Having recently moved to Sale for work purposes, I can’t get enough of this restaurant in the town of Sale. The food is explosive, and very reasonably priced. I have been addicted to it since I moved here, and will sadly miss it when I head back to Melbourne next year.
The food Having been there a number of times, and ordering take aways several other times I can honestly say the quality is excellent. This restaurant competes very well with some of the best Indian restaurants in Melbourne. I can’t believe such a gem is hidden in Central Gippsland. If you are a Melbournian and are around Sale, its definitely worth a try.
My favourite is definitely the Paneer Makhani. The tangy taste which hits you a few seconds after you ingest it is incredible. It’s a taste party! Similar the tandoori chicken is a favourite among non-vegatarians.
The service Nothing to complain about here. The ambience is also pretty average but who cares when you have such great tasting food. I have been to various Indian restaurants in Melbourne which have much better ambience, decore’ but have absolutely cr-p food!
The price Their takeaway packages are a real hit, and very affordable. I don’t know how they manage to turn a profit. For $35 you get a vegatarian meal for 2, which will last you two separate meals each. Their eat in prices are also very affordable, and appropriately priced. 10 people can eat there heartily for around $250 dollars all up, which comes to $25 per person which is great.
Summary – Hidden gem in the heart of Central Gippsland (9.5/10) I highly recommend this restaurant to all those in Sale, and tourists in the area. A hidden gem indeed!
You would expect something special from a restaurant situated on Docklands waterfront precinct, but I was rather disappointed with Man Mo.
The food
The presentation of the food is admirable, however the taste was quite bland. I ordered the Singapore Noodles, and despite asking not to have egg in it, it was brought out full of egg. I did not make a complaint, or request a re-do.
My peers also felt the same way with some of their dishes. The timely serving of the food was appreciated.
The ambience
There is no doubt the restaurant is impeccable, and it has to be if situated at Docklands New Quay. The tables were well dressed, the staff wore nice uniforms, and were well kempt. This is something I would have expected from a restaurant of this caliber.
The price
Surprisingly the cost of food was competitive. I was expecting an average main to cost $30.00, (although some did), but the overall bill for 4 people came to around $120, which is fair and reasonable.
The service
Something to be desired for. I felt the staff wanted us out of the restaurant as quick as we came in. No smile, no explanation of what they were serving, but the bill came promptly. Good for us, as we promptly left the place to have dessert at St Elsewhere.
Summary – Rating (5.5/10)
It’s not a bad place, however not what I expected from a restaurant of it’s calibre (or supposed calibre). The service really let it down!!
A Current Affair presented a story about poor customer service today on their nightly show. I couldn’t agree more. I am no avid fan of ACA (although I like some of their stories for its comical nature), however they have a point. This is exactly whyMr Feedback was started.
Often big businesses are not aware of poor customer service in their stores. For e.g.: Myer. So it is Mr Feedback’s job to tell them, and do so in a constructive way.
ACA think customer service has taken a serious dive over the last few years. I disagree. I think it has become slowly worse over the past 10 years. Part of the problem was the economic boom times. Businesses did not need to maintain high standards of customer service at that time, because they knew customers had disposable income to spend anyway, however I am still amazed at the lack of any service in the recent economic climate. One would think businesses will jostle to get customer’s attention, but this is not so in many Australian businesses.
Of course, small business owners provide much more personalized service when compared to big corporations which is understandable but not excusably on the part of big companies.
If you have a poor customer service story, contact Mr Feedback or post a comment.
Example One – “You only get once chance” When a property is up for sale, the current trend is for the buyer to get only one chance to make an offer. Unfortunately, this is stemmed from the demand for properties however I am not so sure if this “rule” will stick around if the property market slumps. The idea is, a group of buyers make their offer and terms of sale and these are put forward to the vendor who picks the best deal.
Now, I never understood why it’s the best option for the vendor. I would have thought the more buyers, and more chances they get the better the price obtained.
I got done by an estate agent who offered me one chance only at buying an apartment at Kensington. It’s a up and coming suburb in Melbourne’s North West, close to the city center. The disappointing thing was, the property sold for $338K, and my offer was $332K. Had it come back to me, then I would have offered $340K and closed the deal. So in this particular case, the vendor lost.
Example 2 – “You might find a few thousand more under your couch” This is a classic example of how a real estate agent can waste your time. My offer for a townhouse in Blackburn stood firm at $435k. The agent states: “You might find a few thousand more under your couch”. So I thought, I must be close and make an offer of $440K. Done deal I thought. What a waste of time!
The agent was playing my deal against another buyer, and had obtained a price of $458k which it sold for. Now, my maximum for that property was $450K, so in this case the vendor cashed in. Don’t ever fall for this trick, which brings me to an important concept in property. The walkaway price! This is the price you will turn your back on the property, and walk away from the deal no matter how close you are to securing the deal. I found out about this concept quite late in my buying venture. Never let emotions get in the way. Emotions could cost you thousands of dollars.
For example: I attended an auction for a property in Box Hill North for a burnt out house. The auction was hot, and the buyer lost control and bought it for $419K. Turns out, he couldn’t afford it, the bank turned it down, so the property came back on the market.
Example 3 – “It has to be unconditional” This is the biggest bulldong ever. Never ever make an unconditional offer. Having a pre-approval for a loan DOES NOT mean you have got the loan fully approved. The normal process is: you get a pre-approval, make a purchase, inform the bank, the bank makes a valuation (if deposit is < 20% although in the current economic climate the deposit required might be more), and then approves the loan if the valuation meets your purchase price. If it does not, then you are liable for the difference.
When a real estate agent says he has received an unconditional offer for a property, then it means: 1) The buyer is extremely rich, or is playing with his equity in an existing property, 2) The buyer is not very bright, or the more likely option is that the estate agent is completely bulldonging you. I almost got sucked into making an unconditional offer, but retracted at the last minute because of the huge risk.
I inspected a property in the Eastern suburbs of Mebourne, where the estate agent (who still rings me about properties) boldly stated he has received an unconditional offer of $380K, and I must make an offer by 6pm that day to be considered. I knew he was lying, however it turns out he wasn’t and the property sold for that amount. The buyer was an investor with plenty of money in the form of equity, so I simply could not match an unconditional offer. Sometimes you lose!
Example 4 – How an estate agent “cheated” me out of a sale. This was just classic case of screwing the buyer over. I had made an good offer for a property in the Eastern suburbs of Melbourne. Days passed, and after repeatedly calling the agent I received no response. The offer was on the table. One Sunday I drove to the house to show my brother, and I saw the estate agent getting out of his car with a folder. Immediately, I knew what was happening.
It turns out the agent behind my back sold the property to another buyer for a lower price. That’s right, a lower price! The agent had decided to pick and choose who he would sell it to.
After investigating the rules of engagement on REIV website, the process just wasn’t worth pursuing further.
In my next post, I will talk a bit more about buyer’s agents and how VIP Consulting helped me with my purchase.
I spent about an hour having lunch at Giorgios Restaurant, located on the corner of Glenferrie Rd and High Street in Armadale, and it was fun. This is a rapid review to reflect my experience.
The ambience Bubbly and busy. Neat setting, cool insides, and nice outdoor setting. Fit for a busy intersection. Excellent for a lunch out.
The service Prompt, didn’t take too long to bring out the dishes.
Food Good servings, reasonably priced, well cooked, neatly presented and explained on serving.
Would I go there? Planning to this weekend.
Rating – 8.5/10 (Well done guys, will try you out for a more compehensive meal). Nice place, family friendly, excellent lunch options, and reasonably priced. Parking is a problem on the streets, but they have underground parking – although I didn’t use it, so don’t know how much it costs (if anything).
Jaipur Curry Bar 14-16 Bourke Street
Melbourne, VIC 3000
Tel: (03) 9663 3848 Ok, let me make this short and sweet! These are the reasons I walked out of this “curry bar” recently:
* Booked a table for 6, did not get a table for anyone
* When the table was arranged, it was upstairs in the corner next to the window. Have you tried going upstairs in their place? You have to weave through the corridors, past the kitchen (caught the chef eating cut cucumbers!!), up along the stairs made of squeaky wood, with sharp corners. Nuff said!
* When we sat down, we waited for 15 minutes before the menus were brought out.
* Then waited another 15 minutes only to find the waiter was inside this store room upstairs talking on his mobile phone ignoring us. I promptly approached him, and asked him if he was ready to take the order.
At this moment, the opinion was pretty sh-te, so the decision was made to quickly get out of there and find another biter.
* The waiter came to take our orders, sporadic asking us what we wanted, not knowing what the dishes were made from nor the ingredients.
At this point, we left the restaurant, hopefully never to return again.
I am sure others have had a pleasant experience here, and I would be interested to hear your thoughts. In fact, would be great if you could post your reviews here, but my experience was pretty bad.
First of all, my apologies for not keeping this blog up to date. I have plenty of material to write, but just have not had time to scratch myself since the birth of the new year. That sounds so long ago. I will shortly summarise our performance for 2008.
I had the opportunity to get to know Little India a bit over the last year or so. I first saw it about a year ago while driving down my favourite Melbourne road – where else, Toorak of course!
The service I have gotten to know the manager there, as I am a regular. However he is not aware of Mr Feedback. Saturday nights can be very busy, and they only had 3 staff last night. This seems to be the normal for them. The restaurant is a decent size, and well decored. I waited about 10-15 minutes for my entree, and about 15 minutes further for the main. We did order a lot of dishes, so I was impressed with the prompt service. The waitress was able to cater for my special dietary requirements, without any major errors. They do have to be a bit more formal with their interaction thought, that’s my opinion anyway.
The food I am a great fan of the Little Indian matter paneer. This is a regular for me. The dishes are well presented, particularly the entree platters. The serves are plenty, and justified. The cost of the food is surprisingly low for a restaurant in Melbourne’s prestige suburbs.
The ambience The restaurant has certainly grown over the past year. It has gone from quite a bland interior decor, to promoting its outdoor spaces and also simple yet effective interior design. The tables and chairs are modern, and I really like the wall leather seating. The annoyance of having only one bathroom for each gender can be felt. The layout of the restaurant is easy to understand, and makes sense. The chef’s can be seen working hard on the dishes, and there seems to be a clear system of claiming orders.
I am bit disappointed at the lack of register technology. They really can invest in a PDA order systems transmitted wirelessly to the register (similar to many restaurants in Lygon St), and also a better cash register. I was surprised to see the waitress writing out my tax invoice by hand, this is bit backward in today’s day and age.
Summary – Rating (8.5/10) I really like their online ordering system and their clean website design. A couple pointers to fix, but overall a great restaurant located in Melbourne’s finest roads.
Ok, I wrote a post on October 6, 2008 about suspending my optus mobile phone plan as it was not on a contract.
Guess what I received today? A bill for $49 for my optus mobile. LOL – this is just a joke. However, I shall never give up. I will call them up tomorrow and let you all know what happens.
Lygon Street is well known of its Italian delicacies, however I had never been there for lunch. It’s pretty quiet during the week days for lunch. I have been to Villa Romana before, and on my recommendation I took a few of my mates there.
The service I send my apologies for our poor behavior. I say poor because it took us ages to make up our minds for the food. In fact when the waitress came for the orders for the second time, we never bothered to look at menu. That’s pretty poor, and I am personally sorry. I get excited when I catch up with friends after a long time.
I can’t complain about the service. We had a three course lunch meal, and coffees and the service was prompt. Sure enough after our disastrous start, we didn’t bother the waitress too much about each of the dishes.
The ambience and venue Villa Romana have three different seating arrangements. On a wintry evening, you can choose to sit indoors near the kitchen. This area is nicely decorated with pictures of famous people dining at the restaurant. You can see the photos here. Then, there is the portico area, which is where we chose to sit. This actually makes up the majority of the seating arrangements. Watch out for slight holes in the portico roof, I found this out when the rain water dropped onto my back. But that’s ok. Finally, the true outdoor setting literally on the foot path. They do have heaters located between each table, but I don’t generally like eating when strangers strut by.
The food Personally, I enjoy the wood fired pizzas, and the gnocchi served in mushroom creamy sauce with a hint of sundried tomatos.
Suggestions * Fix those small holes in the portico to avoid customers getting “drenched”.
* I really like the google map integration, but you should consider having an online booking system.
* The menu on your website needs some serious work. Where is it anyway? It’s way too brief. It doesn’t take much effort to scan the menu and feature it on the site.
Summary – 7/10 (I liked it, but it’s not the best out there by a long shot) I hope you guys take my pointers and revamp your website, and fix those holes in the portico.
This is a quick review. I went to Mushi Mushi Sushi Noodles (what a cool name), and boy was it busy. Lunch hour means office goers from nearby businesses descend on this small restaurant. The prices are very reasonable ($8.00-$10.00 per serve), and the servings are massive. Great place for quick lunch. I timed my order – 2 X Hokkein Mee Noodles, and it took them 6 minutes from start to finish. That is super fast!
Mushi Mushi Sushi Noodles Pinewood Shopping Centre
Ph: (03) 98877660
Addit: Thank you to Mat and Yumm for correcting the phone number.
Having recently moved to Sale for work purposes, I can’t get enough of this restaurant in the town of Sale. The food is explosive, and very reasonably priced. I have been addicted to it since I moved here, and will sadly miss it when I head back to Melbourne next year.
Ok, let me make this short and sweet! These are the reasons I walked out of this “curry bar” recently:
First of all, my apologies for not keeping this blog up to date. I have plenty of material to write, but just have not had time to scratch myself since the birth of the new year. That sounds so long ago. I will shortly summarise our performance for 2008.
The ambience and venue
