Shortly after its opening, a diner at the Landmark Mandarin Oriental's Amber restaurant asked for a pot of leaf, not bag, tea. On hearing there was only one kind, the waiter was asked to bring it anyway. A pot and cup arrived.
'May I have a tea strainer?' inquired the guest. The waiter vanished, and then reappeared to say he was sorry, but there were no tea strainers. 'How am I supposed to pour my tea then?' asked the diner. The waiter thought for a moment. 'Slowly,' he replied.
Downstairs in the MO Bar, two customers were downing their cocktails when one noticed a sizeable chip out of her glass. 'Excuse me,' she said to the waiter, 'I need another glass, this one's chipped.' The waiter retorted: 'It can't be chipped, it's handmade Italian crystal.'
Finding the loo can be tricky in a new venue. Slim silver motifs on the respective doors in the Landmark are supposed to indicate the Ladies and Gents, but the two are virtually indistinguishable. One diner hunted for the lone disabled toilet. It was tucked away under the stairs in the middle of the bar - so well-hidden that the staff had failed to notice it, too. Inside was a gaping hole in the wall, a thick layer of builders' dust and no paper, towels or soap.
The Amber restaurant's much-hyped ceiling feature, consisting of 4,320 bronzed hanging tubes individually suspended from hooks, caused consternation just weeks before opening. Each one was 16cm too long, making them dangle too close to diners' heads.
They were replaced, said the hotel's general manager, Susanne Hatje. 'It was a tough call. But it was worth it,' she said.
