Essay

Good service

By Tan Ying Zhen

Unlike Japan, Singapore is not known for having excellent service. Recently, however, I had the privilege of enjoying some of the best service I had ever had.

I was having brunch at a local dim sum place with my friends. It wasn't a swanky restaurant. Neither was it our top choice. We had gone there because the restaurant we had wanted to go to was fully booked.

We entered the restaurant through its adjoining bakery and waited for someone to attend to us. Everyone seemed busy. Finally we caught the attention of a waitress passing by.

"Table for four," I said, preempting her question.

"Follow me." She led us briskly to a table. As we sat down, she said, "You actually came in by the back entrance. Use the front entrance next time." She gestured towards the other end of the restaurant.

She did not bother with pleasantries, but it didn't feel rude. With characteristic Singaporean efficiency, she had shown us our seats and given us solid advice.

The service staff comprised mainly women in their forties and fifties. The restaurant filled up quickly and they were kept on their toes, but they came by often to refill our cups of hot oolong tea. Several spoke in Cantonese, which conveyed a sense of warmth and familiarity. This was the mother tongue of many people in the older generation, and a Chinese dialect common to many traditional restaurants.

To celebrate one of our birthdays, we had bought a cake from another shop. The staff willingly kept it in their fridge and even gave us extra plates and cutlery. When we asked for help to take a group photo, a waitress happily obliged. She even took the effort to adjust the cake's position to make it more attractive.

Another waitress noticed the leftovers that had been lying there for ages. She volunteered to pack it in a takeaway bag and returned with not just the takeaway bag, but also more freshly brewed tea.

Our stomachs filled up quickly, but we had so much to talk about we hesitated to leave. A kind and motherly waitress noticed our discomfort at occupying a table for so long. She came by and said with a smile, "It's okay. Feel free to stay and talk. Would you like more tea? Be careful. It's hot!"

We felt like we were in a friend's home, instead of a restaurant in a bustling shopping mall on the busiest shopping street in Singapore.

Was this good service? A Michelin restaurant guide reviewer might have found it lacking. To us, however, this was genuine no-frills hospitality straight from the heart. Just like beauty, good service is in the eyes of the beholder.

よいサービス

日本のようなおもてなし文化では知られていないシンガポールだが、先日、筆者はたまたま入った飲茶のお店で、今までで最も素晴らしいと思うサービスを受けたという。その内容とは—？

The Japan Times ST: June 20, 2014