just had a very unique dining experience at this russian restaurant, 6th floor of far east shopping centre. yup, i never knew there were restaurants in there either!

firstly, the food at the restaurant was pretty damn good. although i didn't really like the borsche soup with sour cream, the dinner rolls were light and fluffy, just the way bread should be. and the carpet bag steak was good too, but i don't get why they call it carpet bag. why carpet bag? is it like a carpet or is it like a bag? can't they make up their mind?? had grilled pork chops too which were really really good- not too tough and the lean meat was really lean and brown and juicy. then we had baked alaska for dessert, baked alaska being this ice-cream cake thing covered with baked cream, and then set aflame with brandy. which makes the cream on the top pretty high in alcohol content, cos most of the brandy gets absorbed there and never reaches the icecream inside. so you kinda get a rush of alcohol when you swallow the cream in one mouthful. which was what happened to my mom, and made her giggle nonstop all the way to the car. my dad and i were joking that we'd infuse her tea with brandy the next time she gets mad with us, and wait for it to work its magic. haha!

oh, anyway the food wasn't what left the biggest impression on me; it was the service. like most of the restaurant staff were in their 40s-60s, and they certainly -looked- like they'd been at it for a while. when my dad asked the waitress to change a glass of iced water to hot water, she gave him a Look and for a moment we were all afraid she'd throw the water in his face. then when this other guy was setting the table, he didn't bother to move to the other side to place the cutlery down, oh no, he just threw them right across the table! my sis and i literally had knives aimed straight at us. and then, there was the long wait for the entrees. a full HOUR and we'd only succeeded in enjoying the arrival of the soup and bread. so it's no surprise the restaurant was full. and really, the waiters and waitresses were going around like they had all the time in the world, and with black faces to boot. like my sis said, 'not happy then don't serve lah'!

also, right next to us was this table of jap tourists. it became immediately clear that they were tourists because every single one of them had a digital camcorder on his person, and insisted on recording even the most mundane of things, like the serving of the soup at the table. which became kinda irritating because there was this constant neon glare from the LCD screens going off in our faces, on top of the constant bawdy chatter. and then halfway through, disaster struck- the wrong dishes were brought to the table. instead of handling it calmly and politely, they started standing up and shouting at the waiters, which caused a huge commotion given that they were shouting in japanese and nobody knew what the hell they were talking about. in fact i suspect the orders weren't even wrong in the first place, and that they just didn't understand the menu when they were ordering. anyway, that was majorly pissing because the commotion in turn delayed -our- food trolley from making its way to our table, and also, it was highly unpleasant to say the least. finally, after a lot of "Bad! No good!" (what a shocker; i always thought bad equalled good) one of them found it in him to exclaim, 'YOU MISTAKE!' whereupon the head waiter arrived at the table and said "bad, change, change" and pushed the offending trolley away. and the japs went back to their usual loud and rowdy laughter. kinda reminded me a bit of Lost in Transition, but also forever tarnished my impression of japs. i always used to think they were refined people who liked their green tea and sushi, but now i will remember their vulgarity and brashness. i'm mean and have an inner bitch like all of us, but even for the perpetual pms of the waiters, i'd never have humiliated them in the way the jap guy did. so demeaning and so undignified. plus, it ruined the dining atmosphere of all the other patrons. how uncouth.

like i said, 'twas really a unique dining experience!