Cadillac / Manhatten / Harry's Bar - New Menu

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Clutch Cargo
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Re: Cadillac / Manhatten Bar - New Menu

Post by Clutch Cargo »

Wanker Wat wrote: Sat Jan 26, 2019 12:51 pm
clutchcargo wrote: Sat Jan 26, 2019 9:26 am
But.....then I chatted to the manager and he said they're not making any money on these $5 specials unless customers also order a number of drinks..
No kidding. I could see doing the $5 specials occasionally (monthly?) to get people in the door but if you offer basically half priced food all day on Fridays, every Friday, you're going to get a lot of people who show up only on Fridays when stuff is half price. And they won't show up on Thursday or Saturday, of course, and it sends the message to your customer base that your dishes aren't really worth what you normally sell them for since you are selling them for half price all day on Fridays.
Yeah, it's a hangover of the previous owner that had everything on the menu for $5 on Fridays. So the place sorta became an institution on Fridays where it was packed, staff run off their feet and sometimes difficult to get a chair/table (bearing in mind the upstairs bit too). Furthermore, it got quite noisey and the kitchen couldn't handle the load with often 30-40 min or longer wait times. Then, as you say, the other nights were very quiet yet they had too many staff standing around. Crazy really and never made business sense to me.. Dunno their reasons for selling but seems to me they couldn't have been making much of a profit.

As I understand it, the new mob didn't want to initially cut out the 'everything on the menu $5' Fridays altogether through fear of losing that regular clientelle. Hence they settled on offering 4-5 $5 items and even then, I heard a lot of regulars were still complaining about it.. OTOH the new owners have reduced the mayhem on Fridays and getting more customers in on the other nights. Presumably, making it more profitable than before..
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Brody
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Re: Cadillac / Manhatten Bar - New Menu

Post by Brody »

Hmmmmmmmmm, maybe this is where the elusive Mrs. Cargo works.
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Re: Cadillac / Manhatten Bar - New Menu

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Brody wrote: Sat Jan 26, 2019 2:51 pm Hmmmmmmmmm, maybe this is where the elusive Mrs. Cargo works.
The location of Mrs Cargo is only available to the keymaster.. :salut:

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fax
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Re: Cadillac / Manhatten Bar - New Menu

Post by fax »

Cadillac only has one waitress
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Wanker Wat
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Re: Cadillac / Manhatten Bar - New Menu

Post by Wanker Wat »

fax wrote: Sat Jan 26, 2019 3:23 pm Cadillac only has one waitress
Don’t tell me they have dudes serving customers in there.
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Re: Cadillac / Manhatten Bar - New Menu

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fax wrote: Sat Jan 26, 2019 3:23 pm Cadillac only has one waitress
Well, I had a mediocre club sandwich not so long ago during which I was attended to by not one but two indifferent, dare I say blasé waitresses, with semi-permanent, nonplussed looks glued to their faces.

...and, not for nothing, but looks-wise, for the afternoon shifts at least, they definitely have the B team working at the old Cadillac.

Come on restaurateurs let's up the ante shall we?!? Half of the reason for going out to eat on the riverside is being attended to an exotic, alluring, giggly, young, effervescent Khmer woman.

If I wanted to be served by a disinterested sour-puss I'd just stay at home.

{actually I'm just mad at the wife due to her notorious butter-fingers with which, this morning, she daftly dropped and shattered my limited edition Denver Broncos 1997 Super Bowl beer stein.}
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Re: Cadillac / Manhatten Bar - New Menu

Post by Duncan »

Brody wrote: Sat Jan 26, 2019 3:56 pm
fax wrote: Sat Jan 26, 2019 3:23 pm Cadillac only has one waitress
Well, I had a mediocre club sandwich not so long ago during which I was attended to by not one but two indifferent, dare I say blasé waitresses, with semi-permanent, nonplussed looks glued to their faces.

...and, not for nothing, but looks-wise, for the afternoon shifts at least, they definitely have the B team working at the old Cadillac.

Come on restaurateurs let's up the ante shall we?!? Half of the reason for going out to eat on the riverside is being attended to an exotic, alluring, giggly, young, effervescent Khmer woman.

If I wanted to be served by a disinterested sour-puss I'd just stay at home.

{actually I'm just mad at the wife due to her notorious butter-fingers with which, this morning, she daftly dropped and shattered my limited edition Denver Broncos 1997 Super Bowl beer stein.}

Did you lick the beer up off the floor, it's expensive stuff you know.
Cambodia,,,, Don't fall in love with her.
Like the spoilt child she is, she will not be happy till she destroys herself from within and breaks your heart.
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Re: Cadillac / Manhatten Bar - New Menu

Post by fax »

Wanker Wat wrote: Sat Jan 26, 2019 3:26 pm
fax wrote: Sat Jan 26, 2019 3:23 pm Cadillac only has one waitress
Don’t tell me they have dudes serving customers in there.

There's the Swedish manager (not Belgian or chef)
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Re: Cadillac / Manhatten Bar - New Menu

Post by Clutch Cargo »

clutchcargo wrote: Sat Jan 26, 2019 9:26 am
As to their other specials I like..

Saturday pepper steak tenderloin. It's apparently kiwi steak cut quite thick (albeit not huge) and very tender and tasty. I've been to a few places where they source Cambo steak (eg Chez Gaston, PKA Chan) which are surprisingly tender however I found the NZ one to be more flavoursome. I also like the way they do the potatoes gratin style instead of the customary mash or fries. The pepper sauce has a real bite to it too. $9.50 (or $9.75?) with glass of red wine included (normally $3).
Geez, only 1 day and I have to update my post!

So I wandered down there last night to get my weekly fix of pepper steak, and low and behold, it's no longer the special of the day (albeit still on the menu at the much increased price of $14).

Instead they've got this new swedish thing called 'Planksteak' for $12.75 with a glass of wine included (up $3 from the pepper steak special). It comes on a wooden board with like a 'fence' of mashed potato, the tenderloin in the middle, a couple of sprigs of asparagus wrapped in bacon, a small grilled half tomato and a 'moat' of 2 sauces (one seemed to be mushroom, the other some sort of garlicky thing). I didn't take a pic but here is one from their Pattaya website and a few others from google to give you an idea.

Image Image Image Image

Anyway to me, it is a backward step. Higher price and the previously very nice gratin potato served in a separate ceramic pot is now replaced with plain ol mash and it just isn't the same without the great pepper sauce. Unimpressed and they've lost me at least.

Of course maybe they will do well with the direction they seem to be going..perhaps targeting a different demographic of tourists and drinkers (I think they have 75c draught special) rather than a expat like me that comes to cherry pick their specials only, eat and then leave. I get the feeling they are trying to be like Metro or Oskar..the only thing is they don't have the decor nor the cute waitresses the other 2 have
Spoiler:
Brody alert :(
I dunno whether this is a trend for future Riverside in that restos will be more upmarket and catering principally for tourists.. Maybe the same will happen to whatever phoenix will arise from Paddy Rice. Certainly, in other countries they say you should go where the locals eat not the tourists..
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Re: Cadillac / Manhatten Bar - New Menu

Post by phuketrichard »

i dont see how many of the restaurants on riverside survive serving any dishes under $5 with the rents they must be paying.
OR how many own the buildings?ANY?
Is the coffin shops still there? i assume they own the building as how many coffins does one sell/month
In a nation run by swine, all pigs are upward-mobile and the rest of us are fucked until we can put our acts together: not necessarily to win, but mainly to keep from losing completely. HST
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