Because this is exactly how businesses SHOULD handle negative reviews!

Hey everyone!!~

We've often heard of businesses struggling to handle negative criticism, causing the downfall of their reputation and most of the time, their business as a whole. Right?

I'm not gonna include examples, because I'm sure you know what I mean. I'll jump right to the deets.

This post targets THE FISHING CHOOK (TFC), a take-away store located in Neeta City's food court.


Before we start, let me disclose a few things:

1. I'm NOT a professional food blogger, but most of all, I don't even consider myself a food blogger. I've created The Beautifood as a documentation of my food adventures (with my own nigiri-rating scoreboard). 
2. I'm NOT one for naming and shaming. I think things could get really nasty that way. But when people (or in this case, the business) takes it to another level, what can I do? 
3. It is PERFECTLY FINE to disagree with me. I welcome EVERYONE'S opinions and comments. As long as it's not wishing death upon me or personally attacking me, then everything else [that's on topic] is okay. 

OK. So... What happened exactly between TFC and myself? 

IN A NUTSHELL: 

I ate from their store, twice. The second time (22 October 2014) I came back for real meals, I thought their food was pretty horrible. The taste was just off, for almost every single thing I ordered. It may be their food, it may be my taste. Whatever. The chips were probably done right. Can't remember, it didn't really make an impression. It's not what a business should celebrate over anyways... Best chips.. what?

What upsetted me most was their customer service. My sister stood around waiting for her burger for 7-8 minutes, before she politely asked on how much longer. You wanna know what the response was?

"DO YOU WANT IT RAW?"

Ummmm. Yeah, tell me one damn reason why she'd like it raw. Please. #datresponsedoe

6 MONTHS LATER:

Suddenly, I woke  up one day to all these nasty comments on this food blog, that I have given up ageeeeeees ago. What? And they were all on this one post of TFC. 

I'll give you a run down of them, okay?

1, 2, 3, GO!

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[Above] I actually should take this anon's advice and buy me a $2 burger from McDonalds next time. I've never had a problem with McDonald's burgers, and the staff at McDonalds won't give me shitty attitude like the middle-aged lady (probably in her late 30's to early 40's) at TFC did. Wonderful advice!

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[Above] I should also add, I'm old enough to know how a burger and salad should taste. And I'm sure you eat there more than just once a week. People who eat at a restaurant once a week, I don't think, will be loyal enough to research up their reviews, attack the reviewers, and also loyally defend them on their Facebook page... like so: 

(I've coloured out your last name to protect your identity. Thank me later)

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[Above] Trashy comment deserves a trashy reply. Hahaha, nah, don't take it too harsh anon. I was kidding, but do learn to read. There's a big difference between 7-8 minutes and 2 minutes. Dayummmmm. 

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[Above] Pretty sure this anon wanted to get me heated up. It's totally up to you. Your money, not mine. I'd be glad if you even came back and dropped me a comment saying that the food was great! Let me know how it goes anon!

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[Above] Blogger getting shut down by her readers? NO way. Ain't no one shuttin' me down. I just don't have time to reply to all these comments. There's 1 of me, and probably a clan of keyboard warriors. lol.


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[Above] I still stand by what I say. NONE of my friends have commented on the post. Thanks to the anon's who took a logical stance, especially even though you were audience driven FROM TFC's Facebook post!

OK. SO that's a WRAP UP of the comments.

Let's move forward to how TFC handled this.

They posted my blog post on their Facebook page! Hooorray. Counts as a feature, or not?

Of course, they also had to mention my FULL NAME and my UNIVERSITY on their page. I still don't understand their remark about my uni teachers. lol. 

Well. I'm happy to hear that they're "not one to shy away", but at the same time, is this really how a business should take negative criticism?!

But yeah, next thing you know... bam! Comments deleted.

Also, I wanted to clarify one thing....

SWEARING DOES NOT MAKE ME IMMATURE. OK? 

Maybe it makes me a bit vulgar, a bit less sophisticated. But I love the spice it adds. Why do I have to fit in with the professionalism of others? I'm made to stand out bitches! *Jokes, kind of, maybe.

Stop pressing too hard on my swearing though. You don't hate the swear words, you just hate the point I'm trying to get across (which is, "I don't like TFC's food"). Even if I had written it in the most polite way, these anon-responses would just be the same. With maybe one less point to use against me.

I bet TFC [and these anons] wouldn't take it harsh at all if I had boasted about their food with the same swear words, for example, "OMG. They have the best fucking fish and chips around. Chips are fucking on point, and the fish is on fleek... as fuck".



Let's take a look at the person who shared TFC's post, okay?!

Yeah, like I'd have SO much free time to actually sit down and make things up about your staff. And that's EXACTLY what I mean. The lady who served us was in her late 30's, or early 40's, and her response to us was..... atrocious.

It's not like they would proudly stand up to your question and say, "Oh yea! I did say that to a girl back in October 2014" even if they DO remember it.



TO CONCLUDE, don't use the vulgarity within my posts against me. The truth is, your customer service is not great, food is not on point, and figure a better way to treat negative criticism. One that does not include poking fun at (or insulting) the customers OR sending a clan of keyboard warriors after them.


Yeah, alright. Anymore, then I'm going to take this to Judge Judy!

Footscray: Hao Thong

Vietnamese cuisine, a place I always love to dine at! There's never too much chicken rice in my chicken-loving world. Never!

Fairly short walk from Footscray station. I was told that this was the Melbourne-version of Sydney's Cabramatta. Sorry, but I still like Cabramatta better! :P

As you can see, Hao Thong allows BYO. Good stuff! Say hi to me in the window's reflection! o/

From the front, Hao Phong looks quite average in size, but they also have a dining area at the back. Didn't know until I asked for directions to the restrooms! 

Their extensive menu offers a lot of variety and all dishes are fairly cheap, same-same prices with Sydney's Vietnamese cuisines. Around $10 for Crispy Skin Chicken & Tomato Rice and their pho dishes are around $13. 

When I dine at a Vietnamese restaurant, I ALWAYS and only only eat Crispy Skin Chicken & Tomato Rice, so it's fair to say that I have a lot of crispy-chicken experiences (lol). Reason for being is because my lovely mother could pretty much cook everything else at home. I never eat pho out, and I'll tell you why soon!

Crispy Skin Chicken & Tomato Rice ($11.00)

In Cabramatta, it's Tan Viet Noodle House that has the best Crispy Skin Chicken. Hands down!

I've tried this dish at several other restaurants before, and none of them has ever been on par with Tan Viet's. So munching down this dish [on an empty] stomach was really a surprise for me! Their crispy chicken is probably the closest crispy chicken to Tan Viet's, that I've ever eaten. Beautiful crispy skin over tender, chicken meat. Urgh.. so yum!

Typical orange-coloured tomato rice that's served with these dishes, but unlike other restaurant's I've eaten at.. there's egg in this one. Might want to note that ;) Also served with a small portion of greens.

As much as I love the dish, I don't know why they are not served with dipping fish-sauce. Is it a Melbourne thing? Because mine was served with sweet chilli sauce!

In Sydney, they are always served with dipping fish sauce (nuoc mam cham/pha). The sauce that we dip banh xeo or spring rolls into...? Makes it much tastier than sweet-chilli sauce.. eehm. 

My other 3 friends ordered a bowl of pho each. I won't get into too much details with the pho. I love pho, but pho at restaurants are always full of msg (bot ngot), with obvious tastes of it too (reason why I never ever eat pho at restaurants). 

Hao Thong's pho bowls are not exempted from the list. I had a slight tasting of the soup, and really, all I can taste is the MSG. *shivers*

They ordered different types of pho in "small" ($9.00 each, I think), I'm not too sure which one it is in the photo above, but they said "that there was so much meat!".

Off-topic: Pretty cool that they offered pho is sizes, we don't have that in Sydney!

Overall, good customer service, affordable, nice crispy chicken rice, pho are full of msg (but lots of meat).

Hao Phong
136 Hopkins Street, Footscray VIC 3011
Ph. 9689 8373

On my list to try [next time]: Eehm... crispy chicken rice [again].

Melbourne CBD: Crazy Wings

Yeap. Spent a few days in Melbourne last week, and it was SO good! The place was amazing, and every restaurant just seemed so much more appealing than Sydney's.

Crazy Wings wasn't the first we hit up, however, it was one that made me cry.

Sourced from here >

My girlfriend suggested this place, because of their "crazy wings" challenge. I love spicy food, so sure, np. Off we went as 4 to Crazy Wings!

Yeap, Chinese restaurant. The place is quite small, nothing too fancy. Just your average-lookin' Chinese restaurant. It was kinda messy though. I walked into the restaurants and there were two tables uncleaned. There were other tables to fit 2, so we sat down and waited for the table to be cleaned before menus were handed to us.

The customer service was lovely though. Or maybe I just have a good vibe from the cute Chinese guy who served us. Hahahhahahaa. No, but really! We had a few questions, and he happily answered for us.

My most memorable line from him was, "all of these food are on skewers, so we have chicken, lamb [....] except the fried rice". Hahahaha! ◑.◑

He was also really playful. As I took pics of my food, he decided interrupt my pic with the silly V-sign! So cuuuuuuuuute?! OK. Let's get back to rating the food, before I go off rating him. Haha.

As you can see, all skewers are pretty cheap. Ranges from $1.50~$3. We ordered a bunch of skewers, and a bowl of Yangzhou Style Fried Rice ($8.80) to go hand-in-hand with the skewers.

The Yangzhou Style Fried Rice was poo though. I don't recommend it at all.

The serving size was not bad, shared comfortably between us four. But it was pretty much something I could cook at home. Peas, carrots, corn, shrimps and super oily rice together is not Yangzhou-styled fried rice, I don't think? Because if it is, then Yangzhou-styled fried rice is pretty shit. lol. 

Either way, overly-salty... not nice.

NOW! The skewers!!!! Hmph! We ordered quite a few skewers. About $40 worth of skewers!

There's really no point for me to take photos of each individual skewer. They are just presented on quick and easy-to-eat sticks. Nothing fancy, you wouldn't be able to differentiate them anyways!

Here's a quick round-up though:

• Honey spicy -- Tastes yum, but not spicy. 
• Beef -- Strong spiced taste, a bit like curry. Nice and tender, but a tad oily.
• Garlic -- Basic garlic taste, very flavoured. Very simple.
• Chicken skin -- VERY fatty, but nicely spiced. I'm a bit fearful of its fat, just too much for me. Won't finish this myself, but worth a taste. 
• Ox tongue -- Disappointing. The top pieces were drying, but got better towards the middle. Not as tender as I'd like it though. 
• Chicken spicy -- Spicier than Honey Spicy, but bearable. A bit salty though. 
• Original -- Basic with little spice. No point ordering unless you eat this first since flavours and spices of previous skewers will be lingering in your mouth..
• BBQ Enoki Mushroom -- I personally don't like mushroom, so I didn't like this. My friends thought they were nice though!
• Lamb meat -- Yum!

Besids that, we also ordered their... Crazy Wings ($2.50)! Two skewers, since only myself and another could take on spicy.

Urgh. This was mouth-burning. I teared out small strips to eat slowly, and it was ridiculously spicy. I didn't finish the the skewer, not even a wing. The cute waiter told us that "these crazy wings come with a jug of water too" and handed us a jug. Haha. 

I can see why though. They ARE spicy, but they're not nice. Urgh. They just tasted like... full of sprinkled spices, as you can see from the photos. I was expecting them to be soaked-in chilli (eehm, how to explain?), but it felt like they just rolled these wings in spices. DO YOU GET ME????

You can put these on par with Memphis Wing's "Ass Burner" level of spice doe. 

RANDOM THOUGHT: The toilets of this place is ridic-funny though. They are located upstairs (a fair walk), so as you walk upstairs... you'll see signs that keeps pointing you to the toilets.. Well. As they point, the last sign will say "Toilet?". LOL! It's like... I've been following this sign to find the toilets (like a hunting some sort of treasure) and now the last sign has a question-mark after it?! Or are you asking me where the toilet is?!

Overall, nice and nifty concept, cheap menu, lovely customer service, cute waiter, but the food is only OK.  

Crazy Wings
177 Russell St, Melbourne VIC 2177
Ph. (03) 9663 6555

On my list to try [next time]: Papaya Milk, Pear Juice and more drinks. Same-same skewers.

Cute waiter's rating (hehe): 

Bonnyrigg: Tornados Grill/Smokehouse

Another American eater today, Tornados Smokehouse. Not too far from where I live. Located across McDonalds, next to Crust Pizza and Subway.

There are both outdoor and indoor dining areas available. Both areas are comfortable, and were clean enough to sit!

Their menus are pinned up top and each meal has their own description of contained ingredients. Handy, and sleek.

Order, receive your number and choose a seat. They will call out your number when food's ready. The girl behind the counter on the day was really sweet and friendly. I can't remember what I asked her, but she replied very kindly! Lovely customer service (for the first time).

Again, I was with my sister (food-buddy), so we ordered two meals: Black Tornado (combo) and Hot Hell Dog.

Yam, yam, yam!

Hot Hell Dog ($10.90) contains "hell bbq, cayenne mayo, jalapeno, cheese sauce, bacon strips, onion strings". Also came with cole slaw.... which tasted bad as hell. Seriously. it had such a yucky bitter after-taste. Gah.

My friend told me she LOVED this, reason why I got it, else I would've went for a burger. I don't usually eat hot dogs.

This, is not very well done though. The frankfurt, feels like they've bought it from Woolworths, boiled them (or whatever) and then sliced them. The whole thing was a bit of an overshot. It's just too big for me to eat (small mouth, ahem).

The onion rings were a bit, soggy. The bun was also hard. Overall, another meal that I feel like I could've made at home. Disappointing.


On the other hand, my sister got...

Black Tornado Burger in a combo ($14.90), contains "beef, grilled onion, hell bbq, cayenne mayo, cheese, cheese sauce". The drink, we had to get it ourselves. Only drinks that comes with combos are 300mL cans OR a bottle of water. Get it yourself yo!

OK.

The one word I could describe this burger with is, sickening. Needs some greens. Must order these burgers with lettuce [next time], or else you'll feel totes murican' nomming down one of these. Hehe. I kidz. No stereotypes allowed here!

We shared both the burger and hotdog, and this burger was just, so so so sickening. It really needs some lettuce. However, besides that, I still don't think there's anything special about the two meals. Wouldn't order em' again.


Overall, would visit this place again to try some other meals, but not these two meals. If they don't impress next time, then bye-bye!

Tornados Grill/Smokehouse
Crn Elizabeth Drive & Smithfield Road, Bonnyrigg 2177
Ph. (02) 8786 1887

On my list to try [next time]: American Style Pork Ribs ($24.90/half), Tornados Buffalo Wings ($9.90/6 wings).