Improved Service @ Hungry Jacks on Swanston Street (near Flinders Street)

For some reason we both woke up on Saturday morning craving for burgers. We immediately decided to pop down to Hungry Jacks before the day’s shopping started in earnest. The Good Samaritan was probably still half asleep when he returned to our table with a tray of food. He misjudged the height of the table top and let go of the tray too soon. One of the fizzy drinks bounced off the tray, spilled part of its content on the Good Samaritan’s shirt tail before landing on the floor. It was quite a hilarious sight that I can’t help but laugh at. The Good Samaritan notified a young bloke clearing tables nearby and he came over immediately to try to clean, but he was obviously new and wasn’t quite sure what to do and had to ask another guy behind the counter for assistance. Both blokes looked like newcomers from the sub-continent. (Sorry, I can’t tell Bangladeshis, Sri Lankans, Indians and Pakistanis apart.) The second bloke assisted the first and assured us that everything was OK. They were friendly, helpful and didn’t judge us as being pests. In fact, the second bloke even offered the Good Samaritan a second drink to replace the spilled one but he had to get it himself since the second bloke had cleaning gloves on. I thought that it was fair to make the Good Samaritan return to the counter for a replacement drink. LOL.

We eat this sort of junk food more often in Winter (at least twice a month). We eat a lot less food in the warmer months. We weren’t happy with this branch of Hungry Jacks a few months ago. They had a tendency to get our orders wrong and the meals area was pretty filthy at times (especially upstairs where the emo teens hang out). I have seen marked improvements lately. They have refurbished the upstairs meals area by installing easy to wipe-clean type furniture, and I saw an Asian (Malaysian or Singaporean) lady manager instructing the rookies on how to maintain cleanliness in this very busy fast food restaurant. Sadly, on the day we made a big mess, the Good Samaritan still noticed pickles clinging on the wall behind me. Why do generations of teenagers flick pickles onto the walls? Luckily none of them fell on me. LOL.

I did want to compliment the two blokes who helped us by referring to them with the names on their name tags. Unfortunately I was unable to read their tags because they drooped and were facing downwards.

To non-Australian readers who might be wondering what Hungry Jacks is, let me give you a simple explanation. Hungry Jacks is what Burger King is called in Australia. I can’t remember the full story as to why it is called Hungry Jacks instead. It probably is because it sounded more Aussie. Around the turn of the century, Burger King outlets suddenly appeared in Melbourne. The restaurant I mentioned above was a Burger King. They have a slightly different menu from Hungry Jacks. I also found the Burger King that used to be in Malvern to have better tasting burgers. I believe that there aren’t any Burger King fast food restaurants in Melbourne anymore. Some closed down while others just morphed quietly into typical Hungry Jacks.