shinara fail

24 May 2010, 09:20

(Edit: Apparently Shinara is under new management now. I’m not curious enough for a return visit just yet)
The night started happily enough with green tea froyo ($7) from Azuma. It was a tasty and smooth confection but sitting less than 5m away from Tonton and the crazy awesome scent of karaage was torture. We reasoned that to partake in deep fried chicken less than 2 hours before an all you can eat bbq buffet was an unwise decision. How wrong we were.


We arrive at Shinara (Shop 1, 338 Pitt Street) with four more bloggers and the birthday boy is presented with his coffee. Don’t drink it all in one go Yas!


At the push of a button a waitress materialises and we order a round of drinks along with the beef rib, pork belly, wagyu sirloin and well, pretty much every meat available on the Premium menu ($39.50). We waited. And waited. Some sides appeared- the edamame, octopus takoyaki balls, kimchi and shallot pancake. And then.. Nothing.


This the only plate of beef ribs we received all night. It was very sad. The great Australian dream (hah! bloody george!) of the all you can eat bbq buffet is expecting mountains of meats but instead what we got was the mount everest of fail.


It was like our table was the bermuda triangle. Cursed. Unwanted. Waiters whooshed past us with platters laden with food without even a glance in our direction. Was it us? We hadn’t waltzed in with cameras blazing in fact of the 3 of us with cameras we only started taking pics when we got a failsauce size of sashimi. Look at it! 4 slices! And that was the theme of the night- the food that did arrive was strangely miniaturized. I mean sure they might be trying to minimise the amount of wastage but when we ordered a second plate later on it was 3 times the size!


A bowl of yukke arrived missing the egg that the picture menu claimed to have and it was completely frozen! So frozen that no amount of stabbing could separate a single piece. ‘It’s meant to be frozen’ the waitress says. What?! Yukke is to be eaten like steak tartare so the meat needs to be fresh if you’re eating it raw.


But I guess everything was meant to be frozen at Shinara. From the strangely uniform square slices of tuna that resembled the texture of watermelon to the rock hard prawns and the ox tongue that had ice crystals so large it was like they had attempted to turn into shaved meat ice..


Finally we gave up and ordered bowls of green tea and vanilla ice cream. We reasoned that since everything was frozen the ice cream wouldn’t be a problem. Of course luck seemed to be against us that night and our green tea ice cream arrived in a melty puddle under the vanilla ice cream which was also flecked with ice crystals.

It’s not like the restaurant was completely jam packed full and the tables around us had received their food immediately. the majority of the waitresses were polite and apologetic but completely at a loss to our plaintive cries of ‘where’s the food!’. But one waiter was so inept that the ninja seethes with anger and sets his sights on the pleb and asks to see the manager. The waiter shakes his head and nods at the same time saying the manager was coming and runs away. 15mins later we are all fidgeting and ask another waitress for the manager who says the manager is ‘busy’ and not yet at the restaurant. Steam starts coming outta the ninjas ears and he tells the waitress to call her manager and some of us start putting on our jackets and the waitress arrives saying the manager is on the way and stands there almost as if standing guard to make sure we don’t do a runner and miraculously the manager appears. Unfortunately the manager does not have the power to deal with us and has to disappear to make another phone call- to her boss. It was like a bad video game where defeating one end of level boss means you just have to fight another end of level boss. Eventually we settle on paying half the bill.


We leave and head to Mamak where some of the night is restored in food that arrives hot, tasty and uber fast. Maybe Shinara was having a bad day. Maybe all the people in the kitchen took a sickie. Maybe yukke is meant to be frozen. Who knows?

1. Maybe, maybe, maybe, ohhhhhh

   — The Ninja    May 24, 09:35 AM    #
   
   

2. Oh wow, read both your and Ninja’s review on Shinara. The whole thing is just so weird. Even if they were having a bad day I wont be bothered wasting my time going there.

   — Sara @ Belly Rumbles    May 24, 10:06 AM    #
   
   

3. Oh dude!!!! You made me laugh so loud with the first picture!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Grreeennnn ****!!!!!!

   — Ellie (Almost Bourdain)    May 24, 10:07 AM    #
   
   

4. what a disappointing dinner :(

   — betty    May 24, 10:37 AM    #
   
   

5. This experience does nothing to advance Australian food! =p

   — mademoiselle delicieuse    May 24, 10:49 AM    #
   
   

6. What a complete fail. Glad mamak was there to rescue you.

   — Katherine    May 24, 10:53 AM    #
   
   

7. what a bloody disaster. I haven’t had a fail like that for a while, thank God. great post.

   — @5pandas    May 24, 10:56 AM    #
   
   

8. Shinara wasn’t so bad when I went last time (almost 2 months ago!). then again, we were a table of bored uni students with one who made weird faces at the mention of “ribs” or “beef tongue” and “squid”. it had no atmosphere, and i would not go again. your review probably explains why it was so empty on a friday night. word must have spread about the frozen state of things.

   — yygall    May 24, 11:24 AM    #
   
   

9. Maybe you should’ve finished off your diseased, bubbling froyo haha. At least it really is supposed to be frozen!

   — Jacq    May 24, 11:33 AM    #
   
   

10. Oh no…! I’ve been there for a late dinner once, and they were OK – nowhere near ‘Mt Everst fail’.
    I’ve had yukke in frozen form – but not to the extent that it doesn’t come out of the bowl… It’s supposed to be frozen then chopped, I think.
    What a sad meal… :(

    — Tina    May 24, 11:35 AM    #
    
    

11. Oh no.. I don’t think yukke is supposed to be frozen… I’ve had frozen yukke at a Korean restaurant in Hurstville and it was terrible! So cold and frozen we couldn’t eat it and it’s never like that in bibimbab!
    I’d much rather endure smoke inhalation at Suminoya ;)

    — Ayana    May 24, 11:38 AM    #
    
    

12. Picture of Yas just crack me up! LOL! Very disappointing to hear you’ve had a bad experience at Shinara, seems they have changed tremendously since last time we were there and had a good meal.

    I think is alright if they apologise and admit that the food are old and frozen. But trying to cover it up saying it meant to serve frozen is just not on.

    — billy@a table for two    May 24, 11:47 AM    #
    
    

13. Hahaha Yas! At least Mamak saved the day :) Shinara makes me sad.

    — Steph    May 24, 11:57 AM    #
    
    

14. Man, that was an aweful night! As if we were being punished for some reason because other tables were being served alright.

    Like Billy says, when we first visited it was alright, they’re just rolling down the hill I reckon.

    Thanks for the caffeinated present, guys :)

    — Yas @ hungry.digital.elf.    May 24, 12:48 PM    #
    
    

15. i know most places serve yukhwe fairly frozen, but not THAT frozen. omg such an epic fail! i just stick to madang. hahaha. in fact, im going there tonight!! :P no bbq buffet tho.. sigh.

    — sook@nommynomnom    May 24, 01:25 PM    #
    
    

16. I don’t care what people says, I’m gonna be shouting out about awesome Mamak is for the rest of my life! At least the company was awesome (and not frozen hehe).

    — Karen | C&C    May 24, 01:48 PM    #
    
    

17. Sounds aweful :(

    — Fiona    May 24, 03:06 PM    #
    
    

18. Seriously cannot believe that that was the service you received. Utterly flabbergasted.

    It’s not like there aren’t other places to have Korean BBQ in the city, so Shinara’s loss I guess.

    — Simon @ the heart of food    May 24, 04:29 PM    #
    
    

19. Oh dear. A hungry angry group of food bloggers would not be a pretty sight to see. ‘Danger! Danger!’ The yukke on the grill made me giggle.

    Honestly, a bunch of people with cameras taking photos of food is screaming out that they are food bloggers. Wouldn’t they step up their game?? I guess they don’t care.

    — Amy @ cookbookmaniac.com    May 24, 05:32 PM    #
    
    

20. worst video game ever, I am so sad cos they were pretty decent last time alas twill be no next time

    — FFichiban    May 24, 06:32 PM    #
    
    

21. That’s when the “sorry, I will only pay for what I ordered and received” needs to come out. They think they’ve won, until you explain that you didnt receive what you ordered :)

    — Helen    May 24, 06:59 PM    #
    
    

22. aww at least there was mamak! and haha should have had that karaage if only you knew..

    — Nomnomnibblies    May 24, 09:59 PM    #
    
    

23. i can’t help but see the irony in a restaurant upsetting an entire table of food bloggers.ey will speak about it. you know th it would be like a thief trying to rob a punch of police officers.

    but i’m glad you got satisfaction at mamak. mamak is always lovely

    — virginia    May 25, 01:06 AM    #
    
    

24. OMG I want to dip my face in that icecream & blow bubbles!

    — john@heneedsfood    May 25, 02:26 PM    #
    
    

25. Wow that is an epic fail. They should hang their heads in shame. I love your use of classic Calombaris quotes.

    — Mark @ Cafe Campana    May 25, 07:31 PM    #
    
    

26. I went last week and had a pretty similar experience. The frozen yukke! You warmed it on the grill but we were so confused we just chewed away at it.
    Shinara is terrible!

    — liz    Jun 5, 02:39 PM    #
    
    

27. I passed through Shinara today, the poster mentioned the dinner buffet is only $19.90. Is it true?

    — Dora    Sep 2, 08:43 PM    #