Forkers!

[Chris]

I've eaten at Forker's once, and I had a great experience. First-rate food and service.

[maoman]

A reply to Rosarot from the management at Forkers:

I would like to sincerely apologize for the unpleasant experience you had in January 2010. I can promise you that each and every customer is valuable and that we do appreciate your honesty in dealing with your experience. I regret that management was never informed of your situation, or we would have addressed it at a much earlier date. This never should have happened in the first place and we apologize for the poor handling of the situation by the staff that were present.

Rest assured that in the 2 years since your birthday, we have changed many things. The handling of situations like this are all taken on by management now, even if we are not present.

In the past two years we have changed bun companies as we were unhappy with the downward spiral of quality from our old bakery. The new baker, A German ex-pat, makes a great whole wheat-sour dough bun for us now. He is professional, timely and his product is second to none. As well, as a result of customer feedback we have also changed our beef patty. We have added a new spicy and crispy chicken patty, and for limited time only, we now have a fantastic new turkey patty! (We know this doesn't apply to you as a veggie, but we mention it in the vein of working toward improvement).

As for the timing, we do space reservations 2 hours apart to give people enough time to eat. Two hours is plenty of time to eat, but the down side is that we have many people arrive for different tables at the same time. Our kitchen does get busy and depending on when you are there, the waiting times for food may range from 15 to 25 minutes. Again, anything longer is unacceptable and we are looking into this matter to see what the slow down was on your birthday. 35 minutes is not acceptable by us and should not be acceptable by you either. We assure you that this has been rectified.

Forkers is owned and operated by westerners with 30+ years of combined hospitality experience in both front of house and back of house. We stand 100% behind our product. Our goal is simply to bring you a great product for a great price.

We believe one of our significant strengths is that we are not absentee owners. We have managers at both stores full-time. We welcome feedback with open arms. We hope that in future anyone who has a valid issue to raise will address us personally and give us the opportunity to solve the problem on sight at the time. If no manager is on site, please leave a message with the staff and we will respond to you in a timely manner. The management team will work with you to make sure that you leave happy every time, and to ensure you return again with friends.

For any questions or comments, always feel free to call the manager Joe (02) 2771-9285 for English, or Jess (02) 2567-7697 for Chinese. Thanks for taking your time to read this and Happy eating!

Joe

That's a really nice reply from management, but really, that post shouldn't even be up there. A two-year old complaint about an intact cockroach in a hamburger? It sounds a little incredible, in the "not credible" sense of the word. I'm reporting the post. It's not fair play.

[rosarot]

Maoman,
please feel free to report my post all you like. I just don't get what exactly makes you so sure that I'm lying to all of you.
Yes, this incident happened nearly two years ago. That's why I stated the date in my post so as not to falsely lead anyone to the impression that this had happened on a recent visit to Forkers. As I understand it, this thread serves the purpose of giving people the opportunity to share the experiences they have had at Forkers and for other people to read them and thus decide wether to go there or not. That's exactly what I did.
I've had one bad experience at Forkers that I felt was worth sharing. I have worked in gastronomy for 10 years myself. I know what the kitchen of a popular restaurant looks like on a saturday night between 8 and 10. That's why I understand how it could have happened that whoever was preparing my burger didn't notice the cockroach sticking to the UNDERSIDE of my bun (for all you curious people: it didn't stick out, it rather looked like it was "embedded" in the bun, that's why I suspect it was already there when the buns arrived at Forkers). What I didn't like was how the staff in charge handled the situation. Like I stated in my original post.
Still, as I have also said in my original post, I've been to Forkers several times again since my initial visit. A lot of my friends love the place (among them people who where with me on said evening) and as I'm a homo sociologicus I go with them from time to time. Check my original post again: I love their desserts (the Upside Down Apple Tart is to die for!) and have had only good experiences with their service staff after my initial visit.

Dear Joe,
thank you for your response to my post. I'm happy to hear about the improvements you've made to Forkers and especially about the German buns (my birthday is coming up next week, maybe I should have a revival dinner ).
As I said, I've been back to Forkers after my bad experience and will be back in the future.
All the best for 2012,
Carmen

[Adflob Sales]

I just noticed this promotion being run by the good people of Forkers.



Tell them you are from Forumosa and you may get an extra discount as they are good friends of the site.

[TainanCowboy]

Rosarot -
Nice reply....up until you tossed out the "homo sociologicus" self-identifier.

from wikiwacki: (all the rest were in German)

Homo sociologicus

Comparisons between economics and sociology have resulted in a corresponding term Homo sociologicus (introduced by German Sociologist Ralf Dahrendorf in 1958), to parody the image of human nature given in some sociological models that attempt to limit the social forces that determine individual tastes and social values. (The alternative or additional source of these would be biology.) Hirsch et al. say that Homo sociologicus is largely a tabula rasa upon which societies and cultures write values and goals; unlike economicus, sociologicus acts not to pursue selfish interests but to fulfill social roles[14] (though the fulfillment of social roles may have a selfish rationale—e.g. politicians or socialites). This "individual" may appear to be all society and no individual.

"You're talkin' about finding a bug in a bun....right?

[Adflob Sales]

I just noticed this promotion being run by the good people of Forkers.



Tell them you are from Forumosa and you may get an extra discount as they are good friends of the site.

In fact, Joe will indeed give you a little love if you introduce yourself to him as a proud Forumosan.

Tap the Power of The Flob!

[Adflob Sales]

I just noticed this promotion being run by the good people of Forkers.



Tell them you are from Forumosa and you may get an extra discount as they are good friends of the site.

In fact, Joe will indeed give you a little love if you introduce yourself to him as a proud Forumosan.

Final details of special Forumosan discount. If you say, "Hi I'm Forumosan Hexuan (insert your handle here)", you need not print out any of the coupons they are offering on their website. Your name is good enough.

[Adflob Sales]

You don't need top print these. Just introduce yourself as a forumosan and tell them which special you'd like.

[DiveAsia]

I went to the Zhōngxiào East Road Forkers today and that will be the last time I go. I have been to both branches and the Zhōngxiào East Road one has been a disappointment. Maybe the boss is never at that one as the other branch has been fine.

Today during our whole meal the staff and manager chatted so loud we had to hear their conversation throughout our whole meal. Not the worst thing in the world but it would have been nice if they realized we were the customers trying to enjoy a meal and listening to their back and forth was not what we were there for.

When I went to wash up before eating, the door to the toilet was open and the waste basket next to the toilet was over flowing with used toilet paper. The place was almost empty so no idea why they could not clean that up. That was enough to put me off going there again but then the food came and the fries were undercooked on the inside. They looked fine on the outside, but the waitress could not seem to understand what my wife and I were telling her when we said the fries were hard and undercooked. She offered to change the fries, but we had to take the fries off our plate and give them to her before she would go back to the kitchen and ask for new fries. I think she was afraid we might eat a few. The manager hovered around and did not say anything or offer to help until I asked her to come over and explained about the fries. When they did bring out the new fries, which had the same issue, we had all but finished our meal and we couldn't eat them.
If you are going to try Forkers I would not visit the Zhōngxiào East Road branch.

[Adflob Sales]

I went to the Zhōngxiào East Road Forkers today and that will be the last time I go. I have been to both branches and the Zhōngxiào East Road one has been a disappointment. Maybe the boss is never at that one as the other branch has been fine.

Today during our whole meal the staff and manager chatted so loud we had to hear their conversation throughout our whole meal. Not the worst thing in the world but it would have been nice if they realized we were the customers trying to enjoy a meal and listening to their back and forth was not what we were there for.

When I went to wash up before eating, the door to the toilet was open and the waste basket next to the toilet was over flowing with used toilet paper. The place was almost empty so no idea why they could not clean that up. That was enough to put me off going there again but then the food came and the fries were undercooked on the inside. They looked fine on the outside, but the waitress could not seem to understand what my wife and I were telling her when we said the fries were hard and undercooked. She offered to change the fries, but we had to take the fries off our plate and give them to her before she would go back to the kitchen and ask for new fries. I think she was afraid we might eat a few. The manager hovered around and did not say anything or offer to help until I asked her to come over and explained about the fries. When they did bring out the new fries, which had the same issue, we had all but finished our meal and we couldn't eat them.
If you are going to try Forkers I would not visit the Zhōngxiào East Road branch.

Not to belittle your experience, but are you sure you mean ZhongXiao East branch? I only ask because the manager at that branch is a man. The manager of the ZhongShan North branch is a woman. I've alerted the owner to your dilemma and you can expect a response soon. Thank you for sharing your experience on Forumosa. I know owners of local businesses appreciate the feedback, regardless of the nature.