Having lived in Penang for 7 years now, it I'd fair to say that I am a regular here. Normally, I refuse to return to a place if the service is bad but given the fact that I am a 'cakeoholic' and these kind of...cakes are limited in Penang, I do find myself in China House atleast three times a year. Whilst I do agree that it is overpriced, I go here for a treat and I am prepared for the costs .
I have been quite naive in hoping that the service will be better everytime I gear myself up to return and always go in with a fresh and hopeful mindset but, the service only seems to be getting worse.
My worst experiance here was when the female manager actually shouted at me in front of other customers when I requested to pay my bill with my card rather than cash. She apparently had already pressed cash on the machine and it seemed to be a big drama for her to change the method to card (she hadn't asked me my preferred method of payment) She then got even angrier when I pointed out that I had been charged extra for things I hadn't ordered. She said I needed the pay the bill even though I only ordered two slices of cake, she was asking me to pay for four. When I kindly pointed out that this was a mistake, she once again began to shout st me in front of a room for a people. The worst bit is that my mum was visiting from overseas and I had took her here for a special day out. My Mum looked mortified and shocked that a customer could be spoken to like this.
Whilst the times I returned after that did improve slightly and the food was always very good, I found my last experiance there to be very frustrating. When I went to order my cakes at the desk, the man told me the cakes were out of stock yet we were stood right next to the cake tray which was full of the requested cake...he then shouted over very rudely to his collegue to clarify that the cake was in stock to which she replied 'yes, look' and also pointed at the cake. He then repeated this exact same thing when I tried to order my daughter's cake. Again, both his collegue and I had to prove that the cake was right in front of him. I let this go and went to sit down. My next frustration came when the waiter continually stood chatting and laughing to a fellow waitress when we were trying to order drinks (I was not allowed to do this when ordering cake at the counter apparently) Eventually, our drinks arrived and the waitress placed a scorching hot cup of coffee right Infront of my 1 year old baby (he was purposefully sitting on the far side of the table with my husband so that I could drink a hot drink in a safe distance.) Thankfully my husband managed to jump up just on time to quickly pull the mug away (it spilt everywhere and was not replaced) whilst we were not bothered by the fact the waitress could not remember whose drink was what, we would have thought she would have had the common sense to not give a piping hot coffee to a one year baby who was in fact, the only remember of the table to have not ordered a drink.
Eventually, the cakes came and we tried to make the best of a bad situation. The cakes were correct and delicious but diaster yet again struck when the waitress handed my baby a silver knife and fork! Diaster! We had brought our own snacks for baby and again we had to quickly snatch away the sharp objects. You don't have to have children to know this is not a wise move. Again, we would have been totally understand ing if she had just said sorry, I didn't think but instead she stood stoney faced like we were the crazy ones.
Penang now has far more choices of beautiful and quirky buildings with super cakes that it did when I first arrived so that will definitely be my last visit to China House.
To be honest, I won't be returning toMore
