restaurant feedback.....PS Cafe

I love cafes and eating out in places that give out that lazy ambient vibe.
I never fancied myself as a reviewer of restaurants as food is subject to personal tastes.  One mans meat etc.....but this time I just had to say something

I took my sister and her partner to a branch of my favourite cafe for lunch and expected to have a fuss free lazy afternoon.
We arrived on time and as expected we  had to wait to be seated. i dont mind waiting but i do mind the lack of communication and  the lack of a smile, I think smiles are too expensive in this place,  They  made us wait with no greeting, not even a  "I'll be with you in a minute".  we were ignored as they walked and stood chatting in front of us to set up a new digital interactive customer thingy.

good food....but water glasses were always empty

It was tedious trying to catch the eye of any waiter to get our orders once we were seated and even more difficult to communicate with one of the waiters that wore a badge stating he only spoke Mandarin. He was however  one of the more attentive waiters around.   I live in Singapore, its a multi racial country and we pride ourselves on having everyone speak some English. even if its broken English.  Yes service staff is hard to find as Singaporeans cannot afford to live in this country and work as service staff on the low wages wait staff earn.  Businesses depend on cheap foreign labour to work as wait staff, and there are plenty of young people from China here doing just that. What I hate is that they will not communicate in English but expect everyone in Singapore to speak Mandarin! OK rant over and back to the main issue here.......

The restaurant was not full,we were just made to feel like we were an encumbrance and the staff wished we were somewhere else and not sitting in the restaurant trying to have a relaxed meal ..

 Its one of my favourite chain of restaurants in Singapore and I frequent the one at Palais Renaissance alot.....the one at Dempsey, Harding Road is a beautiful place in a perfect setting for lazy afternoon lunches, food is good  but the service staff are pretentious and  obviously not interested at all in serving anyone.

It pains me that common courtesy and a simple smile was totally not forthcoming. While I sympathise with the wait staff as some customers are very difficult, I still think that if you take a job serving people you should be service orientated.

So while I may still go to the cafe at Palais Renaissance, I hesitate to head out to Harding road to be treated like something the cat dragged in.