Posted: Sun May 20, 2007 11:29 am Post subject: The Cafe Cartel
7 Kaki Bukit Road 1
#05-06/07 Eunos Techmolink
Singapore
Email: info@cafecartel.com.sg
The Cafe Cartel is a restaurant-chain serving American cuisine, particularly from the New York region, based in Singapore. They serve up a spread with everything from pastas to pizzas to sandwiches, snacks, and hearty mains. On weekends and public holidays, the feasting starts bright and early at most of Cafe Cartel outlets, with their breakfast menu of the usual suspects such as the Bacon & Ham Omelette, Pancake Delight and French Toast Delight, all served with freshly baked homemade bread.
Heed the Cafe Cartel chefs’ recommendations by having the Roast Turkey & Bacon Sandwich, with juicy layers of tomatoes, eggs, lettuce, onions and mayo in between, and the Chicken Lasagna consisting of layers of pasta crammed with tender chicken and baked in the oven with mozzarella cheese.
Recommendations
Panfried Linguine
Panfried Macaroni
St. Louis Pork Ribs
Better Price, Better Value
Now in its 10th year of operation, Cafe Cartel's new menu is set to make customers even more spoilt for choice with the addition of 50 new food items, ranging from delectable club sandwiches to chunky giant burgers to refreshing fruity smoothies.
A new main course item that is destined to be a popular signature dish in the near future is the Oxtail Stew, a richly satisfying dish of braised oxtail garnished with assorted vegetables and served with steamed rice.
Making their presence felt on the list is a trio of Giant Burgers – Southern Tender Chicken, Crispy Fish & Eggs and Teriyaki Sliced Beef – which are served with coleslaw and French fries and guaranteed to provide a truly full meal to whoever has the guts to order one.
Additions to the extensive list of Cafe Cartel's popular range of beverages such as Coffee On The Rocks and Italian Cream Sodas are the refreshing new Smoothies that are Tropical Sunrise (peach and mango blended with vanilla ice-cream) and Berry Mango Twist (mango and fresh strawberry blended with vanilla ice cream).
I would like to complain about the service at the serangoon outlet. I brought a group of friends to that outlet on Valentine’s Day hoping to have a good dinner.
However, upon reaching there, we requested a table for 12 and to my disgust, we were told by the waiter that "couples have priority today" and even added that it was impossible. After suggesting to him we could move the tables together, he gave us the green light and we had to move the tables on our own.
We sat down, took down our orders and gave it to the waiter. 30mins later, he came back, telling us that St.Louis Pork Ribs was sold out. A few of us changed our orders and we then passed the order sheet back to him. I was shocked when I found out that he hadn't submitted the other orders yet. Therefore, it was 30mins wasted.
We were then told that it'll take 40-60 mins for the food to be served but after a lengthy and furious wait, the food arrived after two hours. The Valentine's mood was totally ruined and everyone was angry, hungry and tired, adding to that, the food wasn’t cooked properly and of substandard.
After all my friends’ food had been served, I wondered where my order, Hawaiin pork chop, was. I approached the staff and was only told by him that it was sold out. At this point of time, I was fuming mad as I just wasted two and a half hours waiting, couldn’t he had told me at the point when I submitted the orders? One waiter even joked that it was Halal day and that offended my Muslim friend who was present.
I hope Café Cartel will look into this matter as the service at the Serangoon outlet is really not up to standard. Hungry and starving, would a 20% discount the manager gave be able to just make up for everything that happened? The total discount couldn’t even cover a meal. The attitudes of the staffs need to improve too.
I am disappointed by the incident and it totally ruined my impression of the supposedly Service-Friendly Café Cartel restaurant.
The above poster should not be given just a 20% discount. They made the whole episode into a joke by giving such a miserly discount. But I am totally not surprised by their attitude.
I first patronised this cafe many years ago when they were still new. The ribs were good then and cost only less than $10 at that time. But it soon proved to be popular and they increased their prices time and again. The last straw came when I ordered the fish and chips. Boy, I have never tasted such bad 'fish' and chips before. In fact, it tasted not at all like fish, more like some artificial stuff... To be fair I ordered it again on my next visit at another branch and true enough it's still as bad.
I don't feel it's very ethical for a restaurant to keep raising its prices just because it's a popular item and whatever stuff that is in the 'fish' just make me feel the people behind them are just not whole-hearted in doing this business well. Plus, after the very initial times when the place is still well ventilated, the other times I patronised I had to endure all the smell in the cafe as well as those on my clothes after, it should come as no surprise to you that my last visit is many, many years ago.
