Was at Omma for my mum’s birthday lunch and I deeply regretted my decision. My mum had suggested to go to another Korean bbq place (Wang Dae Bak at Chinatown to be exact) but I had recommended this place as I remember seeing this restaurant being shared in some food bloggers’ social media and I trusted that it would minimally, be a pleasant/nice place to have a meal at.

However, I did not have a pleasant experience here. Firstly, I made a reservation for 2pm and reached at approx 2.05pm. Headed inside the restaurant and was ignored. One staff was washing something behind the cashier/counter. We stood there and waited for another few mins before another young lady staff came to the area behind the counter to prepare a glass of beer. Waited again. I’m confident I was noticed BUT nobody came to ask/direct us to a table. Waited for another few mins before informing the young lady staff that I have a reservation, before she told the other staff to come and entertain us.

Ordered quite a no of items such as seafood pancake ($25, this was ok), jjajang ramen (for $15, this tasted very ordinary and overpriced), ginseng chicken soup ($25, this is not bad), black pork belly ($25), bbq seafood set ($59, cane with 4 pcs of fresh scallops, 6 pcs of prawn and 1 squid which were not very fresh. For the quality, the price is really really not worth it). Overall, for this price point, I’m confident we can get better kbbq with better service elsewhere. The food served by the young lady staff to us was just dumped on our table without any explanation. I think I was spoilt by the attitude at other restaurants where the servers would at least let you know what is being served when they place the food on your table? To be honest I was a bit shocked at this kind of attitude. I used to work part time at a F&B outlet myself and this, definitely is considered very bad attitude which would not have tolerated by my ex-manager.

Anw, I think the restaurant can do better in terms of the food and grill quality. The grill plate seems to have some issues and the food took very long to cook. Nobody came to check in on us until most of the staff went for their lunch break (this was approx 3pm or so) and this middle aged lady came to ensure that everything is ok. Appreciated that as we took the chance to highlight that 2 out of 3 ordered drinks were not served after an hour, we wanted refills for one of the side dishes and our food is not cooking (issues with the grill plate). She requested for the change in the grill plate and even that took almost 10mins with constant reminders, even though the restaurant is not busy and they have available staff around.

We subsequently ended the meal and requested to takeover our leftover pancake. My brother has to walk to the cashier to get the attention of a staff to pack the food and the young lady took the food, put it on the counter and asked another young guy (who appears to be a n lunch break) to pack it instead. The young guy protested saying that he’s on lunch break but still proceeded with the packing. What alarms me the most is he took the food to another area near the kitchen (but still open area) to do the packing and all these while, did not have his face mask on. I’m not sure if this is acceptable? At this point of time (23 Apr), isn’t it still mandatory to have mask on in indoor area, and whatsmore when handling food items? Isn’t this basic hygiene standards??

Will definitely not recommend or even be back.