Sham Hei Lao Huo Tang - 23 Serangoon Central

This review is for their restaurant on level 3 of Nex shopping mall at Serangoon central which was really Disappointing!!This company seems to have different food and customer service standards for different outlets. I ordered some dim sum items and requested that my pan-fried carrot cake be done alittle crispier. The service staff went to ask another staff for 'advice' and told me it could not be done as their Pan-fried carrot cakes were all pre-fried. That makes the freshness and quality of this item questionable. I asked if she meant the pan-fried carrot cakes were not freshly fried upon customers' order??She said they were fresh but all fried this morning!! I then cancelled this item but she came back to tell me they could re-fry it so it would be crispier. However, the carrot cake turned out to be cold so they were lying about frying it again ,which already undermined their food quality and service. The service crew even insisted their pan-fried carrot cakes had always been served this way!!(cold and hard??) I questioned her about the different standards of food from different outlets but she even got the gall to say "different outlets cooked differently?!" [Management of Lao Huo Tang, are you aware of this - different standards of food preparation and quality for different outlets??] PRC cook didnt understand simple request in English for chilli sauce?? Please take initiative to learn simple English to serve English-speaking customers. All service staff working in Singapore must learn to communicate in simple English to serve customers better. This is the working language,especially in a multi-racial and cosmopolitan city! The service staff leader(perhaps),dressed in all black was equally bad in terms of customer service. During payment, she was just pulling a long face and instead of telling me politely the total amount(do customers have to teach your staff basic manners nowadays??)She just smacked the screen on the cash register to signal to me:"Look at the amount yourself!" without any form of courtesy despite the substandard dim sum item served to me and generally poor customer service. Such a big let-down despite paying alot for substandard food and service. The soup I tried at Nex restaurant was saltier compared to Century Sq outlet's. Dim sum and service standards were definitely BELOW PAR! Don't waste your time and money at this outlet. Poor staff training and lack of accountability for food standard! None of their staff were friendly and competent but they were observed to be enthusiastic about chatting away among themselves. By the way, the restaurant only had 4-5 customers during my visit this late afternoon, yet they couldnt do a decent job for a simple order.