Jeff W.
Yelp
Utterly Disappointed - i had the worst Singapore dining experience here the other night. Sorry to say this as Kinki has a cool vibe and a nice rooftop where i've taken guests in the past. I thought the staff was poorly trained and the dine-in policies bizarre and inflexible. Suffice to say, I wont be going back.
I attended my friends birthday party at Kinki where she reserved a table for 20 from 6 - 9 PM. My partner and I arrived about 1 hour late and at that time the table (for 14) that was given to us was over-packed already. We noticed that the table for four next to our large party was available and I asked to sit there so we could be close to the birthday party. We were told by the wait-staff that the table was reserved. Ok no issues, we were only 2 people and didnt want to take up the larger table so we asked to sit at a 2 person table in the vicinity of the party. Again, that table was reserved. We then approached the manager and told them of our situation: we had a party for 20 but were seated in a 14 person table but we arrived late and the wait staff wont let us sit at the tables nearby. So how?
The manager let us know at that point that the entire restaurant was booked for the night. Perplexed, I looked around the restaurant of (im estimating) 30 tables and only 8 of them were occupied. As we were with the large birthday party, i inquired if could eat quickly at any one of the reserved tables before the parties arrived and was told that we could not as the tables were reserved. I then asked what time the people were coming for their reservation for the tables near the birthday party and were told that she didnt know. Then I asked since they didnt know, if we could eat and if the party came, they could be seated at another one of the 15 open two seater tables. Again, I got the "cannot sir". I asked her "so you are telling me that we are here for a birthday party already eating, you have 75% of your restaurant unoccupied and you are not letting us eat". The only reply i got was sorry the restaurant is reserved. I thought this was odd, and we were left awkwardly hovering near the birthday party table for about 10 minutes while they hurriedly finished eating.
At that point we were told by the birthday girl that we had a reservation upstairs at the bar and that they had some bar snacks that we could eat. We hovered and waited for critical mass to finish eating and headed up stairs to the open air bar area.
Despite a reservation for 20, Kinki gave us a table to seat 4 but was in the corner so we had some standing room only spots. We ordered a few bottles with all the mixers and ice buckets so there was little room for us to order food to eat. I asked the bar wait-staff, if we could sit at the table next to ours so that we could order some bar food to eat. Again, that table was reserved. Looking around there was our party of 18-20, and about 8 other people in the rooftop bar area and about 15 open tables. I asked the wait staff what time the table was reserved for and he said 10pm. Looking down at my watch, it was only 8 so i asked him to give us the seat for 30 mins so we could quickly eat and then we would go back to the original table. He said, sorry the table was reserved and walked away. However, he then came back a few minutes later and nicely said okay we could site there for an hour.
Another wait-staff took our order and being vegetarian I ordered the Vegetarian Okonomiyaki. He told me that the Okonomiyaki was not available. There weren't many vegetarian bar snack options so I asked if i could order from the restaurant menu. "No, you cannot". I asked where the bar snacks were being prepared and he answered "the restaurant downstairs". Odd... I told him nevermind and that I ordered a drink. When he came to bring my drink he apologized and told me that the Okonomiyaki was available so I confirmed the Okonomiyaki order.
The vegetarian Okonomiyaki was brought out abut 30 mins later and it wasnt Okonomiyaki looking at all. It was mayonaise atop toasted bread but wasnt bad tasting until I bit into something that tasted like chicken. At this point i was about to lose my sh*t. I asked my meat eating friends if it tasted like chicken and 2 out of 3 agreed. I approached the wait staff and told them annoyingly that they had served me meat on a vegetarian dish. The wait-staff shook his head violently and flapped his arms up and said looking even more annoyed than me, "that was vegetarian". They sent another wait-staff who confirmed that it was mozzarella cheese. I never really knew mozzarella cheese and chicken could be so easily confused and let my friends eat the rest of my dish. No dinner for me after 3 hours of trying, thanks Kinki!