Scraping the Fringe

It has been almost a year since I came back from Singapore. One of the things I still miss is the food! I did not care much for the upscale restaurants in the city because 1) I could not afford them and 2) I’ve tried some and I was not wowed by the experience. Anybody who’s lived in Singapore will always tell that for the ultimate food experience, nothing beats the sounds and tastes of a hawker centre.

Since I came back, I was more cognizant of Singaporean/Malaysian restaurants around Vancouver. Last night, a couple of my friends and I tried Prima Taste in Downtown Vancouver on Robson by W. Pender. It was a far call from anything I’ve tasted.

The good points first. The restaurant itself was excellently designed with a minimalist flavour. The bar has excellent lighting that gives it class. Booth benches were covered in a brown suede and aptly cushioned. Although their chairs were a bit low, the dark wood finish was a nice touch.

Now for the bad parts. First of all, I expect a restaurant to be well-stocked any day of the week at whatever time of the day. The only time I do not expect this is when I know that their dishes are made from “the catch of the day” or something similar to that idea. Basically, it is the freshest it could be. My friend Steve and I both ordered laksas. Karen, who had no idea what to order thought of trying the Prawn Noodle Soup. It wasn’t available so she opted to try the Char Kway Teow. After Steve and I informed her that it had clam cockles, she needed to change her order due to allergies. She asked for the Mee Goreng, which apparently is also not available. Running out of options, she just decided on the Hainanese Chicken Rice.

Before the waitress even placed the order, she asked us to move to another table because a group of 8 came in and they were combining tables. We graciously agreed but honestly, this is a big faux pas in the restaurant industry. You never move your customers unless extremely necessary. People eat at restaurants to enjoy and relax, it’s like being at home but other people are serving you. To me, it is just a sign of poor restaurant planning and lack of foresight.

After moving to a booth, another waitress came and said that they only had 1 laksa available. So we changed one to a Char Kway Teow. The whole experience could have been saved by delicious food but it was completely sub par. Singaporean dishes have strong flavours that jump at you but at Prima Taste it was just a subtle poke. I am not saying the food was terrible but it was just okay, nothing really delicious that would make you say “I want to come back”. The servings were also smaller than I expected.

If any of you want to try Singaporean/Malaysian food, I highly recommend going to Banana Leaf. You get more bang for your buck in terms of food, servings, and service. I think Prima Taste tries to hard with how it presents itself but they need to relearn the basics of the restaurant industry. Without good food and excellent service, your customers will never come back.