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Banana Leaf Apolo outlet blasted for allegedly overcharging customers for tap water, rice and popadams
Story by Jewel Stolarchuk • Yesterday 2:30 pm
Banana Leaf Apolo outlet blasted for allegedly overcharging customers for tap water, rice and popadams© The Independent Singapore
SINGAPORE: The Banana Leaf Apolo outlet at Little India Arcade is being criticised online after a netizen blasted the branch for allegedly overcharging him for basic items like rice and ppoadams.
Facebook user Pravin Kumar visited the outlet on Wednesday (May 10) and had lunch there with his wife and two business associates. The group ordered a small fish head curry, prawn and tomato thokku, an onion omelette, sura puttu, a pani puri set, and two Bru coffees.
Revealing that their total bill came up to $104++, Mr Pravin said he was appalled to find that rice was not served with the fish head curry and that customers had to order it separately for $3.90 per portion.
Popadams, which are offered as complimentary snacks at many Indian restaurants, were also not served free of charge. Instead, they cost $3.90 each.
To make matters worse, Mr Pravin’s business associates were charged 20 cents per glass of plain water served from the tap. He said: “My business associates had plain room temperature water which normally is in jugs in other restaurants and is free.
“However here we were charged 0.20 cents each per glass and the water was filled from the bloody tap and I saw this with my own eyes. Honestly its just disgusting!! Paying for tap water??”
Mr Kumar also found fault with the quality of the food. Asserting that the fish head curry was sour and that the prawn thokku only came with four small prawns, he said that the sura puttu (a type of scrambled shark dish) was a small portion and suggested that the restaurant could have substituted ordinary fish for shark.
Mr Pravin also criticised the quality of the Ponni rice, which he described as the lowest grade ever, and added that the pani puri had barely any masala inside.
On top of all of this, Mr Pravin claimed that the staff at the outlet were unprofessional and forgetful, hardly taking orders seriously. He said:
“I’ll never ever visit this outlet again and will strongly not recommend anyone from going there because it’s a rip-off. It’s merely due to the brand name they are exploiting it for tourists who visit by serving small portions and charging for everything.”
Netizens responding to Mr Pravin’s post also expressed dissatisfaction with the quality of food and service at the Little India Arcade outlet.
The Banana Leaf Apolo chain has been in Singapore since 1974 and has five outlets across the country. This incident at the Little India Arcade outlet has led to concern over the chain’s standards and practices. The Independent Singapore has reached out to the chain for comment.
https://www.msn.com/en-sg/news/sing...1&cvid=19b399fcd1cf437e80620328aacfb504&ei=11
