Johnny Rockets The Curve

Have you ever thought dining at some restaurant was a good idea only to regret it even before your food is served? Well I thought it was a good idea to try Johnny Rockets’ fare at their Curve outlet. Maybe I was feeling the “Happy Days” vibe what with the jukebox and serving staff dressed like they really came out of my favourite 80s sitcom.

We’d had a glance at the menu before committing ourselves of course. The cheapest burger is The Original and that’s already RM19.90. As soon as we stepped into the restaurant, the staff all shout in unison “Hi guys!”. I guess that’s what they do at Johnny Rockets outlets in its country of origin too.

Our waitress wasn’t local, let’s just say she comes from an Asian country where everyone speaks American accented English. No prizes for guessing where. However it seemed our order got lost even without translation. I ordered the Grilled Chicken Caesar Salad and she kept saying “Chicken Tenders” even when we pointed out the item in the menu. I mean seriously…..even serving staff from non-English speaking countries have got it right the first time but this waitress….well wait and see what happened next.

So we also ordered The Original and asked for plain water but this being Johnny Rockets, you have to order at least mineral water at RM3.50. I ordered root beer thinking it’d be from a soda fountain. Again I was thinking of “Happy Days”, wishful thinking.

The root beer came but it was in the form of a float. I looked at it in confusion. The waitress who took our order came over and asked if we had ordered a float. No we had not. When had either of us ever said the word “float”? Another waitress came over, presumably more senior and took away the float.

What! The root beer was from an A & W can? At RM6.90, I could have bought 5 cans of A & W root beer but of course it’s different here, you might say, because it’s a restaurant. Okay….but I still feel slightly ripped off for a can of soda when Nando’s charges RM5 for bottomless refills of soda.

The waitress who took our order came over again and asked if I had ordered chicken tenders. At this point in time, I could feel my blood boiling and I was about to lose it because she was obviously not fit for the job. Not even for taking orders where the customer has pointed to the item on the menu and this is only 2 mains and 1 drink, mind you. What if she took orders for a table of 10? Would she be serving chicken tenders to everyone who ordered something chicken? Did she only have chicken tenders in her pretty head? Did she think of chicken tenders all day? All this was whizzing around in my head. We took the menu from her and pointed the item to her again. Duh! I was looking around for the manager but he’d made himself conveniently absent.

My Grilled Chicken Caesar Salad @ RM18.90 finally arrived and one look told me I would be disappointed. Why? No doubt there was plenty of cos lettuce or is it romaine lettuce (I can never tell the difference), beef bacon and chicken (I won’t even say it had been grilled because it didn’t taste like it had been grilled at all) but the dressing was so watered down that I could only taste liquid and there was only parmesan cheese on the 2 half eggs. The bacon was not crispy at all and the chicken was bland and flat. I have had better Caesar Salad at San Francisco Coffee where the dressing may be cold and the croutons a bit soft but it’s better than the Johnny Rockets version which had NO croutons or baguette pieces at all. Caesar salads are very easy to make and I think I could have done a better job at home or just purchased a pack from Cold Storage and added chicken from their deli. It’d have been a lot cheaper than this dish which had 10% characteristics of a Caesar Salad, the 10% coming from the lettuce primarily.

My dining companion was silent throughout the entire meal. The Original was average, I tried a bit and wasn’t impressed as I have had burgers way better than this at My Burger Lab and Fat Boy’s which remains my favourite burger joint. Although The Original delivered in terms of quantity with coleslaw and fries, it was seriously lacking in taste. There is no “oomph” to this dish and I have more satisfaction with a Burger King burger. Worse, the meat had inedible bits in it which had to be spit out.

So much for the warm hospitality when we stepped in. At RM53 for lunch, we felt rather cold as we stepped out.