Exemplary service at Sangeetha's

Last evening my dad and I went to Sangeetha's at Adyar for a quick evening bite. We ordered Ragi Dosa, just for the heck of it.

The aforementioned dish was served. It is so dark in color that the first impression one gets is that its roasted real well. Au contraire, it is barely cooked.

One thing that both of us observed was that there was no, or at best little, salt. After the first bite, I had a good mind to cancel the stuff. But then we just proceeded to have a couple of more pieces. The supervisor came by and we somehow couldn't resist asking him about the lack of salt. He explained that since it was treated as a health food, they usually don't add much salt. He then walked away.

We went on with the job on hand and in a minute or so, were interrupted by the supervisor asking for our excuse. He said that he'd checked with the chefs and found out that the salt level was lower than normal. He then proceeded to say that we could cancel the order and get a fresh order of the same dish or anything else we require.

Since we had already eaten like half the dosai, we said it was ok and that we don't mind continuing with what was served. But the guy went on to say that our satisfaction was of utmost importance and that if we were not happy at any level, he was willing to bring anything else to supplement what we were eating. Another supervisor also joined the session and went to add that they were supposed to take care of customers and that no one should go unsatisfied.

We had a really difficult time in telling them that we were okay eating that dosai. I went on to add that I was really happy with the kind of attention they were giving to what was just an enquiry/comment about the salt content in the dosai.

It was a very different and satisfying experience. I'd never expected any restaurant folks to go so far to please their customers. This is a big restaurant with a lot of floating population. The more expensive and niche restaurants have a regular clientele and can well afford to pamper their customers. Since they don't get that big a crowd they can easily find out who is regular and who is not. And mostly, these restaurants are not open for very long hours and so can easily concentrate on anyone who visits them. And all the attention could just be to get a good tip and not a genuine wish to serve you well.

But this is a big chain in the city and even if there are regular customers, the sheer number that floats in and out when they are open, will make it tough for them to remember who comes often and who does not. And since the section where we ate has a 'payment only at the counter' policy, it is understandable if the supervisors and waiters just do their work and leave customer satisfaction out the door.

This is where, I feel, this restaurant differs. And mine was not an isolated incident. My friend Raji and her husband Anand were in an almost identical situation and were given the exact same treatment.

Hats off to the Restaurant staff.