Hukad — Restaurant in Cebu City

So sad to write this because in March 2024 this restaurant was absolutely perfect. Fast service, friendly employees, and consistently good food.

Then, as abusive corporations like to do, they got rid of all of their prior employees who were on a "contract" and replaced them with new people, who in turn will also be gone in 6 months. I assume this is so that they never have to pay anyone a raise.

Anyway, the new staff is not great. The restaurant is extremely slow some nights, with food moving out to tables at a snail's pace. Service is spotty. Sometimes you ask for something and they just never bring it. Last time I almost had to get up and get my own drink because, well, the food had already come out. Let me know the last time you got your food before your drinks.

But, the last straw for me was a fiasco about an adobong kangkong I ordered. Notably, I ordered it without shrimp paste. Well, they brought it out with shrimp paste. Luckily, I'm not allergic, but if I had been, that could have been a disaster. So, they recooked a second kangkong without shrimp paste. It came out when the rest of our food was nearly finished. But, even worse, it had no flavor at all. No adobong flavor--unlike the talong that was sitting next to it. It was sitting in a soup of what was mostly water. We told them it was terrible and so the manager tasted and--wait for it--said that was because we got it without shrimp paste. AHHHHH. Ok well, (a) we just HAD the kangkong with shrimp paste and (b) we have ordered the kangkong without shrimp paste 10000x times and this has never happened.

In my country, if a customer says a dish was not to their liking, that dish is removed from the bill. No such offer was made to us. But what was even more laughable is that they have a manager and employees that don't even know what kangkong is supposed to taste like. Folks, these are grown adults that don't eat...

Hukad by Golden Cowrie provides you with an assortment of the most delicious Filipino cuisines. Best of all, you may savor it all with their fancy hukad unli-rice.

Delight your tongue with their all time favorite Filipino dishes like the Kare-kare, Crispy Pata, Sisig, Lechon Kawali, Deep Fried Liempo, and many more! Heck, they even have tasty Filipino drinks like sago't gulaman.

If you're a Filipino and love to eat Filipino classic dishes, dine here. If you're a foreigner and would like to try Filipino dishes, this place is a must-try!

++++++ Ps. Food taste great but their service is the opposite, but with a little adjustment I think things could improve. Tell the waitress to serve the drinks with the meal, a waiter comes in with a pitcher a minute later, tell the waitress you canceled the ice cream, a waiter would come in with a cup of ice cream a minute later. There seems to be no communication at all.

Caution: There is a table here which shakes quite often due to a slight disproportion of one of its leg. Its very hard for customers to dine in that table especially if they order a bowl of soup. Once the table wobbles, the bowl spills. They don't even fix that yet, instead, they even proactively let you sit...

For what I have observed staff seemed warm and efficient - when it came to everyone else. I don't know if it was a fact of me being the only one alone or a foreigner, but after sitting for a few minutes I addressed staff standing in the group to order and maybe that was the mistake- no one took upon the responsibility/ they misunderstood me? I asked about my order after waiting for 40 minutes, and I had to repeat it again and got informed I would have to wait some 20-25 minutes more. It was especially frustrating as I ordered before the rush when the restaurant was half-empty, so I decided to find the different place. Therefore my review is feedback on service, not the food itself, and I hope it would help to avoid such unpleasant situations in the future.

In other words - good place to contemplate without being bothered by the staff;) or...