to hear of any problems because it gives them an opportunity to address them. Your response of attacking the messenger is the absolutely wrong way to go about it.

If you are going to attack somebody on someone else's behalf , it might be a good idea to find out if they agree with you first.

[StephenMMackenzie]

I was at The Game last night, we sat outside and was observed by a waitress, 10 minutes later no service was offered, so we went to the Wine Connection instead. UN Irish has always been good in my experience.

[Puwa]

On the theme of "expecting too much," I reckon that's the case here, and it's a dilemma we all face. Sometimes lowering your expectations is a route to happiness, but not always. Certainly not when it leads to chili without beans. High expectations are a recipe for frequent disappointment and frustration. While any restaurant can screw up a meal, dining disasters are worse when you are craving a western dish and are willing to pay a premium. With the stakes so high, a sad pork chop could kill your day. Then again, maybe it really is expecting too much to have fresh ingredients properly prepared in a sanitary environment. (Note to self, one of these days I'll write up my Sizzler cockroach story). Given the education level, the general state of hygiene, the ridiculous lack of customer-oriented service (how dare you ask for pesto on your pesto sandwich), and the perpetual drinking binge and hangover that consume much of the nation most of the time, it's actually a pretty tall order.

My last comment on expectations: There seem to be two camps, those who began experiencing Chiang Mai before globalization, and those who began after. Before globalization, not only was Chiang Mai a different place--no supermarkets, convenience stores, internet, mobile phones, little English spoken and choices for western food few and far between--but people simply didn't expect these conveniences. Nowadays, for better or for worse, people expect the same comforts wherever they go . Being a pre-Globalization guy myself, I would probably just raise an eyebrow at the counterfeit chili and go down the street for pad thai, which is less likely to satisfy, and less likely to disappoint.