i have had a wonderful christmas, spending time with family. going out for non-stop dinners! well, b and i had the best of both worlds as we had a chinese dinner with his side then a western dinner with mine.
however, there was a sore point in our western dinner. (caution: here's where i start to rant!). we ate christmas day dinner at jake's charbroil in starhill. we booked a table at the non-smoking section (note: this is a rant against jake's and not at smokers). even though we were seated at the non-smoking section, we were just next to the smoking section which was up on a "platform". the smoke from the smoker (as there was only one) was blowing back down onto us. the smell was really strong and it lingered. can you imagine if the whole smoking section was filled? this was caused by a single smoker!
i complained to the manager (here, i am assuming that he's the manager as he was the only one in a suit). i could NOT believe how nonchalant and blase he was! he did not say sorry for the inconvenience neither was he bothered. he was your typical malaysian front liner with the 'tidak apa' laidback attitude. he couldn't care less! frankly, by the way he responded, i believe this was not the first time he has heard such a complaint and he made us feel like we were being difficult and that we were troublemakers!
my question is: why have separate sections to begin with if it makes no difference? why can't jake's be more responsible and have the area away from the non-smoking section? either that or why can't they install proper ventilation systems?
every other restaurant i've been to, both the sections are very well-defined. eg, kampachi pavilion, alexis gardens, all the delicious outlets, even the hong kong style 'char chan teng' all do it very well (note again all these places are situated in malls, ie air-conditioned areas).
does jake's just don't care about their customers? they have to know there is a reason why customers ask for non-smoking sections to begin with. why bother giving customers a choice when it makes no difference at all? it's no surprise here that we will NEVER EVER patronise jake's again.