Thursday 8 January 2009

Restaurant Bali

There was a shootout at Restaurant Bali on Monday (the 5th) at around 19:00hrs at Kongens Nytorv. It was reported that 2 Asian men were injured, one of which was the owner. The gunman himself was Asian. We already had the news turned on at this time, so the incident was "breaking news" when it happened.

However, it was only yesterday that I found out that the 2 injured Asian men were Singaporeans! A friend from Singapore wrote on my Facebook wall with this link, asking if I heard about it. It apparently made it to the news in Singapore...of course. Pretty far out, huh?

There has been rumours that there are illegal activities going on in the restaurant, so let's see if the police manages to find out if this shootout was mob-related. Not sure if you guys in Denmark remember that incident with the Chinese boy who was kidnapped by some Asian dudes some time ago here in Copenhagen? Seems like the Asian community here is becoming rather dramatic...and with cases like these, it is not a good thing.

I mean, the Asian community has always been the most well-behaved lot of foreigners living in Denmark, but that image is slowly being tarnished with crimes like these. So far though, the victims have been just Asians (unlike those other immigrant crimes that involve Danish victims), but still, a crime is a crime, and especially as residents/guests in a foreign country, one should all the more behave.

Anyway...let's see what the police investigations reveal in relation to this case.

On a side note, I had eaten at Restaurant Bali with a couple of girlfriends several years ago, and the food + service there were rather bad. Now that I know the owner is from Singapore, I wonder if they were the same owners as Restaurant Singapore...which doesn't exist anymore, I think. Food and service there was rather bad too, and my former company used to have a contract with them but we only send very low budget groups there for meals.

Thing is, the (Sporean) wife of the owner of Restaurant Singapore is rather - how can I say it politely - female doggy-like...if you know what I mean. She always has this angry look on her face. She arrived at our office once, looking as if she was ready to have a showdown with our manager or something.

I mention her now because after all these years since eating at Restaurant Bali that first (and last) time, I've come to realise that she was most likely the one serving us that day! No wonder she seemed familiar then. And she didn't leave a good impression on us that day because even though the restaurant was pretty empty, it seemed like she wanted us to quickly eat our meal and leave. My 2 friends who were there first said they felt this already from the start when they arrived.

This attitude is so typically Chinese, I think. Had that same "service" once at a Chinese restaurant in London. Which of us like having a hawk watch over us when we eat? And though they won't tell you directly to leave already, all it takes is the hint from their body language to scream this out in a thousand words.

Anyway...I don't recommend going there for dinner...that's all I'm saying. Quite life threatening to do so now too, on top of the bad service and not very delicious food.