Pinoy Grill N Chill — Restaurant in Sydney

Decided to go to visit this restaurant for the third time on 2/10/23 (after a P/H)

Our first experiences a couple months back was as okish no complains really, except the portions were quite small and the lady that served us was quite rude because we weren’t Filipino - very obvious given that most of the people that were seated around us were being served and treated much differently as they were Filipino.

Nonetheless we placed our order for pick at 7:30pm and we were told our order would be ready for pick up in half an hour I thought this was odd as the restaurant closed at 8pm (according to google) but the restaurant was busy so I thought maybe new trading hours?

Returned to the restaurant to collect the order at 8pm and then got asked to return in 15mins as the order was not ready yet??? We had only ordered Sisig, Pancit bihon with pork and a serving of lumpia (Filipino spring rolls) at this point we were just baffled as to what on earth could possibly be taking that long! Thank God 20 mins later and it was finally ready.

There was a beautiful uncut full sized Ube cake in the glass cabinet and we asked how much for a slice and we were told $7.50 so then we proceeded to ask if we could also buy a piece of cake and straight away we got just got told “No, sorry we can’t cut that right now.” At this point we were just astounded and over it.

We proceeded to pay for our order , keep in mind on the phone whilst placing the order we got told the total would be $42 but when we were at the register we could see the woman adding all these surcharges to our total bill it came to $48 my partner questioned the lady and she said “oh these are surcharges because it’s a public holiday and because you are paying with card” my partner said we are paying cash and it’s not a public holiday it’s normal trade yesterday was a public holiday. All of a sudden this little old lady came out from the kitchen and apologised for the wait and fixed the total on the screen she didn’t seemed very impressed with her employee.

We finally got given our food and we left. Got home to finally eat our dinner opened the containers…. We opened the Pancit bihon there was only 2 small thin tiny pieces of pork the noodles were swimming in oil, we opened the Sisig there was no egg on top of the meat that it traditionally comes with and the container didn’t feel hot at all, not like the other 2 containers did….and the dish didn’t look or taste right it actually tasted off and was luke warm, tasted almost like it was reheated in the microwave. The spring rolls were literally empty and they were like pockets of oily pastry almost on the brink of being burnt just by looking at the colour of them. We ate what we could salvage to eat. Let’s just say I will not be returning to this restaurant ever again. I have been so unwell just a few hours after eating I continued to be sick throughout the day and into the next night. My partner didn’t get as sick as I did as they didn’t eat the Sisig. Scary to think I had a small amount and it’s made me this unwell!

I wasn’t going to leave a review as I don’t feel it’s the right thing to do for a business but because the food made me so sick I thought it was the right thing to do incase it happens to anyone else.

I have eaten at other Filipino establishments around Sydney and can honestly say this by far is the worst.

Save your money and log to other Filipino restaurants like Sir Manong at Eastern Creek or Filo Station in Croydon or Sizzling Filo in Lidcombe just to name a few not only will you get amazing fresh authentic food every time you will get exceptional customer service no matter how busy or quiet the restaurant is and it doesn’t matter if you’re dining in or taking away the food quality is the same and - it absolutely does not matter if you are Filipino or not everyone gets treated the same...

Bulalo wasn’t hot when served. It was warm. We asked nicely if they could heat it up but the lady was defensive stating it came from the pot and freshly cooked. All we asked was just to heat it up as it wasn’t hot enough. (As the purpose of our first (& last visit) was to have a nice sip over a hot pot of Bulalo since it’s been such a long time since we had tasted one). I expected the serving to reflect with their price but didn’t meet it.

We wished the rice actually came as per cup / serving not via the big bowl to be shared.

Upon payment, my mum wanted to double check with the invoice and noticed the discrepancy over the inasal chicken price. In the menu it stated $12 but in our invoice they’ve placed $14. I know but it’s only $2 but that isn’t nice still. Her reasoning was because they’ve ran out of the normal size of the chicken hence it was $14. That should’ve mentioned in the first place. She also stated and bragged on about how long it takes to cook it that’s why the price is like that. It doesn’t make sense to me. Maybe I suggest you should put a different pricing in the menu then if it were based on the size.

Restaurant can improve on...

It was my first time to dine in at Pinoy Grill N Chill, atmosphere is amazing, soft music, I feel at home, service is very good, I feel like I’m eating at home with my family, highly recommend the Crispy Pata, reminded me on how my mother used to cook the Crispy Pata, I love the desserts too, I even had some take aways haha.. I met Ate Cynthia for the first time and I must admit she made me feel like family. The background music brings back some good memories of my childhood. I will certainly go back again. Oh I forgot, they have the best boiled rice too… ube cake is one of the best I ever had too. I could go on and on but I’m afraid that I might ran out of space. I just wanted to take this opportunity as well to say thank you for the lovely and friendly service as well. Job well done!!! I’m proud of you Ate Cynthia!!!!! Keep up the good work. I’m a proud Filipina and it’s so uplifting to see my own kind doing a good job. All the best Ate Cynthia and her team. Compliments...