Pathetic Service at Star of India
On Sunday the 23rd of September 2012, I had the misfortune of having my dinner with family in a well known restaurant by the name of “Star of India”, which belongs to the sterling group. My experience turned to out to be extremely horrible, it started when I sat down to have my meal and poured myself a glass of water, to my surprise the glass smelled of rotten meat, i.e. it hadn’t been washed properly, it had already ruined my appetite. Upon, this discovery I summoned the waiter to change the glasses. Mr. Suresh, who was the waiter, didn’t bother to get the glasses for a really long time, leaving me disgusted and thirsty, eventually I was unable to relish my meal. When I finally asked for him, he returned after a really long time and handed the glasses to me, when asked what took him so long, he reported that the machine which washes the glasses, wasn’t really using clean water. Adding to my feeling of disgust, I demanded to meet the manager, upon which he asked me what was the issue and that this was such a minor problem and even another customer faced the same problem and I should comply with the situation, this really got me really upset, apart from loosing my appetite and ruining my dinner with family, he still didn’t apologize for the mistake and now he had asked me to comply with the restaurant’s drawbacks. After repeatedly asking for the manager for about an hour, Mr. Suresh reported that he was busy and would be there in 5 minutes. After waiting for a long time, another waitress brought the bill and reported that Suresh had gone for delivery. Mr. Jose, another waiter, intervened and got into the picture and asked me to pay the bill and go away, when I asked him as to where did the other waiter go, he told me it was none of my business and pay the bill and leave, this got me really irritated, but none the less, I paid my bill and was moving out with family. When I went to the counter to take the receipt, I discovered that he had already crumpled the bill and thrown it away, I demanded again to meet the manager, and I was told that Mr. Bino, the manager had already left. When I asked Jose, when he was busy a few minutes ago how could he leave without meeting me? After which he told me to “get lost”, in a tone that was very loud and unethical and when I told him I’d raise this issue to the public, he replied that he didn’t care and he could do whatever he likes and I was incapable of doing anything and he had seen many in the past and none were able to do anything. Insulting me in front of the whole restaurant and my family. This has been a very unpleasant and heart breaking experience, despite the fact that the restaurant had been at fault, I never heard a word of apology, instead I was insulted in front of my family and all the customers, the staff of “star of India” was rude and had absolutely no etiquettes. I wanted to warn everyone planning to go to this place, if you are very fond of ruining your meal and getting insulted please visit this restaurant, else withhold yourself from going to a place where you are treated like dirt.
;)
LOL Prism these are the same people that drink tap water back home and eat at cheap 5 dollar all you can eat buffets :P
lol...so what is the conclusion... everyone should be going to Gordon Ramsey and beg him to start the resto so that they can have clean water cos even the bottled water in a bottle isnt good to consume unless touched by him or people in his resto. BTW how do such people drink water at home....take their bottles to him, get it blessed (I mean touched) and then drink...:) There is a limit to show off too, I guess.
Some comments here are similar to the response 'travel in business or first class' when someone complains about bad service in economy class of a flight....lol.
Madilulur incase you didnt know, verbal abuse to anyone in public can be reported to the police to take action against the person..and MORE so if its done in front of a person's family is absolutely not tolerated.
Further more if the dispute happened over a dirty glass of water, its still the fault of the restaurant to begin with and then to be rude in the manner mentioned by the OP calls for strict action to be taken against the waiter and the management.
Hope you can wrap your head around that. :)
You actually DRINK the water in those places???That's tap water....yukkkkkk
OK, still trying to wrap my head around this. You have a hissy with the waiter over a dirty water glass. After an acrimonious verbal altercation you say you didn't receive great customer service. Well, yeah. How did we get from this to calling the police??? You're going to tell them that your water glass was dirty and the service wasn't as prompt or respectful as you had wanted it to be? Good luck with that!
Mandi
If you pay peanuts, you get monkeys!
You learnt your lesson. Star of India is definitely not a place I would have recommended
Next time try Chingari (Radisson), Taj Rasoi (Mariott), Bismilla Royal Tandoor (Souq Wakif) and Zaouq (Near Mid Mac R/A).
Or try the multitude of "hole in the wall" type places in old central Doha for excellent food (minus the fancy service).
who goes to that place nowadays?
The next time this happens, take a snap and immediately call the consumer dept.
That was truly shocking. Thanks for sharing in your story. No matter what happens, no customer deserves the treatment you underwent. I suggest you speak to the authorities and seek help with them over this matter.
what has happened to u nd ur family is such a disgusting nd shocking..... i thought, indian restaurants maintain the same hospitality standard like back home.... i mean how can the staff be rude to the customers saying get lost or u cant do anything kinda stuffs.....
nd mind u, star of india is a very expensive restaurants in its category..... like some1 said, should have taken action then nd there by calling the cops...
TFS for some1 sharing the muncipality number....
m sure the whole restaurant staffs from waiter to manager was aware of ur incident nd tried to brush it under the carpet...
It is your fault completely.
Why didn't you complain. you should have complaint to Consumer Protection Department.
You should have kept that dirty glass with you as a proof.
And why were you not reacting on their rude behavior. If i were you. I will call the police immediately.
I can see this attitude in most of the foreign, especially Asians like me. They accept every stupid situation and don't complain to the authorities.
there is no use to cry over here in QL.
I still cant believe. how did you digest such rude behavior.
OK...I generally go there twice a month plus for last one year...never had any problems and am served well and some of their dishes are cool and I generally dont deviate from them (no experimenting). Don't know why nothing bad happened with me or is it that I am just too relaxed when I am on an outing that it isn't very easy to get on my nerves...:)
Just file a complaint to the municipality and they will show him what can be done. If he abused you in front of your family you can report him to the police as well who will teach him a lesson.
and to add more, if you see...most of the dishes have so much of bloody sauce in it as if they got free supply of sauce for one year with an expiry date of the same year...:(
Went there once and swore that i would never do so again. The place is a dive.
The hopitality (customer service) at Sultan's or Turkish Central which are more of Shawarma stalls in Al Nassr St. is great, nothing to complain so far.
I have noticed some fellows want special treatment as if they were at their own office with false domination on their junior staff .. this does not work in outer real world .. where you have to pay a price.
I have to disagree.
If you go to a tea stall or to a small restaurant. They're cups are paper, their kitchen is dirty and their staff are rude and uncaring - that is acceptable.
Go to a higher price restaurant, you expect more...like cleanliness, service and decency. Compare a Gordon Ramsey restaurant from a Shawarma stall, and see where your expectation are.
Part of what you are paying for at high class restaurants are its ambiance and quality of service....
Quality of food, on the other hand, may not necessarily mean more if you are in a high class restaurant or in a stall that sells shawarma and the 2 / 3 riyal sandwiches...
food is crappy too...not to frget the good for nothing waiters and their service...!!
File a Complient to Doha Municipality, which will help other customers.
Doha Municipality Number : 44266666
Been there a couple of times, service was ok but food wasn't all that great. Really surprised they told a customer to get lost, someone was in a really bad mood...
one of the worst Restaurant in doha dont care about customers
What a dump. Seriously. I've heard quite a few complaints about the place really. It has always received really bad right ups in all these restaurant review sites/mags. I myself have been there just once when I was new to Qatar. Not the most impressive of places for sure.. Never went back! TFS all the same..hope your post will serve as a heads up to others. Any place that refuses to let a customer meet their manager and responds instead with horrible manners, should IMO be shunned!
painther...100 likes to both posts of yours, specially on the price Vs service...:)
i wonder how people here are connecting 'price' with customer service/decency/etiquette !
if a restaurant is not 'pricy' does that mean it has right to misbehave with it's customer?
Next time bring your family in a decent and a little bit expensive restaurent dude.
If happened with You, dosen't mean would happen with Everyone!
now that if they write the Story, we would perhaps see the other side of the Story~!
U had a bad day, i can understand...& i as well agree, you did deserve an apology!
I think that's very BAD on their part, cheap or costly noone has right to misbehave with the customers.
Probably those guyz were frustrated not by you but by their own lives, less/untimely wages, no vacation for years, living away from family etc must have made their life unpleasant which resulted in such harsh idiotic behavior.
In my opinion you need to post your experience at all possible forums, restaurant review sites etc to let them feel the heat.
bytheway there is nothing Indian in that restaurant and for sure this is not the Indian hospitality. They are noway 'star' of India or any thing like that. In my own experience, they are one cheap road side food stall, a money minting shop and don't even make authentic Indian cuisine.
If you could also complain to the management of Sterling. That would not only help you, but others who might experience the same as what you experienced.
Some restaurants does not provide quality service, the only thing that we can do is complain to the management and not eat there again....
Complain to the Consumer Protection Department?
well what do you expect, it isn't exactly a five star restuarant!
Keep a watch out when ever you go to such places, cheap yes but don't expect a fine dining experience.
They should then change there name to "Curse of India"...:( Pathetic.
I hear you friend. I trust your comments and I will never go there. Not as If I was planning to go anyway. There must also be some other way to show him that customer comes first.
But usually such uncourteous behavior comes from businesses which really don't care if they make profit or not. So perhaps it doesn't really bother him if he loses customers.
its happen brother this is life
no one care about each other all people become self wish.