Italiannies is in Town!

Italiannies finally opened its 1^st restaurant in Gurney Paragon! I had the pleasure of dining in their KL Mid-valley branch years ago and now I finally can dine there without going to KL. The restaurant was full when we went on a Friday night and we had to wait around 20 minutes to get a table.

Interior of the Restaurant

Interior of the Restaurant

We were served by a waiter who didn’t really speak English well, he is a foreigner from the look of it. We wanted to order stuffed mushroom and lasagna, but were told 10 minutes later that both dishes were not available. We ended ordering Sicilian Chicken Salad and Chicken Milanese. We also ordered a glass of red Sangria and this was when the thing got funny. After we ordered it, the waiter came back to clarify with us on this order again, the conversation went like:
Waiter: You ordered White Sangria?
Me: No, I ordered RED Sangria.
Waiter: White?
Me: RED.
Waiter: White?

Me: No. I want RED!
Waiter: White?
Me: RED!
This went on for quite a long time.
Me: RED! Okay?
Waiter: Okay okay!
*the waiter walked away*
Me: *bewildered* I think he is going to serve me white Sangria instead…

My instinct was right - he served me white Sangria! UGH! Perhaps I can’t pronounce “RED” properly? The funny thing was the restaurant manager was suddenly there to ask us about the waiter performance – saying he is a new guy and hopefully did not screw anything up. I did not complain the waiter to her since I was in a good mood that night (after watching Tom Hiddleston in War Horse on big screen) and because it was quite an amusing situation really. The WHITE Sangria tasted good anyway and perhaps the waiter had indirectly helped me by serving me the lower calories of the 2 different Sangrias? =p

The Infamous White Sangria

Anyway, did I mention I love the bread, olive and vinegar served by Italiannies?

Bread with olive oil and vinegar - LOVE IT!

Luckily the waiter did not screw up our main courses and we were served with Sicilian Chicken Salad. The salad consisted of chicken breast, mangoes, red grapes, pine nuts and romaine lettuce with lemon-dijon dressing. The dressing tasted a bit garlicky actually but overall it was good.

Sicilian Chicken

The Chicken Milanese was served – basically it was 3 chicken breasts served with spinach and tomato. The chicken and spinach was soaked in some creamy sauce which was yummy. It was a bit sourly and buttery.

Chicken Milanese

I guess the only downside of the restaurant (other than that amusing waiter) was the choices in their menu were always out of stock. My colleagues had the same experience as their top choices were all sold out. Perhaps they could store more stock? Or they prefer to have limited stock for fresher ingredients?

Well, perhaps we should be glad that we didn’t waited for 1 hour before being informed that food are out of stock! Think that is bad? Wait till you got punched in the face by the waiter for expressing our lack of satisfaction! Think that’s the worst case it could happen? Wait till people mentioned that “worker is our asset, they have feeling! As a customer, you shouldn’t complain or scold the worker even after you were in queue for 1 hour and then was told the food is out of stock!” *sweat* You think things like that never happen? Well, think again! It happened right here in Malaysia in a KFC restaurant. Guess this is the new age of customer relationship management! Malaysia Boleh! *sacarsm* Anyway.. I digress…

Italiannies is located in Gurney Paragon, Penang.