The dinner that never was

I do think I'm a little cursed recently. I was on the receiving end of some sub-par service at one of my favorite restaurants for my birthday last week, and tonight I had the rudest service from a restaurant that I've ever had in my entire life.  For only the second time in my life, I stormed out of a restaurant without having eaten a single bite, on account of rude and/or arrogant staff.

I was very much looking forward to getting together with my friends, as I haven't seen them in over a year.  I definitely wanted to see Rickachu before I left town, and they had decided to book tonight's dinner at g.e.  (it's supposed to stand for "gastronomy extraordinary", but believe me, the only thing extraordinary about this place has nothing to do with the food...)  Anyway, I was a little curious and wanted to check this place out, as the chef is ex-Kee Club and had apparently spent time in the kitchen of El Bulli.  I will just say that I went to Kee Club for dinner once a few years ago, and had some of that "molecular" cuisine, and never bothered to return.

My friends arrived and started talking to us about how they had almost dined here on an earlier occasion, and described the various themed rooms of the restaurant to us.  Jessica Kwok, the Restaurant Manager, then offered to take us on a tour of the various rooms.  I wasn't very interested so stayed put and studied the menu.

The menu reminds me of the one I had seen at Saint Pierre in Singapore all those years ago.  Basically the chef has decided to list every single ingredient used in the dish, but with no descriptions of how the ingredients have been prepared.  Fortunately they decided to highlight the main ingredient in bold, or else I would be just as lost as I was at Saint Pierre after going through the 10th item...

The menu was a little annoying in several ways:  first, the font was tiny.  While I'm no old fogey, I don't understand why a restaurant would make its diners squint while studying a relatively complex menu.  The other annoyance is that about 1/3 of the items were labeled "coming soon" in red.  Jessica explained that they are still in their "soft opening" period.  WTF?!  After almost 4 months they are still "soft opening"?!  And what is the point of putting all those dishes on the menu when the diner is denied the pleasure of ordering them?  Another funny thing is that while the menu professes to withhold printing prices for ladies out of deference, the two ladies tonight both received menus with prices.  Do I need new glasses? Was I eating with two dudes?

We were discussing the pros and cons of the menu, and my friends were sounding a little upset that the dishes they most wanted weren't available.  Perhaps we could have been a little more quiet with our discussions, so as not to annoy the table behind us.  I was told later the host of that table was the restaurant's PR, out to entertain a group of people from concierge service Quintessentially.  The staff and the host were doing their damndest to sell the virtues of the restaurant and the menu.

After I decided on the dishes I would order, I started to do my usual routine of taking pictures of the menu.  I do this at every restaurant because I wanted to make sure I am absolutely correct in the naming of the dishes.  I do this all over the world and so far nobody has objected.

Waitress:  "Excuse me, we don't allow people to take pictures of our menu."
Me, a little surprised: "...but I want to know what I'm eating."
Waitress:  "Sorry, we don't allow picture-taking."
Me, now a little annoyed but speaking softly: "...then I will not eat here..."

In a split second, as I still held my iPhone above the menu but had withheld from taking additional pictures, Jessica Kwok the Restaurant Manager swooped in, yanked the menu out from under me, and said less-than-politely: "We don't allow pictures of the menu!"  She looked so pissed off I thought she was about to club me on the head!

I was absolutely stunned.  All of a sudden I found myself without a menu in front of me.  After a few seconds, I recovered somewhat and wondered out loud how I was to order any dishes without a menu, but no response came from the staff.  All I got were glares from the staff.

My friends and I discussed the situation, and started thinking of alternate venues for dinner. I double-checked with them to make sure that in their minds, what I was about to do wasn't considered over-reacting.  Afterwards I called a waiter over and asked for the bill.  I paid for my corkage of HKD 350, 2 bottles of Hildon water (how they manage to open a second bottle of water for 3 people after 20 minutes, when we haven't even started ordering is beyond me...) for HKD 156, HKD 15.6 of "service" charge, and left.

We felt pretty incredulous.  First of all, I had never been refused to take pictures or copy down a restaurant's menu.  Is the chef really so insecure that he is afraid of people stealing his ideas?  Every restaurant from a top chef that I've been to - and I think I've been to quite a few - have always been happy to give out their menu of the day to guests.  I have a few from places like the French Laundry, per se and Philippe Rochat.  Hell, each of us got one from El Bulli!  Does this guy think he's more creative than Ferran?!

Second, I think this Jessica Kwok person forgets that she works in the service industry.  I may not have been the most polite customer - although I don't think I was very rude tonight as I spoke softly and never once raised my voice - and perhaps I should have considered an alternative to taking pictures of the menu, but to grab the menu by force from your customer is just something I've never seen.  Never even contemplated possible.  And sure hope never to see it again in my lifetime.

So I shall never know the taste of g.e.  I will never spend a dime of my money - or anyone else's - at that establishment.  I certainly will stay away from anyone associated with that establishment for the rest of my days.  If that is what you call customer service, then please, there's no need to serve me!