It's not quite up there in the same league as Jack getting an email from Ben Shewry about her review of his food, but I had my own small blogging fame recently too.
I had been to Rose of Thailand previously and had a good time there and the food was good. Recently, I got feedback in the comments section of that post from one of the managers at Rose of Thailand. Not only did they apologise for the confusion in regards to a few tiny things, they even followed up to find out what went wrong. I didn't expect that they would be able to track down my order, let alone the problem. But lo and behold, they found my order from months ago and identified the problem. My friends and I were also offered a free dish and drink to make up for last time. The fact that restaurants actually take feedback from bloggers and then go make changes is great.
So I went back recently to try the food again. I just booked under my name "Thanh" and dined with some friends. I didn't ask to speak to the manager or anything. I was just there to eat and enjoy myself. Anyway, as I'm ordering, the waiter looks at me and asks if I have been there before and ordered the banquet last time. He then asks if I'm "Thanh", to which I say yes. He says he will come back and talk to me later.
A bit later, another gentlemen, the manager came and started to talk to me about the previous times slight mix up. He explained about how lots of customers also get confused about these two drinks. Also, he explained why the Larp Chicken wasn't as good. The head chef was on hoilday, the second chef was sick that day, and the third chef in line made the dish. He apologised again and offered that dish for free to try again. I said it was ok and said we wanted to try some other things.
Again, the food was very good. The Thai Fish Cakes were again very good, full of fish and herbs. The Red Curry Duck was smooth and had good flavours. The Green Curry Chicken was one of the better green curries I've had. And the whole Barramundi was very moist and spot on. The manager came back to our table several times to check that everything was ok.
So there was my small blogging fame incident. I'm very excited about it because of the fact that restaurants actually take the time to improve themselves. How they managed to recognise me is a bit strange. I do put photos of myself occasionally on the blog, but unless they have my photo pasted to their bulletin board, I'm not sure how they picked me. Anyway, I'm definitely going back to Rose of Thailand in the future as it is a good, cheap, Thai restaurant that's actually close-ish to my house.
Ha, that's great! I think it reflects very well on the restaurant that they're so keen to prove themselves. Don't let your fame and influence go to your head Thanh. ;-)
ReplyDeleteJust in case you're interested, a recent post I wrote about the Commoner in Fitzroy attracted a few comments from one of its co-owners. Although it can be awkward, I think this kind of interchange is ultimately good for everyone involved.
Cindy, of course I'm going to let it get to my head. I'm going to walk around now and make demands on restaurants and tell them that I write a blog hahahaha. I'm joking in case the sarcasm does not translate through the text.
ReplyDeleteI read your Commoner review but at the time it didn't have comments yet. Some very interesting exchange indeed. I'm going to put my two cents worth in too.
I think it can be awkward as in your case. Mine was positive so therefore the restaurant was happy. But what if I had written something bad and then wanted to go back for another try. What would happen? Would I get bad treatment and/or harassed? Who knows.