Hi all,
I just attended my close friend's wedding dinner last weekend at Meritus Mandarin. I would like to share my experience so that Meritus Mandarin's btbs can take note.
There was like around 4 wedding dinner that night. The place is very packed with people / guests rushing around. We nearly went to the wrong one. Luckily, one of my friends spotted that the groom wasn't the 'right' one. So we had to ring up the couple. Apparently, different lifts lead to different ballrooms. Kinda of confusing if we didn't have the ballroom name. But I must give credits to the flat tv at lobby, as it will show the names of all the couples having dinner on that night.
My friend's one was at the Belvedere ballroom. Again, there is another ballroom facing the Belvedere. So coming out from the lift, its either left or right into the right ballroom. My friend had to come out to wait for us, in case we walked into the wrong one again.
The Belvedere ballroom is quite spacious with a 'walkway' to the dining area. This is unique as it allows the couples to do 'something' along the walkway. My friend did up posters etc and placed them along the walkway, so everyone who walked in can have a glance at their picture.
However, the bad thing about this ballroom is the FOUR pillar standing right in the center of the ballroom. We are seated at the back, so totally cant see the stage at all. No matter how we shift ourselves, the 4 pillar just block it all out. Even those sitting at the sides, cant really see what is going on the stage.
But luckily, my friend arranged for projectors to be placed at the sides. So we are able to watch the montage and video. So if you are taking the Belvedere, having projectors are the sides is a must.
Even the match-in is affected by the pillars, as we cant view the full match-in. Although the match-in may be long, but most of the guests cant follow the couple throughout as the pillars just blocked us all out. Everyone only see half of the match-in, those sitting at the front, start seeing the couple after they are half way through and those sitting at the back lost sight of the couple when they walked 1/3 of the match-in.
Even the bubbles used during the 2nd match-in, its placed at the entrance of the ballroom which is right at 'beginning' after the walkway. If you have been to the ballroom before, the bubble machine is placed beside the transparent door so when you first match-in with the bubbles, those sitting near the stage or center, cant see at all. And while you walked towards the middle area, where most of the guest are seated, no more bubbles around the couple already, although the machine is still blowing, leaving loads of bubbles near the transparent door area. So btbs may want to take note of this or maybe shift the machine to somewhere closer to the centre.
As for the food, its ok, but nothing outstanding. Usually after every dinner, I will be able to name out some special dishes that I like, but for Meritus, I couldn't remember any speciality dish except for the chicken rice. I don't know if it is because the couple chosen to take the chicken rice, hence the dishes are 'reduced' so we couldn't really taste more dishes to comment on the special one.
For the chicken rice set, the chicken was cold but the rice is nice. I like the chicken soup, but my other friends are saying alot of msg, not sure about this.
And about the servers' service, I felt that its normal. But there was once, most of my friends went away, either toilets or smoking break, leaving me alone at the table, the server came with a 'wiping cloth' and started wiping the lazy susan while I am eating there. Even when I am taking food from the main plate, he still continue his wiping. First time experience such thing.
I also noticed that their servers like to ask if you want to have sprite / coke. But one glance at the drinking station, you will see they only have 7-up and pepsi. So its kinda of weird or embarassing to ask the guests if they want to have sprite and coke when they serve neither.
One last thing about the beverages is the glass used for the red wines. I think they are using the wrong glass, for all the wedding dinners that we been to, its always served in round tall glasses. Meritus served their red wines in glass that are short, look like those champagn glasses that are used to do up the fountain. I heard some guests commenting that the hotel may be having shortages in the red wines glasses as too many dinners on the same night, so use champgne glasses instead. Maybe btbs of meritus can check with the hotel on this as its not that presentable to serve the red wines in such manner.
My 2 cents. Hope it helps.