EPIC GRILL SILOGS + SANS RIVAL — Restaurant in British Columbia

Went in this restaurant on June 30 at lunch time. PARKING: Tough to find one in front; we parked at the back and entered through the kitchen. Limited parking at the back as well.

WASHROOM : I didn't see any significant wall divider between the washroom and kitchen. If you're entering though the back door, the passage to the restaurant is a bit narrow. As someone who worked at the Fire Hall, that passage does not pass fire regulations. Too narrow for evacuation. too much blockage;

FLOORS: old and stained; too worn out for a restaurant; the lino's peeling in certain parts all over the place

THE CHAIRS: some are wrapped in plastics maybe to keep the stains or prevent bugs

THE CEILING are also worn out ; some lights don't work well; there was a busted fluorescent lamp;

THE BAR: yes, there is a bar; but those are just extra seats; no alcohol served; the stools of the bar can seat children The bar serves as counter top for anyone who cannot find a seat- then seat and eat at the bar area

AMBIENCE: if you just want to eat, you can settle for a place like Epic Silog; If you're looking for something better, willing to pay pricey food cost, look for another Filipino eating places somewhere.

THE MENU: If you're familiar with Filipino dishes and how they are prepared, you can do the type of food at home without having to spend good amount of money; Unlike other Asian cuisine that sometimes use exact science to prepare food, silogs are home meals., usually eaten in the morning ( Breakfast) The place offers fried rice and eggs; ( about two eggs) and a choice of "SILOGS" - those are just longaniza (sausages; or tocino - beef/ pork/ or chicken marinated in special sauce; preserved fish, squid; but you can't order all these perks in one order; Each order only allows you two choices. Coffee is served with free refills, at about $2.75 that's a good price and reasonable;

OUR ORDER: My friends ordered crispy lechon; we all shared just to have a taste of the food; we smelled a urine-like smell of the pork; this smell is typical when meat got mixed with some other contaminated meat. I ordered rice with egg and tocino and longaniza. The longaniza was the size of an average finger, with some sourness in it and the tocino, sliced in tiny bits was exaggeratedly colored with red food coloring and sugared too much.

Our bill came to close to $60. 3 plates of silog (fried rice, egg and two meat selection with coca-cola's each; another one order crispy lechon.. We did not finish our food; we took them home and of course, we couldn't salvage the taste or texture, we dumped them.

WORTH IT?? This restaurant looked like an old country diner if you're driving a rig somewhere in Eastern US, to Utah or Idaho, for example; except that it does not serve too much of typical Western breakfast.; The building is old but not run down; the place is dark because there are no windows except the front glass windows; parking is limited; it is located almost towards the end of Ewen avenue in New Westminster; The counter area needs cleaning, organizing; so that rats and bugs do not converge specially during summer under those shelves and ice cream freezers;

The flow of air is constricted; if there's air conditioning, it has bad circulation because the building is quite old...

FOOD: We gave this 3 stars CUSTOMER SERVICE; the woman ( maybe she owns the place) was quite polite but nothing more than anymore sociable- after all we went there to eat. Compared to many other Filipino restaurants, this place is better to stay at the end of Ewen to make money; else where, there could be health and safety inspection and fire inspection already. it can be easily a target of other competitors like some of those Chinese restaurants...

I have been here before, a few years ago when I lived near by. And I loved it, would have recommended in a second. But this trip was... Well let's say it will be my last. I asked for the epic breakfast, and I understand that some restaurants serve certain meals during certain days. That's understandable, I have witnessed and seen it before. What I don't understand is when the certain item they won't serve is pancakes, on a Sunday... Because there is meat on the grill? I didn't care personally but they did. Here is my next concern, I asked for an omelette. Easy enough right? Well I got my omelette (had to run home to meet movers, so wife brought it back for me) and the omelette was fine, my issue here is I asked for a side of hollandaise sauce. They serve eggs Benny, it says so on the, get this "Canadian breaky" side. Which is a whole not her issue I don't even want to discuss, it's just breakfast. Well I was told by the waitress they don't have hollandaise sauce. I was dumbfounded, I asked "what do you put on your Bennie then?" She left for a second, comes back and told me "We just out ketchup on them" This waitress was very young, I in no way fault her. So I asked for the menu, I needed to confirm they sold a Bennie, then I looked up their reviews so I could see pictures, holy cow. (The reviews, I regret ever looking. It seems anyone who has wanted breakfast has had a ''terrible experience'', and what is it with all this ''we don't serve white people''? That came up twice in other reviews, but I don't care about that. I didn't personally hear anyone say that, so no comment.)

After looking up the reviews I discovered they do in fact carry hollandaise sauce, so I asked the waitress if this was the same establishment. In the picture, she confirmed, and I showed her the eggs benedict with the sauce. She said one second I will get the manager. He came out and said this, "sorry, I don't have any hollandaise sauce, I have to make it from scratch, and that would take forever" He asked if that was fine, and I just accepted defeat. How can you do that? How can you run a restaurant and not serve staple breakfast foods? On a Sunday no less, the one day a week where basically no human being wants to make their own breakfast. It was 1030, so there wasn't even a chance you could have run out by this time.

My last concern now is this, at some point during this week the owner is going to log on to his computer, read this review, and argue everything. When you get to this sentence sir, I highly recommend you watch some kitchen nightmares with Gordon Ramsay. If you truly care about cooking, and are passionate about it, you will. He tackles subjects where a costumer has a legitimate complaint, and how to handle it. Rule number one, don't argue, accept your faults and correct them. Coming from someone in the arts industry I know all about correcting errors and improving my craft. I suggest you look at doing the same before writing...

I was eager to try out the food, sadly, the one I wanted was unavailable (the waitress informed us they ran out of the item last night). So, had to settle for another silog item but even it was meh.

I am not one to usually bother posting a review unless it exceeds my expectations in a good way but this is an exemption and I feel obligated to do so.

So upon paying, we mentioned to, whom I was assuming was the the owner, a small misunderstanding on the menu. Instead of diffusing things, as a mindful and effective business owner would, and tactfully say, "Yes, it could be misunderstood as this and that, however, this is actually what it means...." Instead she took the low road and responded negatively by saying, "So, what exactly do you want to happen?", very sarcastically and in a condescending manner. Not only were we taken aback by this unexpected rude remark but she didn't seem to mind embarrassing herself infront of other patrons whatsoever which portrayed a very poor reflection on her business. If she can treat someone who is helping her business thrive infront of her own other paying customers in the open, I now feel so sorry for her poor employees.

Prior to ordering, we asked the waitress (who was nice and tactful by the way) about the menu in question but gave us a different answer. So in all, the confusion was not only taken and observed by us but also by her very own employee. Then again her attitude was an A+. Perhaps something that the owner can learn from.

Food wise, not something I would go back for again. I can honestly say I can make a pretty similar plate at home and be happier with it. As a contructive critism, your menu selection is few, mainly on silog; running out of the main thing you are selling is a very bad thing, or lets just say an "EPIC FAIL". We, as paying customers expect only the best. If you want to run a business, do it right or stay home.

That said, will be proactively telling friends and families to NEVER EVER SET FOOT IN THIS RESTAURANT BASED ON A SIMPLE FACT THAT, YOU, THE OWNER OF THIS PLACE DO NOT DESERVE TO RUN AN EFFECTIVE BUSINESS WHICH INVOLVES MAINLY PROVIDING BASIC CUSTOMER SERVICE. Clearly for you tact is non-existent and you simply are not fit to be in the front end of things (also based on a lot of the negative feedback on here is mainly on your poor handling of things). Consider hiring a host/hostess instead and stay home madam! If and/or when that happens, please let me know and I might have a chance to reassess my ratings 👍

My true rating: Food 2.5 stars Atmosphere 3 stars Customer...