A’Maze Oriental

Although I really like the concept of A’maze it needs a little polishing in certain aspects, particularly the service.
One of my friends had booked A’maze for her birthday, its a restaurant that specialises in Thai, Malaysian and Japanese food and also has karaōke rooms which you can book for free with a minimum spend in the restaurant.
I’m normally a little suspicious of restaurants that serve a number of different cuisines, and having picked two Malaysian dishes I began to think this may have been a mistake on seeing all the staff were Japanese. We had pre-​ordered our dishes so it was a little annoying that all the starters were delivered in dribs and drabs over a half hour period, and my starter was forgotten about completely. The main courses were served a big quicker and the quality of the food was actually very good. I had spicy lamb skewers followed by king prawn curry and it was all delicious.
However, ordering drinks was another stumbling block. I wanted Havana rum and diet coke but every time I tried to order it the waiter couldn’t understand me and I had to point it out in the menu. Acceptable the first time I ordered it maybe, but by the fourth time I was beginning to get a little impatient. Even more amusing, when I went to the bar later, I noticed that all the mats were sponsored by Havana so the chap really should have known what I was asking for!
The service at the bar was also a little frustrating as the bar staff insisted on making one drink at a time and ringing it up on the till individually even though we were buying in rounds!
On to the karaōke — this was great fun and the facilities were actually better than some of the other karaōke bars in town. Strangely, only about 25% of the songs had their own videos in the background, whereas the rest had some very cheesy 80’s style home videos which caused much hilarity amongst the group! A couple of the songs also didn’t have the words which was a little frustrating, but there was a good Japanese selection if this is your thing!
Karaōke is always one of those events that I dread, but by the end of the night I find I’m refusing to hand over the mike. Not so great for everyone else as I am completely tone deaf!
Our session was booked until 12 but we weren’t rushed out at the end which was nice. When we were ready to leave the manager called us all taxis and we went on our merry way, happy but with croaky voices!