Swenson's @ Parkway Parade

have to say though i'm not a Swenson's fan, i have been patronizing them on and off since i was a teen. It wasn't a great experience to be frank, but i guess for a family restaurant, their service were always passable. However, non could prepare me for the "excellent" hospitality by Swenson's @ Parkway Parade.

Before i begin ranting, i have to make clear that i'm not a picky person. I don't mind waiting for a meal as long as the waiting time is reasonable and i certainly can understand if your restaurant are under stuffed. Though my service standards are high, i'm willing to downgrade several levels if i have to.

I arrived outside Swenson's at about 2pm which isn't a peak period on a Monday afternoon. I can see there are alot of empty seats inside the restaurant but a long queue outside waiting to be seated. I can see there are some waitresses carrying water pitches looking to give refills and probably too busy to take care of the folks outside standing. But i guess its very important to get the customers hydrated....we wouldn't want our customers get heat stroke inside the restaurant would we? :)

After waited for 15 minutes.....still bearly 70% filled in the restaurant....we finally got a seat. I thought it would be nice to finally have a drink...since i notice they hydrate their customers well. After i got my orders done i specifically asked for "2 glasses of ice water"..politely of cause. The waitress who got my orders went in the kitchen..presumely getting the drinks for me. But when she's out, she got couple of plates and heading my way. she went past our table and placed the plate on the table just behind us. I guess she's just busy so i signalled to another waitress to get our drinks. The waitress too went into the kitchen and after a couple of mins....she came out with plates. I know my linguistic skills aint no match for Barack...but i think i expressed myself clearly on what i wanted. Finally i got hold of a waitress with a different uniform which i presumed its the supervisor, she got us 2 glasses of ice water with a large pitch for us to refill...Hallelujah!!

We thought the glasses of water nightmare was only...well... a slight glitch. We waited 40 minutes for our main course to arrive and by the time we finished our main course its about 3.20pm and we actually took 1 1/2 hours to have our lunch. I guess its a good idea to fuse lunch and dinner together....ya know..to save money..

When we ask for our ice-cream to be served after our main course and we waited another 20 mins for our deserts. So in total, our lunch was almost 2 hours. Unless you have a 2 hours lunch to spare or a patience of mother Theresa. I would suggest a stay clear of that place.

In general, the food @ Swenson's Parkway is mediocre (like all Swensons) but their service standards deserved my spanking. Oh...did i mention i twisted one of their metal spoons whilst i was bored from waiting? A hungry man is an angry man... waiting is apocalypse - SAYS ME!