Outside food YES or NO in restaurants?

Date of visit: 20 July 2013

Last Saturday was having lunch at Ssik Sin Korean BBQ Buffet Restaurant at Tampines One.

Here's some pics of it.

Won't be doing a food review this time.  It's not that bad but there nothing in particular to rave about.

It's very economical so it wouldn't be fair to expect too much either.

This post is going to be on something we saw while having our lunch.........

Sitting beside our table was an elderly lady who seemed like the grandmother of two toddlers, one about a year old on a baby chair, another about 3 to 4 years old.

About 10 mins later another woman who appeared to be the mother of the children walked to the table with a bag of Mcdonald's food.  Before this mother could take her seat, the female Korean manager approached her and told her that no outside food is allowed in the restaurant.

Wow..... "show time" wor!

Although the manager was not rude, the mother was very unhappy.  She said that she had asked the waiter who said it's okay to bring in outside food.  She said that if the waiter had told her it's not allowed, she would not go all the way to buy back the Mcdonald's for her children.  The Manager insisted firmly to her again that outside food was not allowed.

At this point, the mother gotten very upset, raised her voice a little: "So you want me bring my children to sit outside and eat is it?"  she asked the manager.

Able to sense the unpleasantness, the manager told her they would make an exception for this time.  However, the mother's mood was already very much affected to dine in.  She grumbled to the grandmother  that the Korean manager *rolled eyes* (which I didn't see).

She walked out of the restaurant with her elder child, leaving the grandmother and the little toddler to dine in. Nobody helped to look after the kiddo in high chair when grandma needed to go to the serving counter to get her food, Grandma didn't enjoy her lunch either.  As we continued with our BBQ, the "drama" continued......

The Korean manager tried to find out from the grandmother why did the mother leave in an angry manner.  Both did not communicate efficiently with half bucket kind of english.   It went to the extend of the grandmother passing her handphone to the Korean Manager to continue to pacify the mother who was obviously in pissed off mood.

The episode went insanely draggy.  Just before we finished our lunch after an hour plus, saw the Korean manager talking to the drama mama at the restaurant's entrance.  Couldn't make out the conversation from the distant, but saw the mother wiping her tears with a tissue.

Outside food in restaurants, YES or NO?

I would say it's a common rule that "No Outside Is allowed" in most restaurants.  The mother went ahead after a "Yes" from the waiter, but got pissed off when the manager told her "No" later.

How would you react if you were the mother or the restaurant manager?