Maison Faranheit Lagos Review – All That Glitters Is Not Gold
I had watched this building spring up in the heart of VI and waited patiently for it to begin operations. Before eventually trying this place out, I had heard varying opinions about this place around how expensive it was and all that. This cannot be that bad I thought till I visited and realized that you know what, all that glitters is indeed not gold. This was the case of Maison Fahrenheit (“MF”).
Externally, the structure is beautiful and internally from the reception lovely paintings hanging on the walls and lovely lighting making me fall in love. MF is a hotel with a restaurant and a rooftop bar (Rue 80) as with most hotels in the city of Lagos. I really had high hopes for MF but my expectation was cut short especially with its level of disorganization.
It is a known fact that Friday nights in Lagos are crazy and if you own a restaurant/bar, ideally you should be prepared for a crowd or a busy night.
Random Lagos Friday night at MF was a complete disaster. From trying to park the car to getting a table was just stressful.
Arriving at the rooftop bar which was where all the life was, getting a table took about 35 minutes and there was a TV screen with slideshows of pictures from MF keeping our eyes busy while we waited. We were politely told to wait which we did but what was odd, was that there were empty tables around but it just seemed the whole charade of having a queue may give it the impression of being ‘Turnt’. We had noticed a group of people leave in anger because they were told to leave a table which was reserved as they had been waiting for over an hour. Awks
We finally got a table at the back and we were hidden from the view of the waiters and managers as we were seated behind wooden blinds. After about 20-25 minutes, no one had attended to us or handed us a menu to keep our eyes and hands busy at least. We pretty much had to go get a waiter to attend to us and grab a menu ourselves. The table was dirty…. Despite telling the waiter twice to clean the table which he nodded in response meaning that he had heard and taken note. An hour later and our table was not cleaned (-_-)
Dirty….
Ordered a mini platter which was NGN8,000 and portion was so small. The platter had AsunDodo, Samosa, Spring Rolls & Chicken Wings. Also ordered a Burger and by the time the waiter brought the food, it was cold as if it had been placed in a fridge. Oh dear… At this point we were just confused… The canapés were not nice apart from the Chicken Wings which was not too bad but was basically Chicken in stew (proper chicken wings in Lagos is a problem…lol) and the burger was not nice especially since it was cold. By the time we were done managing our food, remember the table that some persons were asked to leave and they left angrily? It was still empty! There was a manager (I’m guessing because he acted as one) who was going around asking certain persons who I will assume he was familiar with if they were ok but no one asked us anything.
In terms of pricing, alcoholic cocktails are NGN3,000 while non-alcoholic goes for NGN2,000 but went with a safe choice of having a soft drink and water instead though I hear the cocktails are delicious.
This review may just sound like a rant. It was an upsetting experience.
To think I almost came here for my birthday (depressing thought)! First time here was not a good experience but I will be giving MF another chance though I have still heard complaints about the service here and how it has not improved. I am still willing to go back again to see if the service level has improved before concluding that MF is for looking alone and not eating or anything but just to enjoy the view. Customer service is key to maintaining a business in Lagos. I can understand that it is still a hot spot as it is new but that is the more reason why the service level has to be on point with more effort and attention.
Where is MF? Adeomola Adetokunbo Street, Opposite Eko Hotel, VI, Lagos
Verdict: All in all, this gets a FIL 1/5. Bad service, unfriendly staff & Cold food but with a good view
Have you been here? What did you think? Do share with us
17 Comments
The rating of MF Is spot on. I found the service absolutely ridiculous and terrible. 1 hour and we were still waiting for our order. It finally came (after we had given the waiter a good chunk of our minds). Disgusting food. No taste, no seasoning. Just pepper all through. To cap it all it was ridiculously expensive. I kept kicking myself. I should have gone to Jevnick or TFC jeje
The place is suffering from an identity crisis. Doesn’t know if it’s an art Gallery or a hotel. It’s MOST DEFINITELY not a restaurant
Ahhh the famous Maison Fahrenheit..
Was there just a week ago.. First of all, I called them a month before to book a room for a friend and I asked for a discount as someone had mentioned that you could get a discount if you ask for it. They did give a discount OVER THE PHONE… Took my friend there only for them to tell me that it’s not possible for them to have given me a discount. I mean i would have expected that they find a solution or apologize or something but they just said NO it wasn’t possible.. After about 10 minutes of going back and forth we just agreed to pay full price for the room… So customer service at the reception…. CRAP
My friend said when she called the reception at night requesting for something, they didn’t answer her till she called the 3rd time raising her voice…
The famous rooftop… Bloody expensive for no reason really… I do agree that you get small portions of food for a lot of money… I think they just have good PR for the ‘celebs’ to keep endorsing it….
In conclusion… i agree…1/5…. Beautiful but very bad customer service….
My first and last experience at MF..Xmas time..feeling jolly and cool. .decided to check the place out…went there with 5 other people. .only ordered 3 platters and drinks..bill came out to almost 90k..mind you the guys were drinking beers and not champagne…don’t care about the view..the view doesn’t change the price of yam in the market abeg..Over priced for no reason at all..But guess their target market is for the gbogbo biggz! !!
Wooow, Short of words. For that amount of money though, I think some restaurants forget that the people that bring them their monthly revenue are walk in customers not celebrities. I always drive past after work and say to myself one of these weekends when am not busy in Lekki. I will definitely stop by. I can’t go and waist money and still get attitude.
http://www.livinginlekki.com
Do you remember when you do so poorly in school back then and you teacher gives you a Zero and still says you are owing her Marks………That’s the case of MF
Dear all,
Thank you for taking the time to review and pass comment on your experience and at Maison Fahrenheit. While reviewing the comments that have been made it has shown us that we have serious lapses in our service delivery.
As a hotel we deeply regret the below par experience and endeavor to turn them around. We are aware of our service lapses and are taking steps to rectify them as a matter of urgency.
Maison Fahrenheit is a exceptionally proud of the hotel and the patronage that frequent our outlets. The obvious lapses do not bode well and will do whatever it takes to resolve them.
We do look forward to welcoming you back to Maison Fahrenheit
MF
Thank you. We will check you out next month.
This review is spot on, Thank you. I was there 2 weeks ago. The light skinned (suspect he may be manager/owner) was very dismissive when we asked about a table we previously booked which no one seemed aware off and a waiter asked us to speak to him. He did not address the issue and walked off, eventually a waiter found us a table. Left a very poor impression especially because of the attitude.
Uhm, I must say, most of the comments here are true. Some others seem more prejudiced than constructive feedback.
The speed of service at the rooftop (exotically named “Rue 80”) is rather poor…could definitely be better.
I loved the food, had the asun dodo platter thingy and loved it!
The cost of the wine is rather high but then, if you no like am, you can buy and drink your own Veuve Cliquot at home! Lol
I think the restaurant downstairs could do with a bit of tweaking in terms of service and uniforms for the waiters downstairs.
Initially, I thought it was just a “stylish bar” but the hotel concept is ok.
Yup, feel you on this place, not sure if I would go back there anytime soon though
Way cool! Some extremely valiud points! I appreciate you penning this write-up plus
the rest of the site is extremely good.
Thanks!
Hi there, I enjoy reading all of your post. I like to write a little comment to support you.
Thank you.
My experience was quite contrarian. First, the reception was great,service was even better – i got a tour of MF and of course the food was an 8.5/10. I think they are new and would get better. But then again that’s my opinion and experience.
Totally agree with FIL. Been to MF twice (yes, I actually gave them a second chance) and it was the same terrible customer service and cold food (I ordered a burger as well). I’m a glutton for punishment so I won’t rule out a third visit, let’s just hope the third time will be a charm.
xXx
http://www.BonitaValli.wordpress.com
I was in lag briefly and chose this spot for a night out on Friday. Its beautiful and Artsy and has a lovely ambience, i must give them that and the surrounding and rooftop location is great. My first issue was how long we had to sit/stand around waiting for the not-so-spacious elevator to come around, would have been really nice if there was a stairwell to access the rooftop. 2nd issue was how long we had to wait to get a table, the waiters just walked by like we weren’t customers. We finally got to have our seats and the waiter took our orders, just for him to come back again 10mins later to re-take our orders, made absolutely no sense ‘cos he had his pen and notepad when he took our 1st order. Our orders arrived about 30mins later, i enjoyed it. We had peppered snail, asundodo, prawn/mayonnaise spring rolls. The chapman had too much zing to it and dint go down well with me. We had to wait 4a lonnngg time again to get the elevator when we were ready too leave.
I believe the service is probably better on weekdays when they have wayyyyyy less customers and that’s when i’m gonna try them out next.
They can do so much better with improved customer service, faster service and better crowd control. I suggest the manager plays a game of Diner Dash to get a feel of how to be more efficient.