Singapore—A Christmas dinner for a party of five suddenly turned dangerous when a glass tabletop at a mookata restaurant suddenly shattered into thousands of tiny pieces, with the shards leaving two guests with bloody wounds.
According to Chinese news portal Lianhe Wanbao, the unfortunate incident occurred at 555 Villa Thai at 30 Cosford Road in Changi early in the morning of Dec 25, while the guests were having a Christmas Eve dinner.
Gerline Ng, who was having dinner with her husband and three of their friends, told Lianhe Wanbao that they had been an hour into their meal when the party was surprised by a large bang.
The next thing they knew, they were covered in broken glass.
Shortly before the glass tabletop shattered, a waitstaff had just refilled the mookata pot for the guests’ soup.
Ms Ng, whose arms and legs were cut by the bits of broken glass, froze in shock, but stood up and walked away after her attention was called by her husband and their friends. Ms Ng’s husband also sustained a cut on his leg.
She told Lianhe Wanbao that the personnel from 555 Villa Thai quickly came over with apologies to the guests, and said that the glass tabletop could have been shattered because of the heat from the mookata pot.
“We were just lucky none of the glass bits flew in our eyes or cut our faces. Also, we just refilled the soup, luckily it did not topple over when the glass around the mookata pot exploded,” she told Mothership.
But what added insult to the injuries of Ms Ng and her husband was the attitude of the owner of the restaurant, who reportedly refused to meet with them.
According to the report, it took over 30 minutes to get ahold of the owner, and when they did, via telephone, he was less than accommodating.
“The boss only just said he was sorry and that it was an accident. Then he said that if we want compensation, we should go see a doctor and claim it from his insurance company,” said Ms Ng.
The situation got worse from here, and Ms Ng said the owner swore at her husband.
But the owner talked to Lianhe Wanbao, and denied that he swore at the guest.
“That day, I was busy at another outlet. I suggested visiting him at his home the next day to personally apologise, but he turned me down.
They asked me to solve the problem immediately or they would not pay,” he told the Chinese daily.
He added that the tables are five years old and that he is replacing them with marble tables next month, adding that since the current tabletops are made of tempered glass, they would do less damage than regular glass.
However, Ms Ng told Mothership that the owner’s side of the story is false. “He lied to Wanbao newspaper that he offered to come to our place of residence to apologise, which obviously wasn’t true. Firstly, if it is true, he wouldn’t be unreachable for more than 30 minutes while we were waiting for him in his restaurant.
Secondly, if it is true, he has my husband’s number, he would have messaged him to say that he is busy at the moment, is it possible to message him at our address/place of residence for him to come down to apologise personally after he is done with his work.” —/TISG
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