Last Saturday night, I had a family dinner with my parents and my in-laws as well as bro and my soon-to-be sis-in-law at Shabu-Shabu One Utama. This was prior to our departure the next day back to da Penh. Upon returning home and doing the final packing, to my horror, I realized that I had left my camera behind at the restaurant. In a panic frenzy, I called the restaurant - but alas! At 11.30pm, it was already closed and no one was picking up the phone. My brother even so kindly went all the way back to the restaurant and also announced that it was closed.
Along with the camera, would be all the photos taken of my recent Bali trip for Leticia & Tjun Hong's wedding and as well as my little anniversary-cum-honeymoon celebration with MOH. I couldn't believe how idiotic I was. After tossing and turning the entire night crying over all the memories, MOH took me back to One U first thing in the morning.
I called the mobile number available on the "Waiters Wanted" Ad displayed at the entrance. Lucky for me, the owner, Karen picked up the phone. I told her of my predicaments and she rushed over. They were not yet opened at that time, seeing that it was before 10am. After much waiting, two of the staffs arrived and I bombarded them about my camera. They claimed not to have seen my camera. Apparently, all lost & found items were always kept and returned to customers. When Karen and hubby came, they did a quick search and a few phone calls to their managers and all came back zilch.
Thankfully, thankfully, they had installed a CCTV system in the premises and Karen and hubby were kind enough to view the footages from the night before to see if they were able to trace the whereabouts of my camera. Viewing the images a la CSI, I kept wishing I could say things like "Can you enlarge this image?" At the very least, I could do a 'pause' and rewind :P Strangely though, the CCTV captured me using the camera and placing it on the seat and when we left, it even showed MOH doing a final check to ensure we did not leave anything behind. So where could the darn camera be?
At this point, I was already bracing myself for the entire loss. It was not so much the camera but the photos - those were precious! I suspected it fell off the chair and we did not notice it. Stranger still, the footage continued, showing the staff doing the clearing and cleaning of our table and yet - NO CAMERA found!
I was near tears and just as I was about to give up, MOH said "Let's watch the entire thing till the end.". Karen and hubby happily obliged our request and allowed us to view the footages right up till lights-off for the outlet.
And there it was - the footage of one of the staff, suspiciously ensuring nobody was around as he bent down to pick something off the floor and deftly put it into his pockets. I knew it!! I knew the camera must have fallen to the floor! We alerted Karen and hubby immediately and without missing a beat, Karen pulled out the employee file and called the said employee. She didn't mince her words with him either - "You come now. You have taken customer's camera. You bring it back NOW. Customer is waiting. We can see it from the CCTV."
I was worried that the guy would run away with the camera or just simply not show up. But Karen gave me her word. She said that she guarantees a safe return of my camera. I told her I didn't want to make a big deal out of it, I just wanted the photos back. I don't really care for the camera (not quite true either considering it was a new camera, but at that moment - let's prioritize right?!). Twenty minutes later, the guy walks up to me and returned my camera, with some lame excuse about safe-guarding it for me. I didn't care! My camera and my precious, precious photos were all there!!
I'm really grateful to Karen and hubby, for obliging, for helping and most importantly, for ensuring the return of my camera. I would say not many stores would simply allow anyone to view their CCTV footages without a valid reason (warrant :P) and mine was simply based on the fact that I was "cock-sure I left the camera on the seat!!". Even to the extend of obliging us by letting us view the entire footage from start till closing!
So for all my friends reading this, especially to the wedding entourage who went to Bali recently - especially Kris - please go and show support to the restaurant by having a meal there. Well, it is already always packed and reservations are preferred for dinner times - but still, it'd be a nice thing to do (by the way, my family is already a regular at the restaurant!) for such understanding owners.
The food is simple and you can have your own choice of broth. The hot pot is served individually. I would personally recommend the Pig Stomach & Pepper broth (YUMMY). Or else, go with the Chicken Yellow Wine broth. Whichever broth you take - the "Mix Your Own Sauce" buffet concept will enhance all the flavours of your shabu-shabu.
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