Oslo

I understand that when going out to a restaurant the food is the star, but it's not the only component that makes for a good experience. My first job involved customer service, and I think good customer service is a lost art. Sometimes I feel like giving good customer service comes natural to people, while others need to be trained at it. I also feel that people's expectations and appreciation for it, especially in the restaurant business isn't as high as it used to be. Because it isn't as enforced, we are used to just mediocre service. As long as our water glass gets filled and food comes out in the correct order, we are generally happy. Why am I talking about this? Well, I experienced some terrible service over the weekend. My friends and I decided a few years ago that as we get older the more bills we get, and the less important gifts become on your birthday. We put a stop to the gifts and decided to just go out for each of our birthdays at a new restaurant. It was my close friend's birthday this week, and she picked Oslo for her celebratory (becomes less celebratory as you get older though!) birthday dinner. I hate to judge a restaurant on service alone, but it was so bad it ruined the whole experience for me. I don't even know where to begin...

For those of you who aren't familiar with Oslo. It's located on Woodward and had closed for a bit, but reopened in 2007. They often host DJs who spin techno and trance music in the basement. The food consist of sushi and Thai specialties. These are two of my favorites, so going into it I was pretty excited. We arrived when the restaurant was just about to fill up. The menu is reasonably priced. I've been trying to order a variety of items to try for the sake of the blog (or that's the excuse I like to tell myself for being a pig and order way too much food). I ordered an appetizer of Karee Puff, which is potatoes, peas, ground chicken, and yellow curry in a pastry. It was pretty good. I haven't had Indian in awhile, so that kind of satisfied that craving for a bit. I also ordered a sushi roll--the Summer Refresh. It did not have any rice and consisted of spicy tuna, avocado, tomango, crab, and wrapped with a cucumber. It was very light and refreshing--hence the name. I was expecting it as an appetizer, but it came after my meal. My birthday friend also ordered a sushi roll, also expecting it as an appetizer. She ordered the Spider, which rocked! For my entree, I ordered the Spicy Noodles. I was craving some Pad Thai..but I wanted to switch it up a bit. My taste buds are always happy with spicy foods, but my stomach...not so much! Besides my stomach, here were the other issues,

Things not to do if you are a server:

1. Do not forget to serve glasses of water! This is serving 101---Don't forget the water and don't forget to refill the drinks. We were waiting for the server to come back for at least 15 minutes, to the point where I was going to go up to the bar to ask for some water, until another waitress noticed.

2. Do not forget to serve someone their meal. We all were half way through our entrees, while one of my friends wasn't even served her salad yet. The waitress was made aware of this, but later totally forgot to serve her the sushi she ordered.

3. Appetizers come before the entrees, not after.

4. The excuse of "the reason why I don't have your sushi yet is because we don't know where the other sushi chef went" or "this is only my second day and I don't even know the menu" are not valid excuses.

5. Charging the credit card on someone else's balance isn't really good practice.

6. Be aware of your guest's satisfaction and try to compensate when you can. You shouldn't be told to take something off the bill because you forgot to order it causing the person to get their meal after the rest of the table was done with their meal.

I don't mean to be a complete bitch about it, but you go into restaurants expecting at least mediocre service and hope for better. It was my friend's birthday and I always want the best for my friends, so it's upsetting when it's less than that. If I were to judge the food by itself, it was pretty good. Good enough to ignore the bad service and go back...not quite. It will require some healing before I go back, but if I were, I'd stick with the sushi. I understand it could of been a fluke (although one of the people I dined with said she had been there a few weeks ago and the same thing happened to her). Also, I want this blog to be about the good things the city has to offer...but I don't think anything in Detroit should settle for less. I'm going to try not to hinder my fork rating just on service, but it does affect it....it's 2 out 5.