Chowkeni Restaurant — Restaurant in Edmonton

We went to Chowkeni last Sunday to celebrate Mother’s Day. My husband called in days before to make a reservation. We chose Chowkeni despite living in the South and wouldn’t mind travelling for more than 40 minutes because we had tasted their food from their commissary in Spruce Grove and was able to talk to the owner who seemed pretty nice. So to speak, it was our first time in their Edmonton resto. We are a family of six: two adults with four young children.

Here are my observations— and it will be up to the owners how they’ll make use of these.

The service

The kids and other staff who served were respectful and welcoming. I wish I could say that was the same for the rest of them. When we entered the resto, my husband said, “Table for Dennis, please.” The woman immediately shouted, “Walang Dennis!” But immediately took it back after realizing she was wrong. Forgetting the names of people is fine, but, not checking it first before saying anything left a bad taste in my mouth.

We were then seated and when my husband asked for the menu, they said, there are no separate orders because it’s buffet Sunday. To say I am shocked is an understatement. It felt uneasy that we were not given a choice. So why we just don’t leave, right — like how they told the other customers? It’s noon time on a Mother’s Day, with four young kids, will we have a choice to find a restaurant who can accept walk-ins? That’s why my husband made the reservation. The woman whom my husband spoke with didn’t even mention about the buffet service when he called. So when people came in, many were surprised. The staff went around and told the customers that the announcement of the buffet service was on their social media page and was posted on the front of their resto. Thing is, not all people check their or even know their social media pages and would be able to see the announcement. I just think, they should have communicated it when customers called in and up front. Not when people are already settled in. Now since we couldn’t go anywhere, we stomached the buffet. Sadly, the buffet opened at 12:20 even after learning that it’s from 12pm-4pm. Being and serving late is also unacceptable.

The food.

I’ll be honest. Since it’s mother’s day, I did expect that keeping Filipino mothers in mind, they would serve special meals. Well, I was wrong. There was no theme other than that it was a brunch buffet. Fried bacon, ham,toasted bread, ceasar salad, alfredo, spaghetti, pork adobo, chicken barbecue, steamed rice, bagoong rice, siomai, dinakdakan, sisig, sinampalukan and fresh fruits are being served. As a Filipino mother who cooked these things (except for sisig and dinakdakan) on a daily basis, these meals are not for special occasions. To pay $29.99 (with halu-halo), I feel ripped off. I didn’t feel getting my money’s worth. For a family of six who paid for $130, we could immediately ordered Filipino meals (kaldereta, crispy pata, pork barbecue, palabok, etc) elsewhere with a lot of take aways because again, we are a family of two adults and four young kids.

The adobo, siomai and ceasar salad are good. Sisig is ok. Halu-halo is halu-halo. The rest, meh.

The most disappointing part is while they refused to cook separately for the rest of us, we saw them serving a bowl of soup and sisig platter to a Canadian (white). Hope we were wrong— but that customer who was seated in the corner didn’t go to the buffet and ordered separately. If it were true, that, too, is appalling.

Anyway, we learned two things. Next time, we’ll trust our gut feel. Being refused to be served (separate orders) on a special occasion feels terrible, but not listening to our gut feel is much worse. Second is to never ever go to a buffet service again. Even back in the Ph, we weren’t into buffets because not all buffets offer a wide-variety of meals (like this one) and would even make one eat a lot so as to get their money’s...

Thank you for Ruining my Birthday!

I went here for my Birthday Dinner because I had good food and experience. We got there around 8-8:30 and there were 2 tables (a table of 8 and 2, 10 customers in total) we entered the restaurant with a powerful smell of cigarettes coming from the lounge, she didn't introduce herself and didn't welcome us properly, she sat us to the booth next to the lounge entrance where the strongest cigarette smell is concentrated (i was with my 2 toddlers). We then asked to be transferred and she placed us 2 booths away because the highchair would be in the way (like there were not a lot of people). The whole time she was talking to us in a very condescending tone, she checked our table twice, and when we were trying to get her attention, it seemed like she could not hear us. She started cleaning the resto at around 9:15, some guests came in at 9:23 wanting dinner but she turned them down saying that the kitchen was closed (resto is supposed to be open till 10pm). The Cook went out and we were able to order dessert from him saying that it was my birthday and he gladly wished me a Happy Birthday and a minute later he was back with our dessert. They then asked if they could vacuum around us. Which is okay, considering that it's just us left in the resto. It took the server to come by our table 20 minutes to check on us (she kept addressing us as "you guys"), this was at 9:47pm. We asked for our bill and I just asked if there was a Birthday Special, she said that normally they give free Cheesecake but she didn't know that we were celebrating a birthday and that the kitchen was closed the receipt was printed at 9:52. She never informed us for last call, it was obvious that she is tired. We then told her the things that she should've done but instead of apologizing, she was answering back and blaming us for her incompetency! She said that she has been working alone straight for 7 hours and no break (that's illegal btw!). Somebody needs to check this. I work in this industry too and no matter how tired you are, you never answer a customer back when giving constructive criticism. You never say the words "that's your opinion". Customers are the ones that keep your restaurant open. (You yell inside the walk-in cooler and punch some cabbage if needed 😅) This is clearly a lack of management coaching and proper staffing. I will never come back and I feel bothered when you ruin my birthday!

(The server's name is Jovelyn, you can also check the time...

We came for dinner, hoping to enjoy some classic Filipino dishes, but our experience was really disappointing. First, we were told they were out of sisig, so my dad ordered the sweet and sour fish and lechon kawali, while my sister went for tapsilog, and I got the Chow Special Breakfast Combo (which should’ve included longanisa, tocino, and tapa).

While ordering, the waitress mentioned there was no sweet and sour fish, which was fine, but we weren’t informed about other items being unavailable. After about 15-20 minutes, my breakfast combo arrived, missing the longanisa. When I asked, the waitress said they substituted more tocino instead, but it would’ve been nice to know upfront.

The lechon kawali arrived next, and it didn’t look appetizing at all—the fat wasn’t crispy, and the color was a dull gray. Another 10 minutes passed before we overheard staff talking about being out of tapa, and to our surprise, it was actually my sister’s order affected. The waitress offered for her to change the order, but with another 20-minute wait, we declined and decided to share what we had.

Unfortunately, the tapa and tocino were both bland, and the lechon kawali had no flavor either. A lady, possibly the manager, offered free rice to make up for everything, but by then, we’d lost our appetite and politely declined. When we got the bill, it came to $49 for just three items—one cup of rice, my breakfast combo, and the lechon kawali—which felt steep considering the poor portions and missing components.

Not sure if their buffet offers a better experience, but based on this visit, I wouldn’t recommend spending your time...