Made to feel unwelcome at Ocean Basket Woodlands

I visited the Ocean Basket at Woodlands on Saturday evening, 24 October, at around 7pm with my partner and our two young children, aged 1 and 3. The restaurant was full, including the outside tables. We wanted to sit outside so we could keep an eye on our kids in the play area.

I asked a waiter to help us get an outside table. She said she would come back to help me, then left me waiting for 5 to 10 minutes and never returned. I had to go inside and ask the manager, who did find us a table outside. When I mentioned to the waiter that I had asked her for help and she had walked off, there was no real acknowledgement.

We ordered and the bread arrived. While my partner and I were watching our children in the play area, we came back to find our table had been cleared, as if we had left or weren't welcome. I had to explain to the staff member clearing it that we were still seated and had simply stepped away to supervise our kids.

The food then took a very long time. By the time it arrived, our children were hungry and agitated, and there was nothing we could do because we had already ordered. When I raised the delay, the manager went inside and the waiter told me it was "a busy weekend." A busy weekend is the restaurant's responsibility to plan for, not the customer's problem to accept.

What makes this more disappointing is that I am a regular at the Woodlands branch. One of the waiters even recognised me. It is the Ocean Basket closest to my home, so I don't have the option of simply going to another branch. On this visit, though, I was made to feel that my family and I were not important, and that other customers mattered more.

In the end, we paid and left. We didn't get to enjoy our evening at all.

I'd like Ocean Basket to look into how the Woodlands branch handles customers on busy nights, especially families with small children. I'd appreciate a response from management.