If I were to be asked to give a one word review for Sekinchan Ikan Bakar, the word I'd use would be "embarrassing". I have heard so much reasonably good review of the chain, that when we came across an outlet on the way to I-City the other evening, my sister and I did not give it much of a thought. Anita was also into ikan bakar, so all was left was to get our boys to agree, and as their cousins were also along for the trip, they did not say much. We have already given them dinner prior to going out, so they were not too fussy about it.
The outlet we went to was in Shah Alam, right opposite I-City. Since we arrived there pretty early, well before sunset, we planned to pass some time there. So we sat down, and naturally, ordered some ikan bakar. Now, let me explain to you about how the order works. You don't actually ask for a menu for the fish. You go to the counter to choose. Unfortunately, this was where the problem lied. The workers at the counter did not know who came first, so, the more pushy you were, the more likely you would get your order first. And then, there was the risk of them messing out your order and until today, I was still trying to figure out how they could tell which one was your order. The restaurant was only a quarter full, and the still managed to mess up our order. And then they got the cheeks to say that it was our fault. To compound the matter further, they also messed up our drinks, which we ordered from the table, with the order clearly written. It was just plain embarrassing.
To be honest, grilling fish was not really that hard, and with the right equipment and experience, you would likely get it right most of the time. You have to make sure that you marinate it right, and perfect the sauce and air asam. Well, not only that the marinating sauce was worst than your typical teenagers running a pasar malam stall affair, even my clueless maid could make a meaner air asam. We ended up with a sour taste in our mouth - pun intended of course.
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Ikan bakar - or grilled fish - if prepared the right way was a joy. It was plainly clear that Sekinchan Ikan Bakar had lost their focus as not only the messed up the actual meal, the bad customer experience we had made it unlikely that we would be giving the place the benefit of the doubt, even at another of their outlet. The workers there, being a mixture of locals and foreigners clearly couldn't clear less about how we felt. I shudder to imagine how they would cope with a full house. I would unfortunately label their outlet under "one which I would avoid". Please let me know if you have had a different experience, preferably indicating the venue which the fish was better. Bad service at these outlet were a given I was afraid.
Tuesday, June 7, 2011 at 10:56PM 
