[Rating:2/5]
During our last visit to Sbarro, Great India Place, NOIDA, we had stated:
Sometime in the future, we may visit snake infested amazonian jungles when bored, jump off cliffs with bedsheets and attempt to fly…
As our second visit illustrates, our ‘bedsheet parachutes’ may have been a better idea. The Sbarro punchline, “Fresh Italian cooking… guaranteed!” wasn’t quite fulfilled, I think. We ordered slices of their ‘Sicilian’ Chicken and vegetable, Tandoori Chicken and Plain Cheese pizzas. We also asked for a serving of spaghetti with bolognaise sauce and a portion of roast potatoes.
While their model is to sell by display, and every pizza is pre-cooked by design, the final experience just doesn’t cut it. For example mozzarella is quite good when it is freshly cooked/baked. But when it is allowed to cool and is then improperly reheated, it gets this oily texture and flavor that is quite repulsive, just like when you microwave leftover pizzas at home. The Sicilian was served on a flimsy paper holder, even though we were clearly dining in, while the rest were served in ceramic plates, one of which was badly chipped I must add. All the pizzas were floury, thick, without flavor of any sort, had congealed cheese and were served cold. The plates were quite hot, but the food itself was cold. The spaghetti, while cooked well, was sloppily served with water flooding the base of the platter. The bolognaise smelled and tasted repulsive. The roast potatoes were coated with a burnt powdery sludge and smelled/tasted burnt too. The flavor wasn’t balanced and far from the crisp outer shell and soft inners that one would expect, the outside was chewy and the inners were starchy. All of these too were cold.
My Take
I’ve noticed this about India. Foreign brands which are trusted elsewhere, come to India only to have their quality perception drop drastically. The reason I think is our very popular phrase and underlying attitude “Chalta Hai”. For my non-Indian readers, this phrase would literally translate into a context specific “It’ll work this way too, why bother” with a specific disregard by the speaker towards any or all of – rules, policy, safety, responsibility or accountability. Specifically, in this context, I’m referring to not following training and standard operating procedures.
I believe it may be the same with Sbarro. I have friends who have experienced the brand abroad and rate it as one of their favorite pizza places. Why doesn’t it seem to have the same popularity in India?
As per a company source:
All our products are on display for a maximum period of 60 minutes and discarded after that time. This is a global practice. We use a special higher quality mozzarella cheese with a much higher butter fat content so as to make our product compatible to reheat. This cheese is custom made to our international specs and costs 50% more than the standard mozzarella used by other players. Our SOP calls for all products to be on display (since we sell by display) and for these selected products (guest order) to be reheated until the cheese bubbles again and then given to the guest.
The product I received was clearly not heated well, since far from bubbling, the cheese and the pizza were cold. As per the company, the pizza is meant to have a thick crust and is served in a paper plate as most customers would like to take it away. Clearly, the serving staff do not have the instructions or the training to mould the customer experience. Or perhaps it’s the “Chalta Hai’ effect in all it’s brilliant splendour. I’m referring to the execution team here. Standard Operating Procedures were written for a specific purpose and failure to adhere to them can only damage the company’s product and consequently it’s standing in the market. For example, had the staff followed SOP, they would have ensured the product was heated and served as envisioned by the product designers. If they would have applied a little thought, the Sicilian would have been served on plates rather than paper. We as a people need a drastic adjustment in our quality focus. There will be exceptions of course, but personally, I find this to be the rule.
The drinks were priced at about double the MRP. Now, there’s a fine point to be made here. Legally, they’re in the right, because a court ruling allows restaurants to serve soft drinks (among other consumables) at higher than MRP, because, as per the ruling:
The customer does not enter a hotel or a restaurant to make a simple purchase of the bottled water. It may well be that a client will order nothing beyond a bottle of water or a beverage, but his direct purpose in doing so would clearly be to enjoy the ambience available therein and to ordering of any article for consumption
The spirit of the ruling is therefore, if you’re adding sufficient value, then you may go ahead and charge higher than MRP prices. Fair enough. Sbarro however, doesn’t seem to add value to a consumer’s experience. There’s no table service, the seating enclosure is open, the tables have no condiments, plates are chipped, cutlery is plastic and so on. There are many others in the market who provide the same level of ambience and may even charge more for their beverages. Unfortunately, the ambience combined with the quality of the food makes for a very low value proposition. This in turn generates the opinion that Sbarro may be not be adhering to the spirit of the court ruling.
We visited again due the to blitz of advertisements that indicated some thought had gone into their offerings. Not so. Apart from some fairly standard gimmicks, no additional thought seems to have been put into the issue of providing value to the consumer or at the very least, providing food that tastes good. One simple example is the sauce used. Most people relate to tomato ketchup that’s red in color. Fact. The stuff in the sachets is brown. Fini. Also, I’d rather not consume stuff that’s in the eleventh month of its life.
The surprising thing is that Sbarro is run by the same company that operates places like Mandarin Trail, which has excellent service and good food. Quite to the contrary, at Sbarro the staff is indifferent, food without appeal, tables left uncleaned and a promise of quality that remains unfulfilled.
Should you visit? No! Unless of course you’re a glutton for punishment… with extra cheese.
Check out the menu here | Check out all restaurant locations for this brand here
- Sid
PS: The photograph below of Spaghetti with Tuna Garlic sauce is my recipe, and is displayed automatically due to the context of this post.
I hope you didn’t pay for any of that, it looks and sounds disgusting. Why would an ‘authentic Italian’ resto want to sell from display? It goes against everything that I know and have read about Italian food. They wouldn’t operate that way in Italy.
We had a superb evening of Italian food yesterday. Italian bread served with olives and a dipping dish of Balsamic vinegar and olive oil followed by Whitebait, freshly cooked and served with lemon slices and a small salad. D choose a veal escalope in a creamy sauce which came with freshly cooked vegetables and I chose Torteloni which were stuffed with soft cheese, pancetta and basil in a tomato based sauce which included more pancetta and Italian sausage. Everything was done to perfection, including the service. I had wine with the meal (D had Peroni beer) and an espresso and grappa to finish. Perhaps we’ll take you there the next time you visit?
Hello Toni – that sounds delicious! Yes, please do take me there the next time I’m around.
I think there’s a big difference between what the culture serves on site and what it is represented as off site or out of country… for all cultures. It isn’t my place to criticize their business model, (even if I don’t agree with it) but their final consumer experience.
Hi Sid
You’re right about the fact that deviations from SOP can have a disastrous effect on overall experience. Let me make another point:
Restaurants in India often begin on a strong note, when their promoters take a personal interest in all aspects of the experience, but often allow mediocrity to creep in. My own experiences with Sbarro at Nehru Place attests to that. Pizza slices sold by display can be a lovely, informal & fun meal (or in-between), but Sbarro has deteriorated between Feb 08 to now. Been there 4 times (nearby multiplex), and ordered the exact same items (pepperoni and cheese slices). Seen the quality of the dough and meats go downhill.
That’s why, the eateries that manage to stay true to their proposition become institutions, and provide the customer with an assured level of performance.
@Amandeep: Agree. I like the idea of a small but varied meal, and the Sbarro concept fulfills it entirely.
Hi,
I had a long chat with a friend about franchising in India especially regarding foreign brands, he is a top boy in Asian marketing at an FMCG major. One of the things he mentioned was that most franchisees here have a hard time maintain quality of food and services, they cut corners to thicken up the bottom line and this is why the brand suffers.
According to him the biggest example of this is KFC, the brand never took off like it should have though it was the first one here. They had a bad product scare some years ago, recently they didn’t even have proper plates and tableware at their huge outlet in Bandra. This is not to say they are doing badly, just that they aren’t expanding as they should.
McDonalds according to him is a good example of franchising because the outlets are controlled by very few franchisees who were selected after a long drawn out process. McDonalds also expanded fairly slowly but surely, they have maintained a better branding and quality mix. I think its all about finding the right master franchisee, who will not assault the brands integrity and reputation to make a quicker buck.
Taco Bell has been mulling entry into India and the word is they have decided against franchising, they will go with 10 company owned stores to keep control of product and service quality. The lack of training and abysmal attitude towards customer service is why a great deal of international chains are struggling..
@Gaurav: I agree, with a caveat, that I don’t think this applies to RTC, as their other restaurants are IMHO quite good.
Yes, McDonalds could be considered as a very good example – the food they serve isn’t exactly gourmet, but it’s the same taste and experience anywhere you go, with the exception of the Preet Vihar and Delhi-Jaipur highway, where they seem to have gone to great cost and effort in procuring a time machine to transport neanderthals to man the counters.
Taco Bell huh? Can’t wait.
the more the merrier.
Why on the face of this earth did u have to eat at the same place again, on which customer are willing to throw stones???
You can’t even walk 10 more steps at eat something else at the foodcourt at TGI Place, but sadda-do oops… typo sbarro.
(Nahin to restaurant manager 5 page ka explanation bhej dega with free coupons, coz he knowz NO ONE will ever come to eat, even for free)
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“Why would an ‘authentic Italian’ resto want to sell from display?”
For Toni:
Let me try to explain it, you’ll get the idea what Authentic means in India.
When people(customers) in UK, Europe or US are told in the ad or promotion material, that there will be an “Authentic” Italian(or XYZ) Food Festival or “Authentic” Italian(XYZ) Flea Market at a Mall or Hotel, then the organizers make their best effort that it is Really Authentic. Hence, it is Authentic.
When people(customers) in “INDIA” are told the same thing, the organizer and the whole of the management from top to bottom, say “only a 5-7% Indians would have been to Italy and that too for a week’s visit, How the hell they would know what is Italian food or what a typical Italian market would look like”.
Give them, local pizzawala and put a board on top of their stall that says in Bold letter Authentic Italian Pizzas. Or Authentic Italian Flea market with no 1 single Italian owner of the stall or company.
I agree- Sbarro must vaquish from the face of Mother India as soon as possible. I had a similar dastardly experience at their Saket outlet a few months ago, but my friend was canny enough to make things extremely embarrassing for the management right then and there in front of all other customers. We ended up sending the pizza slices back three times and pointing out that the garlic bread smelled and tasted of raw dough. The restaurant wasn’t full, but everyone was thoroughly amused. I hope we did make those punters ask a few questions of their own to the restaurant management.
Hi
Sid Khullar Ji,
Tuhadi photo shoto vekh ke lagda hai ki tussi khana khande kam ho aur platan slatan jyada vekhate ho. you have many choice why do you go to sbarro kbarro. Be Indian, Eat Indian. Desi khana sabse sona hai khullar ji. Agar khana hi hai to America Shamerica jakar sbarro main kha liya karo.
I went to a Sbarro location in Manila, Philippines in late 2006. I had the baked ziti, my date had the lasagna, and we ordered a slice of “Chicago” pizza between us. Everything was served cold! We complained to the manager, he took the food in the back for about 20 minutes, and it came out STILL COLD. There was never an apology or discount or anything like that. Italian-style food should NEVER be served cold, unless it’s cold cuts or a pasta salad. A few months later I went to the Sbarro in Ayala Center Cebu and the food was COLD there as well….