Love the Food or Hate the Service? It's a Thai.

If you love delicious Thai food, hate servers that check in on your meal and would like a try at nearly tackling your waiter to get the check, then may I suggest Thai Thai House?

These guys do a good job of making you feel like you're going to get great service - they have a pleasant hostess to seat you, two servers immediately come to your table to get your drink and dinner order and the food comes out of the kitchen rather rapidly. However, once the plates hit the table, a force field goes up around your table preventing any further service.

Prior to the meal, we were greeted by a hostess and then served by two separate servers - one that got our drinks and opened our wine and another that took our order and delivered our food. This is where the service somewhat disappeared. Once we had our meals, neither server came around again. In fact, it was like there was a force-field around our table because they would check in on the tables all around us, but not even glance our way. I don't mind servers that keep their distance unless I need something to enhance my meal or I'm finished eating. My meal was perfect, so I didn't get annoyed until we were ready to box up our leftovers and head to another restaurant for dessert. Instead, we waited for ten minutes as the tables around paid their checks and made their way home - still no glance from either server. Finally, with the deft moves of a defensive tackle, we intercepted the waiter to pay for our check. 

The food saves this place. We know Thai Thai House recently opened so we're willing to overlook the poor service as "working out the kinks", but if we go back again and receive the same treatment, we'll probably switch to takeout only customers because, like I said, the food is delicious.

A Little Liquid Lunch

We had a most unexpected surprise today - after an off-handed comment about a 'smoothie place' at the doctor's office, we set off in search of said locale. We found it! 


Protein Xpress (soon to be Energy Cafe) is located in a strip mall just steps down from a gym, so points for location. One of our pet peeves with small businesses is when their is not a cohesive vision - not an issue here at all! High protein products are available in coffee, smoothies, bars and snacks. Additional mix-ins are available, so I was able to add some wheat grass to my drink. This business is focused, nothing here to distract us or confuse us. 


When you get a protein shake, you tend to have two options - 1). low in protein, but high in flavor or 2). high in protein and gross in flavor. Instead, we got two delicious drinks (peach cobbler with a super green mix-in and strawberry madness with a super green mix-in) with more than 20 grams of protein each and tons of delicious flavor that didn't fade as I drank - all under $5 a pop. 


While the atmosphere is a bit 'gym rat' with protein products covering one wall nearly floor to ceiling and sweaty folks hanging out at the bar fresh from their workout, the quiet clean atmosphere and quality products will lead me back to try out the rear section of the store - a collection of comfy chairs next to an inviting fireplace with free wifi.


Protein Xpress is located at 4682 West Tilghman Street in Allentown, PA.

That was Easy?

Staples is well-known for their "Easy Button". Until a couple days ago, I thought this meant that they were supposed to make things easy for their customers. However, now I realize that it is actually meant as a dare to shoppers to ask for help. Those who succumb to the facade of service will be met with nothing short of a condescending reference to their slogan.



Take this interaction, for example:
Elderly woman to Staples employee: I need to make a copy and this is my first time. I think I need help. 
Staples employee: Ohhhhkaaay... Do you want to try it on your own? ...All you have to do is press a button and put the page face down It's pretty easy.


Do you think this gem of an associate got bonus points or an extra piece of flair for dissing an old lady?

Coffee and a Smile, Please

Image: Graeme Weatherston / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

The thing about Starbucks is that when you go there, you expect to be jolted back to life by an extra perky barista that has obviously been sampling the espresso all morning even before you get your dose of caffeine.  Maybe you roll your eyes at the sight of that wide-eyed energetic fellow taking your order, but deep down that's part of the reason you chose Starbucks - for their delicious seasonal blends and their overly-friendly staff. So when the person taking your order is having a bad day, it kind of brings you down a notch. But when you are greeted by staff with attitudes and rudeness that you would expect at a highway rest stop, it kind of ruins your day. That's what happened to us and led us to write this e-mail to their customer service department.

This Starbucks is less than a mile from my house, but I only enjoy coming here early in the morning (before 7am). Any other time I come, I get rude service and very little understanding when my order is messed up or forgotten. Today, during a particularly full time of day, an employee on their break along with a personal visitor were taking up three separate tables while not having any food or beverages. Meanwhile, I, a paying customer, had to stand and wait for a table to enjoy my snack and do a bit of work online. Yesterday, my hot tea was forgotten from my order and I stood and waited at the "Pick Up" counter for five full minutes and was never acknowledged. When the mistake was brought to the employee's attention, his response was "I'm glad you said something because I completely forgot." This was his only response. This Starbucks continually does not uphold the customer service ethic that I have enjoyed in stores around the country.

As we would expect from this company, which is well-known for their excellent customer service, they replied to our e-mail in just a couple days and promised to address the issue. They also sent us coupons which will be perfect for our Pumpkin Spice Latte addiction and keep us coming back while they fix this problem with rude workers - well played, Starbucks.