Gossipmongers Inc.

Avinandan and I ate at Wonton, Gachibowli on Saturday (09.05.09) totally disgusted with the idea of entering that torture chamber we call 'Kitchen' and cooking our dinner for that evening. It was my first trip to Wonton's Gachibowli branch. It looks rather small from the outside but it is not as crammed up inside as it looks. The seating arrangement has been done properly so it is not at all conjusted. The ambience is soothing but slightly looks fake. We were greeted at the door by a lanky receptionist with a weird accent which left me wondering for a few seconds whether he spoke to me in some foreign language. A bit dazed I managed to utter that we need a table for two. We were seated promptly. After taking my seat, I started to look around and found men in white shirts and black pants with black waist aprons wrapped around their waists walking all over the place rather awkwardly. I thought Penguins would look better in their shoes. After a thorough examination of the menu we decided to order Hong Kong noodles, sweet and sour prawns and mutton in hot vegetable sauce. I managed to call a rather funny looking man who came to take our orders. All this time I was praying hard that there would be someone who can speak in English. He turned out to be no different from the receptionist. So it left me wondering whether there was a Wonton accent because both sounded the same. Everything seemed to be going on well when we found to our utter dismay that the management had made a mistake and had given us S&S Veg instead of Prawns. But since we had helped ourselves to some of it we decided to just go ahead with it. We informed them and asked them to make sure that the changes are made on our bill. After the sumptuous meal which was followed by litchi with ice-cream as dessert, we were baffled to find that the bill didn't turn out to be that much. However, as we left the place both of us agreed that the food was good but the service was pathetic.
Wonton, no doubt, has quality stuff on their menu which by many standards is affordable and doesn't seem to put a hole on your wallet. However, what makes a food joint worth the money is its service as well. Service leaves an impression on our minds to such an extent that it somehow influences us on how we eventually rate their food. Wonton gets a big zero and thumbs down for service. First, the fact that we didn't realise that there was a mistake with our order was because the waiter who brought the food mumbled something and left in a hurry before we could even dare to ask him to repeat what he had managed to mumble. Secondly, they took so much time to go back, talk to the staff in the kitchen and get back to us by which time we were in no mood to wait for them to bring us the prawns; the order itself took so much time. Thirdly, they didn't even apologise thinking of which the tip that we left behind seems too generous. Fourthly, the cutleries on our table were missing. When our food was being served the waiter grabbed the cutleries from an empty table next to ours and handed it to us. When we wiped the cutleries with the tissue, the white tissues just turned black. The cutleries were terribly dirty! Now, when I come to think of it it was indeed a wanton place. The waiters lacked training and discipline, and they managed to show it off wantonly. But thankfully they were not playing any fake Chinese music which would have been a double turn off.