Fruit-Land @ Ikano

Not long ago, a new eatery outlet opened at Ikano. It has a windmill at its entrance, and pictures of shaved ice with various types of fruits were displayed on the wall. Other than that, it didn't make much of an impression on me.


However, this afternoon, as we were walking past the shop (on the way to Ikea), there was a huge banner showing a rather tempting picture of a Tempura Fish and Chips. It was unhealthy and a definite no-no for hubby, but we decided to try it anyway as it is just too difficult to find anything to eat outside nowadays, with hubby's special needs diet. 

Before we placed our order, we asked what kind of fish they have. Ikan Merah was the reply. Fine, as long as it's not Dory. It turned out that it was the WORST Fish and Chips we had ever had. 


First, it was a frozen tempura fish which the staff heated up in an inferior quality oil. It had one of those very thick oil taste, and the tempura batter, since it was a frozen product, had a rather weird floury flavour. 


Second, the fish itself did not taste like a fish. It had no flavour at all. And the staff's favourite response to any queries was: "tempura fish is from supplier". I suppose they were trying to tell me that the poor quality of the tempura fish should be laid squarely at the supplier's door, and they are not to be blamed?!!


Third, the chips. Surely this can't be laid at the supplier's door, too? I am sure the supplier did not leave them with an instruction to be over-generous with the salt when they're adding it to the chips??!!


Needless to say, we asked for the bill after a couple of mouthfuls. I know it's not good to waste food, especially when we ate only less than a quarter of it, but it was really not edible. Seriously. We were puzzled at why they had such a crowd, and a number of the customers were ordering the same tempura fish and chips, too. Could it be that they love frozen tempura heated up in poor quality oil, and extremely salty chips??


And the staff didn't even try to compensate us. At Sushi King, when we were served with an extremely poor quality food, they asked us if we would like to replace with another order of a different item, and when we declined and asked for the bill, they gave us a discount, without our asking for it. That is what I call excellent customer service. Make your customer happy, and they'll return. We are never going to go back to Fruit-Land. It's a waste of RM34.40. We paid an additional RM10 more in the evening, and got a more satisfying meal for RM44.40 at Chocolate Lounge.