Forkers!

Yummy. Just finished the Tropical burger with wasabi mayo… made me cry. Loved it.

[quote=“ImaniOU”]Be forewarned that to help alleviate the crowding thing and the complaint of empty tables that Mother Theresa mentioned, they are seating reservations only from 6:30 to 8:30. If you don’t have a reservation, don’t bother going between these hours. Sucks, but it keeps them from getting overloaded.[/quote]Anyone know how are they with bookings? If you book for a certain time, can you actually sit down and order then, or do you have to wait a while?

[quote=“ImaniOU”]It seems that Forker’s is going through some growing pains as they are getting more popular than their facilities and staff can handle. Service is rather frustrating. I’ve had dishes not come or come only after flagging someone down to remind them that I hadn’t received it yet…[/quote]Any recent improvements with this?

Hey all, My name is Joe and I am the manager of Forkers. First let me say thanks for all your comments, both negative and positive. They all help me to improve the joint. I will respond to everyone as I can, and feel free to contact me at forkers with any questions.
So these responses might seem unorganized but only because they are.
We have brought back the whole wheat buns. I apologize for the waiting for seats, but We recommend a reservation for anytime on the weekend and between 630 and 900 on a weekday night. IF you have made one, it will be held for you for 10 minutes and you will be called confirm you are on the way. We have a 2 hour seating policy, but not enforced if there is no line up.
sorry about the waitresses, but the turn over of staff is incredibly fast. We do have a new training program which i hope will help.
All sauces are made by us, except ketchup and mustard, so there is no chili from a can or package. If you have any questions while you are there, feel free to ask…I am usually around.
thanks again for the kind, and helpful words.

Joe

question for everyone,
I had a small incident last night, and i would like some feedback on the best way to handle it.
So here is what happened. I had a group of 5 come in with no reservation. I got them an outside seat (first seat available) and told them i could move them inside when possible. We also had a large 40+ group at the same time. This first group brought a cake to celebrate their birthday. they ate, had fun, and finished their meals. they ask the staff to sing happy birthday for them. I did send the waitresses out with the cake and one of them (dolly) did sing, but nobody at the table joined her! anyways, they left. they put their cake on the ground outside to make room for gifts. When they left, their cake was still on the ground outside. I cleaned the table and threw away the leftover cake (1/2). about an hour later i got a call saying she wanted the cake. i apologized and said that we threw it away, and i offered her a free dessert next time she came in. but she wants me to pay 500Nt for a new cake…any ideas on this?

Ok, er… next time, keep anything that looks like someone might have forgotten it, as they may come back for it later. You could keep it until closing time, then toss it.

And this time, just be very polite and apologetic, but tell them that it’s normal in the restaurant industry for any leftover food to be thrown away, rather than kept. But don’t pay for the cake, that’s too much. You’ve already offered a free dessert. :idunno: Tough lesson for them, but there’s a limit to your responsibilities in such a case, IMO.

Agree with DB, don’t pay for a new cake. They ate 1/2 of it, so it’s not that they “forgot” they had a cake, instead they consumed some of it and the rest is considered left-overs to be thrown away. Their fault, not yours.

I agree. The customers were being petty, and you apologized and showed some generosity, so they have no legitimate cause for complaint. Don’t lose any sleep over it. :sunglasses:

I agree with the other posters that you have no responsibility for half finished cake left on the sidewalk. However, from a business standpooint there is one key issue:

It is a potential loss of 40+ customers and anyone they tell their story to. (However, this place seems so wildly popular it may not be such an issue). I’m sure the profit on this was well over NT$500 but for half the cake you might offer $200-300 credit on their next meal there as a gamble on future business.

Dragonbones wrote:

Always a good policy. It seems in Taiwan anything but a bag with a large sum of money that gets left behind somewhere gets trashed immediately. The concept of lost and found doesn’t seem to exist here.

Overall though I would say you’re not responsible for this and it is probably a face issue. It just depends on if you want to risk any future business.

I can see the points made. I would offer a further 10% off the next visit as well, but do not pay for any cake.
Your mistake: You told the truth. A simple “cake? What cake? The cake is a lie!” would have worked :slight_smile:
Or tell her you suspected a cockroach was on it (as it was on the ground) so that is why it was thrown out.

PS. I would also love to recommend Forkers to anyone foolish enough to have not tried it yet. I drove up from ChaiYi just to eat there. They are famous here in ChaiYi. Our one local western type food place (Freen) owner calls it “his Idol restaurant”. It was worth the trip. Go hungry when you go. Light eaters can stay away.

My wife and I went to Forkers a while back. Having eaten at Bongos and Coda, we were very interested to see what Forkers was like. Happily we found it equally as enjoyable and satisfying as the other two places. As with Coda, we underestimated the size of the servings. We were given more than enough to eat.

Wait staff were friendly and attentive, even a little chatty (which was amazing given that the place was so busy), which is something we always appreciate. The food tasted great (we both had burgers, some salad, and some fries). I wouldn’t know Kobe beef from non-Kobe beef, so I didn’t bother with that, but the beef in my burger was really good.

I rang ahead to make a reservation. We wanted to get a seat at 6pm so that we could catch a movie afterwards. The manager told me that they were pretty booked out and that it wasn’t likely I could reserve a seat until later, and I was just telling him that was ok when he decided that he would book us in for 6pm and figure something out. I thought this was very generous of him. When we arrived we found that he had put out an extra table in a very clever spot near the wall. I didn’t have much room to push my chair back, but once I was sitting down I didn’t care anyway, and we weren’t crushed against anyone else’s table. Smart thinking, and we really appreciated him making the effort. We’ll definitely be back.

There certainly is a ‘creative’ selection of ‘burgers’. but the hamburger meat isn’t even half as delicious as the meat at KGB. KGB is the best burger place I’ve found in Taipei, hands down. Maybe Forkers can look into importing Kiwi beef…

Had lunch at Forker’s with another Forumosan on Saturday.

I had the Mexican burger with a garden salad and potato salad. I enjoyed my burger very much, and the bun was a nice multi-grain bread. The sides were tasty as well.

Service was generally prompt. Decor and atmosphere better than many places.

I’ll be back.

I thought that the creative selection of burgers, and the wide selection of fries and other side dishes and salad dressings was superb. The prices were very reasonable given the portion size and the menu offered. I will definitely be back. I would suggest to the owners several things to make it even better:
Add more healthy vegetables to the menu, not just salad.
Add regular iced tea.
(Perhaps I missed these on the menu somewhere?)
Use tastier beef for the patties, as ClaireC says. If it raised the cost by NT$30 per patty, well, charge the customer for it. Or offer it as an option – premium patties, vs. regular.

But Forkers! still gets a thumbs up from me, for selection and value. :slight_smile:

After having two nice burgers at Forkers (on other occasions of course!), I went for the chicken Quesidilla this time. It was pretty awful, the pastry that is, so I’ll be sticking to the burger section . Doesn’t put me off at all as the fries were still excellent. Just some things the restaurant does well, some not.

Hey folks, joe here,

sorry to hear about the last chicken quesadilla, i promise, they are good, one of my favorites, maybe you had a rookie cook…sorry about that…

anyways, thanks everyone with all the kind words and for your patience when you come in there, we have been busy lately due to newspaper articles, so we are trying our best.

I am just writing here today becuase recently forkers has been the subject of a smear campaign by another restaurant. I won’t mention names because i am focused on my work and not theirs, but just to put some misconceptions to rest that you might have heard.

No, forkers does not use costco burgers…we have our own recipe and the patties are formed by a company in taiwan, using australian beef. Yes, our beef is frozen at one point. All meat from outside Taiwan is imported frozen, it has to be.

thanks again to everyone for your comments, and if you hear any other news about us, please post here or drop in and have a chat with me, could earn you a discount :wink:

and thanks for listening to my long winded rant,

Joe

I still can’t find this place. I have spent too much time walking in the alleys on Zhongxiao. Where is it? It is driving me crazy.

forkers.tw/location.html
It’s not hard. Find that lane 223, go south and keep looking right down the next alley.

The way I remember it is it’s the alley with B2. If you come out of Zhongxiao Dunhua MRT, go east on Zhongxiao E. Rd. on the side with California Fitness (the northern side of Zhongxiao E. Rd.). The first traffic light after California, go left and it’s the first alley to your right with the restaurant being to the right-hand side. Hope this helps. :slight_smile:

That reminds me, I need to go back to Forkers some time. A great night out.

Congratulations to the Forkers family and new recruit, Duncan, on the opening of their 2nd shop, this one in the Zhongshan District. Located in a quiet lane behind the Spot Cinema, the new shop follows all that’s good about the first and offers both indoor and patio seating. I went last night and everything was great. Open since about mid-May, Duncan reports that other than the usual couple hiccups with training new serving staff, all systems are go.

So, if you like Forkers Yanji, you can now spread the love. Forkers Zhongshan is at No. 15, Lane 16 Zhongshan North Rd, Section 2, tel: 2567-7697.