Scary Food Handling - Big Fat Warning (review: Secret Recipe, Bikit Bintang)

One franchise that is scattered everywhere around Kuala Lumpur is Secret Recipe. I have written about their bizarre lack of quality control before, but since they are everywhere and they often are the only ones serving anything different than all the mamak stores (local Malaysian/Indian street food), I occasionally forget how bad they are and give them another shot.

I have got to learn not to give them a chance because each time I get surprised just how bad it is.

This time I ordered a Lamb Pie. About 15 minutes went by, before the waiter came back asking me - I stress: ASKING me - if I wanted to change my order because: "The lamb pie is not fresh". I got a number of problems with this. First of all, what was the pie doing in their kitchen in the first place if it was no longer fresh. Don't they have any system in place, or do they just keep it until it becomes obvious that it's no longer well. Second, how did they discover this? Did they cook it and then got overwhelmed by the stench or did they discover green stuff growing on it. Thirdly why ASK. Did they hope I would actually enjoy a non-fresh pie and still accept it?

I decided not to try the lamb pie and instead went for the Shepherd's Pie. This one obviously passed their rigorous inspection and was served after another 15 minutes. They do not get points for visual presentation though:

It would be hard to make anything less visually appealing. A tiny bit of greenery (the kind you put next to a dish - not the kind that grow on the foul smelling ones) or a tomato would go a loooong way.

Eating about one third through, I hit solid ice - ice - not gold. Once more - how on earth is this possible. You make a Pie of a certain size and freeze it. Defrosting and heating it up will require the same amount of time in the microwave each and every time. There are absolutely no variables, so if they get it wrong it's because they never bothered to figure out how to get it right - or the staff just throw it in there until they get some kind of smell - if good serve customer - if bad ask customer if they want replacement.  Something like this:




While waiting for their third attempt, a supply truck was arriving and parking right next to where I was sitting:



For the next half an hour it was belching out diesel fumes creating an unbelievable stench. If you drive a truck and you bring food to a restaurant with dining guests at LEAST have the courtesy to switch off the engine.

I admit I must be slightly stupid going there again, but perhaps I just can't imagine just how bad it really is. I can only urge - stay away from these places. Their food is mostly rubbish but even worse, their food handling is suspicious and it might very well kill you one day.

Last but not least, the previous time I wrote about Secret Recipe, I send a link to their marketing department asking for their comments.  I never received a reply.  This time I will do the same.  I will send a link to this blog and urge them to leave an explanation.  My guess is they will show the same enthusiasm as they do on their quality control.

Comment added July 31 2010:

It's been a week now and a few things are becoming obvious:

1. A lot of the "fans" from Facebook have been checking and reading this link (data from Google Analytics)

2. This page has begun to show up on Google search (also data from Google Analytics)

3. Someone has started emailing links to this article around (referrals from hotmail, yahoo and gmail according to Google Analytics)

I am by no means and expert in how to run a profitable franchise business, but I do think that if I was responsible for these cock-ups I would at least try to explain it as a single mistake.  I reckon the reason they don't is that they really truly don't care.  It is obvious that a high level of quality is not high on the agenda.  Please do keep that in mind if you ever consider actually eating any of their products.  And if you get violently sick you had been warned.

And I have been asked a couple of times which branch I was writing about.  The experienced described above was from the Bukit Bintang branch and it was actually written on my mobile phone and posted on the spot while I was still there.

Update Aug. 3, 2010

It took them a while to respond, but today Secret Recipe actually did respond on their facebook page.  Message read:

Secret Recipe Malaysia Sorry for late response, you message has been noticed and under investigation. thanks!

 Ah well, I reckon that's probably as far as it will go and I am really not sure what they need to investigate - except if they are checking with their lawyers how much liability they've got if one of their customers get violently sick.

Update Aug. 7, 2010

As predicted no comments or explanations whatsoever, except from: "your message has been noticed".  So - my messages has been noticed and then silently ignored in the hope that it will go away.  But that's the thing with the Internet - it doesn't go away - and this page keeps getting hits and popping up in Google searches.

Update Sep. 28, 2010

I never quite get what makes Google rate some pages higher than others, but this post generates far more Google hits than any other post I have ever written.  I think it's the food handling part.  So I guess it's time to add that after almost 2 month they must still be investigating because they most certainly have not returned any other comment than that.