I was at breakfast with Rascal yesterday, and given Bob’s commitment to service, I must say I was dissapointed.
There were 2 staff on the floor most of the time and about 50 customers.
2 of our party waited 45 minutes for their breakfasts.
Coffee refills took a long time.
I asked for my toast ‘toasted’ (specifically and clearly in Chinese and English), but it was still what we call ‘bread’ (but Taiwanese like to call toast).
I’d also like to suggest some more vegetarian options on the menu. What I really wanted was some eggs on toast with mushrooms, but couldn’t get it. So maybe a veggie version of the big breakfast would be in order, but cheaper duew to the exclusion of the expensive meat ingredients (maybe throw in some avocado or fried tomatoes instead). Or it would be good to do what a lot of cafes at home do, and have a price for egss opn toast and then a lot of extras to choose from.
I’d give Carnegies Brunch another go, but not in a hurry.
My wife and I went to Carnegies for a late lunch on Saturday and had very good food and service.
The boss (my wife, not TpeBob) had the liver and onions and I had the pork medalions with mashed potatos and red cabbage… both very good (I’m taking my wife’s word that the liver was good… and my dog loved what was leftover from the liver dish too). We also had a very nice salad that I think was mixed greens and herbs with diced tomatos and stuff. It too was quite good.
Apologies. 45 minutes is way too long to wait in any restaurant for any order. I shall investigate this. Also there should have been three (including a manager) on the floor and one at the bar, rotating in and out as required. Again, some investigation required.
In mitigation, it could have been that many orders were received by the kitchen simultaneously and a bottlrneck occurred. Policy is that orders are prepared on a first-in, first-out basis with as much effort as possible put into ensuring that all members of one party, provided that the order is placed at the same time and this is understood by the floor staff, receive their dishes at the same time or within a minute or two (limit due to ability to carry a certain number of plates simultaneously). Our kitchen is, given the scope of the menu, pretty small and therefore at peak pressure times speed is compromised. At the very least, the manager on duty should check the flow of dishes from the kitchen and if a delay is apparent, inform the customer of this in advance and ask for understanding. Usually, interactivity such as that garners understanding and lessens the feeling of irritation.
I do understand your point on vegetarian options. Again the kitchen is small and storage is limited too, but I will look at the possibility of offering various vegetarian options in such a way as to provide you with a greater choice without compromising the efficiency of the kitchen or overall quality of all the food we produce right now. Actually, I see no reason why your request yesterday could not have been met. Though not a standard menu item, but as we have the ingredients, it is just a question of putting them in a different order and you agreeing a price with us. I’ll inform the managers on duty to be flexible with regard to such requests but it will take a litle longer to formulate and put into place vegetarian options as standard due to related ingredient/prepartation method/storage and logistical issues. It can be done and I’ll have a look at it.
Toast. Are you saying that it was merely warm and not toasted in the way that we know it? At least we make our own bread but I will have them lose their fear of discoloured (toasted) bread.
Coffee: each is made individually as there is no pot of coffee pre-prepared as it generally is of a lesser quality. The time it took probably had to do with being surprisingly busy at the time you were in. As I mentioned to Rascal, I will look at increasing the number of staff again to accommodate and expedite service to a level which is satisfactory to all.
Brian, your next breakfast is on us by of thanks for pointing out deficiencies.
Thanks for your comments and I hope to see you in here sooner than the timeframe you suggested in your post!
Thanks for replying. I’ll offer somemore details in the spirit of helping you out, rather than complaining.
Most of the time there seemd to be two people - one at the bar, and one (soemtimes two) poor girls running around trying to deal with 50 customers, and not being able to keep up.
It was apparently much busier than usual for the time. I think they forgot the order of those two. I came in last and ordered considerably later than the rest of my party, but had finished my breakfast well before they got their order.
A simple option would be to offer the big breakfast without meat, at a chepaer price. It wouldn’t even have to go on the menu, as long as staff were aware of a price if vegetarians inquired. Similarly the staff could have a price of individual ingredients. I tried to ask the waitress if I could have eggs on toast with the same fried mushrooms as are on the big breakfast menu, but the only option she offered was a seperate dish on the regular menu of mushrooms and onions sauteed in sherry sauce, which was a lot dearer and not what I wanted. I think this could be done without needing to add ingredients or change menus.
I think it was warm. Definitely not toasted. It was the dutch option. I’d asked them that I wanted the bread toasted first. They did offer to take it back, but I didn’t want the fuss.
[quote]Brian, your next breakfast is on us by of thanks for pointing out deficiencies.
Thanks for your comments and I hope to see you in here sooner than the timeframe you suggested in your post!
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I see you’re getting shit about Sunday lunch service again. I’ll add my bit.
I was due to meet Iris, Brian etc at 1, and she SMSd me as I came in through the door - 1:08pm.
I sat with a friend outside. The waitress left me a brunch menu only and eventually I had to go find my own a la cartethingy. It took a while to get my order in and it arrived at 1:53 - I’m sure about the time because I checked the clock. 45 minutes to order and get food. 35 minutes actual waiting.
My friend went in search of vinegar for my chips, as the server had high-tailed it without stopping to see if I needed anything else. She returned to find me snarling. My steak and kidney pie was a chicken & mushroom. The server took it away without a word. I mean not a bloody word, just upped and ran off with it. My friend is chinese so no need to give me that crap about being scared of speaking English either. If you don’t have to run around bringing things you should have brought initially you have more time to serve everybody.
Anyway, the manager - Sylvia? - did find the time to come and apologise and gave me my lunch on the house. She remembered the vinegar too.
The chips were good though. If the food wasn’t so bloody good I would stop going during civilised hours and you’d only see my dark side. I ran into quite a few people that I know while waiting, many of them forumosans, and many of the people I see there regularly were not in evidence this week. If they had been there I think you could have easily had 25 or so people bitching.
It’s a pity. Carnegie’s verandah is a great place to waste an entire Sunday if you have time. (I mean time wasted drinking, not time wasted waiting.) I was prepared to sit there for hours and spend a fortune on drinkies, but we were all a bit fed-up and elected to bail out instead.
I guess I’ll have to try again next week.
Edit: Bob just called me feeling unfairly got at. I should point out that “I love Carnegies and don’t go anywhere else.” (Bob, go back a page and take a look at all the nice things we said about the happy hour.)
Well I didn’t have to wait very long and I really enjoyed my pasta last Sunday!
Tough I was with the others that had to wait, etc and so I saw that as well.
But it was really packed and I think I would have had problems to deal with it as a waitress, as well.
After all Carnegies will stay in my memory as a good place to go when I’m leaving tonight!!
Great to see a new menu with some additional items during last weekends brunch. Have always been afraid of the big one, so I ordered the small one, aka the ‘not-so-big one’, and it came with toasted toast. Yummy and just the right size (for me).
Service was better than the weekend before, more staff around, and orders were basically served at the same time (I think we had two batches since one group came and ordered slightly later).
I had a good lunch at Carnegie’s today. I ordered the set lunch ($220NT, the cheapest one on the menu) and it was good. Fresh roll, good salad with a variety of greens and a nice vinagrette dressing, seafood curry pasta, but tasty and substantial. And the service was fantastic - the waitress was a real sweetie, and really hustled.
I stopped in for brunch on Saturday and had a good time. Even Bob was serving!
There was just the right number of customers and the service was great. I had the not so big one and couldn’t finish it due to the quantity. I don’t see how anyone could finish the big one.
Thanks Bob, looks like you got everything whipped into shape.
If anyone thinks it is too crowded on Sundays, they should check it out on Saturdays. Great!
Anyone who fancies a great Christmas lunch should go to Carnegie’s. Our football team,the Red Lions, had a Christmas bash there last night and it was fantastic. Great food, plenty of wine (thanks Bob ) and the servers coped amazingly well considering there were more than 40 people.
Don’t remember too much after drinking absinthe though.
Is that anyone who can say “I know who TpeBob is” by chance??
Went for dinner there on Friday. It’s been soooo long since I’ve had a good burger I’ve forgotten what they taste like, so while I can’t say if it was really good or not, or how good it was compared to back home, I can definiately say it filled the huge void in my belly and as such, serves its purpose. Ate so much my belly hurt the next day. Sweeeet.
Can say the prices are pretty steep, especially drinks. Couldn’t imagine buying more than one drink there outside of HH. Even my Japanese collegues mentioned prices, but then we’re not businessmen and perhaps not your target customer.
Waitress was very attentive at the beginning, but got annoyed when we wouldn’t order on her third time (in 15 minutes) visiting us, as our party was still not fully arrived. This of course resulted in her ignoring us later. We had a table reserved for 6, if 4 people are sitting there she should know not everyones there and not get miffed!!
But that last point is really just nitpicking for your benefit TpeBob, service was above the Taipei average. We just flagged down (eventually) other staff to take her slack.
Is that anyone who can say “I know who TpeBob is” by chance??
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More the other way round really. We give membership cards to those we see often and recognise.
As far as the miffed waitress goes, I’ll have a word. I am glad that you enjoyed the burger though. Next time you should check out some of the main courses/dishes we have to offer. They are hearty, original, filling and way better than mere ‘pub food’. I would dare to say that some other well-known posters here would agree with that.
Anyway, thanks for the generally positive feedback and we will endeavour to not just be better than the ‘Taipei average’ in terms of service but rather a standard by which others are measured. After all, you the consumer are why we are here and you have every right to expect exemplary service every time.
Yes, I would wholeheartedly agree. Steak and kidney pie is just great, as is the Shepherd’s Pie. :uhhuh: Another personal fave is the Wiener Schnitzel. These are all dishes that taste great and will fill you up completely. And for sheer gluttony, ordering the breakfast special “The Big One” on a Sunday morning can’t be beat. I can’t wait for the weather to turn nice again so I can spend a couple of hours lingering on the patio…
The Happy Hours are quite long, actually. The problem is that the best beers, and the ones I like, are imported from England, and are just plain expensive. The best deal is the house wine by the glass. It’s almost cheap, during Happy Hour.
I think it’s the sort of place you can go once a week for a feed, even if you’re poor, like me. At the moment there isn’t really anywhere like it and the menu is truly huge. I haven’t even had everything on it yet. Hard to believe I haven’t had the curry or the liver and onions yet.
Just had to say big thumbs up ! on Sunday me, my missus & our baby daughter went to Carnegies for brunch…
We managed to get out usual comfy seat right in the corner (with the no smoking sign). For us the corner is great as we can sandwich our baby between us, staff & service were fantastic, we were very appreciative of the staff getting us hot water for the babies bottle & keeping smokers at least an empty table away. :bravo: :bravo:
We both had the ‘Not so big one’ off the brunch menu, more than enough for me, and the wife was not able to finish her’s! only minor comment on bettering the meal would be to add a hashbrown or some chippolatas (sp?)
During the meal I had 2x latte’s & the wife had 2x pots of tea (same teabag)… our bill came to a measly NT$680… after a double take, and confirming the price I was told the drinks were included with the meal…
I went away astonished that such a good feed cost so little and a feeling that I had somehow short changed the establishment… Once again Carnegies has exceeded my expectations.
Could somebody please tell me what’s included in “The Big One”? I just gotta know. I haven’t had a western-style breakfast in about a year now. [/quote]
Dear Violet,
Naturally I am compelled to agree with Maoman’s expressed sentiment.
“The Big One” consists of: freshly squeezed orange juice, three eggs, two huge sausages, chips, bacon, baked beans, fried tomato, fried mushrooms, unlimited toast, butter, jam/marmalade, and unlimited coffe or tea refills. It really is a big feed and few people mange to finish it. If it is too much, there is also a “Not So Big One” In addition, there is a well thought out brunch menu (the above two are also on it) which is very reasonably priced and excellent value. Brunch is available on Saturdays and Sundays from 11 a.m. until 5 a.m. but when the weather is nice and you wish to sit out on the in-demand balcony, I would advise that you get there early. About 40% of outside seating can be made available for reservations at weekends for membership card holders up to 12.30.
In addition, we have a superb Sunday Roast, replete with the best Yorkshire Puds in Taiwan, from 1 p.m. until 5 p.m. Reservations for the roast are required in advance.