I was invited to a dinner hosted by the American Chamber of Commerce at the Eastern & Oriental Hotel in Penang recently.

The dinner was an opportunity for members of the business community to 1)  meet the U.S. Ambassador to Malaysia, Mr. James R. Keith and 2) do a bit of socializing and networking.

The E & O Hotel is Penang’s oldest hotel, and since their revamp/relaunch a few years ago they have making quite a name for themselves. I’d been there on a number of occasions before and the food/service was nothing to shout about but I had high expectations for this dinner as the U.S. Ambassador was coming to town (woooOooo)

The dinner was buffet style, and the food was so plain I could not believe I was eating at the E & O. I mean there were fried crabsticks and other crappy fingerfood that I would expect at someone’s open house but NOT at the E & O.

The soup on the menu was cream of pumpkin, but look at the bowl we had to drink out of! Come on, is it too much to expect a proper soup bowl during a dinner function at the E & O?

Virtually nothing was done to dress up the drab ballroom and it reminded me of my high school’s assembly hall in Hong Kong.

In the right corner of the picture above is Nasir Abbasi, who was sitting at my table and works for the U.S. Embassy as the Counselor for Commercial Affairs. Nasir is a very friendly and amicable man but even he couldn’t take the bad service of the hotel’s staff who steadfastly refused to bring him a Coke even though he asked repeatedly for one.

I was ashamed that one of Penang’s leading hotels did such a rubbish job of catering for this function and I hate to think what impression the entire U.S. Embassy’s staff will have of Penang’s hotels after this trip. Sure, people might say, “Oh the budget was tight, blah blah blah” – but was the budget so tight that you couldn’t afford proper service and china?

Eastern & Oriental Hotel – FAIL!

Posted on November 24th, 2009 by BadBoyBen
Filed under: Bad News, Food