Hygiene alert: Today I went to Pokebar to order a dish take-out at 5:40pm, May 13th Wednesday. One of the servers started my Pokebar order. There is a little silver bowl that they grab from a section and they slide the little silver bowl along the counter. She put salmon and tunas into the silver bowl, to pour them into my main bowl of rice. But when she did that, the bottom of the silver bowl SMASHED into my rice. I was shocked when I saw that, but said nothing right away because my mind was still processing what was happening. I told her about it and she countered, "The silver bowls are clean, they are one time use." So I said ok. But then I remembered that she slid the silver bowl across the counter once or twice, before it touched my rice. It wasn't a light touch either, the rice actually got smushed from the push of the silver bowl's bottom. (Please see my illustration). So all the germs and dirt from the counter on that bottom of the bowl is pressed on my rice. I have worked in food service before, and our managers always trained us to be very careful on food and safety hygiene! So this girl was not trained properly by the manager there, or she was sloppy and forgot, I don't know which reason. She was a chubbier Asian girl than the rest, so it's easy to spot her if you go in to order.
So I stayed there to watch the other girl to see if she would make the same mistake. The chubby girl went over to her and whispered something in her ear about me, maybe something like "She's watching us, be careful with your bowl." The other girl then was very careful with her bowl, so I watched the next girl. She also was careful with her bowl, so it was only the chubby girl who made the mistake with mine. I did not feel comfortable now, and decided I would like to exchange for a new one.
As I waited in line for the chubby girl to come back to me, a tall thin Chinese girl with glasses acted rude to me and said, "Can you move???" because other customers were coming in and of social distancing. I had done nothing wrong, but now that tall thin girl became a little bit rude and aggressive when I am a purchasing customer. I moved and smiled, but thought that she was out of line to treat me this way because she found it 'annoying' that I was not happy with my purchase of my dirty rice.
Anyway, this review would have been 1 star, but I made it 2 stars because the chubby girl re-did my order and apologize. I don't know if she was sincere about her apology, I am sure she would just backtalk about this after I leave. But you know what? I will also write my review so the Pokebar manager and franchise will know that they need to train their staff better on hygiene and food safety.
I am not one of those snobby or high maintenance customers. I am a girl who has worked in the food industry for many years and had different managers always tell us to be clean and safe with the food. This was just a very sloppy training from what I saw today.
Also, I ordered a large which is 2 full scoops of rice. So the 2nd time she re-did my order, she put in 1 + 1/4 scoops because they were out of white rice. She was too lazy to fill the rest of it with brown rice or grab another new white rice. Or she did it on purpose because she was annoyed at me so she figured putting in less as a little 'punishment' at me. I notice all these little details because I was a food worker for many years and we are meticulous about giving the same amount consistently to customers.
Advice to Pokebar:
1) Train your staff to be hygienic and perform the same way. All the girls poured the sashimi from the silver bowl to the paper rice bowl carefully, but the chubby girl's silver bowl bottom smashed into the rice. When she did it a 2nd time to re-make mine, I noticed she still poured it differently than the other girls. It still was slightly touching the food, whereas the other girls don't make contact with the bottom of the silver bowl into the paper bowl.
2) Train your managers to be polite and to ask about the problem. The tall thin girl barked at me to move, when she should have asked me what the problem was and how to resolve it. If she was the manager or assistant manager, she needs to work on her people skills.
3) Most likely Pokebar will ignore this review and the email I will send them, but we will see. If they reply politely and acknowledge the issue, I will update this review and let you all know what happens. read more