Ling Ling by The Wine Company — Restaurant in Singapore

Atrocious. Practices overbooking and they’re not sorry about it.

Awfully poor service, food overpriced and not worth paying for. There’s even an issue with integrity - owner present and tried to pass off as a wronged customer instead.

Would give zero stars if I could.

This is a long review - but please do read if you are considering patronizing this place.

Overbooking - got our pre-reserved table 1 hr 5 m later

My group of 5 had made a reservation 2 weeks ago for 7pm. Got there by 7.10pm but no table ready. We were asked to sit in the humid outside waiting area.

And ignored. Kept asking for updates until 7.45pm when they tried to appease our displeasure with glasses of plain water (mind you, this is a wine company).

So a couple of us went inside the restaurant to speak to the manager and found that no one was bothering to get us a table. It was only when we complained inside within earshot of other diners that they made an effort to get us our table.

Co-owner who pretended to be a customer

We didn’t know then but one of the co-owners was present having her own dinner party, which seemed rather large and seemed to include at least one staff (the events manager, who was sipping from one of the glasses on the table).

This group vacated their table and adjourned temporarily to have their drinks in the outside area. We felt bad that it had to come to this. Until we found out more.

They - the staff and the lady co-owner - made us feel that we were in the wrong for asking for our table. It was now 8pm.

We didn’t know she was the co-owner but she was calling the manager by his first name and seemed to have some kind of authority in her manner of instructing the staff.

I asked her if she was with the restaurant and she answered yes. Then she told me I had no business being angry with her, that she didn’t cause the problem and even said stuff like “life is short, why get so angry”, etc. I looked at her and asked her outright if she was the owner, to which she replied “no”.

My friend, who didn’t hear my question, thought that she was a dining patron who suffered too in this whole fiasco, asked her if she was a customer and she replied “yes”.

We were sickened to learn later - from their Instagram, website and news articles and websites - that she’s one of the 3 co-owners. And seemingly the one who is active in the company operations.

If this is the level of integrity of the owners, then we aren’t surprised at the poor service from the staff.

Very slow and inept service We finally got to sit down at our table at 8.05pm. By then, we had lost our appetites and were so upset that we decided not to order any wine and just have small nibble plates to share.

Ordered our food, then the manger came back to say that 2 of the 6 dishes we ordered weren’t available - one because it was truly not available that evening, the other because it was sold out (you can imagine how we felt). It was now 8.20pm

By 8.45pm, only 3 dishes had arrived. We were willing to wait as it was a crowded night. Then a waiter came, interrupted our conversation and asked us to tell him how many of our dishes had arrived and how long we had waited - we told him to please check our order instead of asking us.

At 9pm, only 4 of the 6 dishes had arrived. That was the final straw. We decided to call it quits, pay for what we had been served and leave. Gave feedback to the manager, who did apologize, said he would inform the management but kept saying he couldn’t do anything. He couldn’t offer us a glass of house pour while we waited an hour for our supposed reserved table, couldn’t offer us a complementary nibbles dish or a discount, nothing. He was merely an unempowered hired help.

And to think, the co-owner herself was there.

We will never patronize this F&B place again. Maybe you might have a better experience...

Beautiful place with a really nice vibe BUT, service was absolutely atrocious.

DO NOT RECOMMEND AT ALL- please read if you are considering this place.

Singapore has endless dining options and so I firmly believe that aside from food quality, service is of utmost importance as well. Unfortunately the staff here were clearly inexperienced and/or selfishly did not want to work too hard.

We stood at the entrance of the restaurant waiting to be seated for about 10 mins. All whilst their staff were walking in and out, taking orders from the guests seated outdoors and clearing glasses, and completely ignoring us.

We then decided to step into the restaurant to get more attention- nothing. The staff breezed past us, some standing at the bar “engrossed” in getting their own job done. When we clearly looked upset, a young boy came over and asked if we needed a table. We gave him our reservation details and he said he would be right back. He did not come back.

He went around taking orders and clearing tables while continuously walking by us. Then another staff came by and assisted us very quickly because we were now visibly angry. It took us 30 mins from reaching the restaurant to be seated at our table, even with a reservation. We had a feeling they messed up our reservation as we were not given a regular 4 pax table but instead 2 circular tables pushed together which made it awkward to share food with the gaps.

The ONLY saving grace of this place is an elderly cleaning lady called Juliet. Absolute gem, perfectly courteous and incredibly friendly. Of all people, she apologised for their slow response. She checked on us whenever she walked by, making sure we had enough drinks.

It was also a challenge getting the bill- no surprise there. We ended up having to walk to the counter to ask for the bill. I’m not even sure if this place should be charging a service tax at this point.

In conclusion, come only if you have patience to spare. Floor staff are young and have no knowledge on how to be good hosts. Food was average (better options at your nearby hawker), nothing outstanding and wine options were ok. Sadly, I will...

I came with a group of 6 to dine at The Wine Company today for lunch. Very happy they gave me a big table but the moment I sat done at the table, Trouble start

TROUBLE 1 - KNOCKED TRAY ON ME The waiter walked pass me and hit me in the head with the huge tray of food he was balancing. He did not come back to see if I was OK.

TROUBLE 2 - SYSTEM DID NOT CAPTURE ORDER 2 . My friend placed an order for a hotdog set meal. It did not go through so she closed the app and asked another friend to place the order. We also informed the waitress that there should only be 2 orders and NOT 3 of the hotdog meal. Adeline, the waitress acknowledged.

TROUBLE 3 - LONG WAIT FOR FOOD After 15 minutes our food was served. 1 order was missing. Told Adeline and she said the order was not registered. Another 10 minutes past and the order still did not arrive. Informed the male waiter and he said, " it's coming. After 45 minutes of waiting.... the order still did not arrive. The rest of us have finished eating and my friend still did not get his food so we called Adeline to cancel the order. She said it will be ready in 4 minutes, my friend said no, cancel the order, everyone is ready to leave and I need to go back to work, lunch hour is over.

Her reply, "then have it as a take away." Friend, "No, I don't want it" Adeline :" You have already cancelled the hotdog, you cannot cancel the curry!" Friend: i don't care. It's because you guys took so long to get my food. I sat here for 1 hour looking at my friends eat. Adeline: FINE!!

TROUBLE 4 - RUDE TO CUSTOMER After Adeline walked away to speak to her manager, no one else came to our table.

I waved to the manager to come to my table and she snubbed me and walked away. I got up when she walk to the bar counter. I stood there with my group of friends waiting till she gave us her attention. Her name is Heidi. I must say she was very brave to give us "The Attitude". I asked for the bill, paid and left.

This attitude is really uncalled for. The place is beautiful. Food is good but the service really needs improvement. To loose customers over such small...