Il Primo Italian Steakhouse - NUSTAR — Restaurant in Cebu City

I dined at a restaurant next to a five-star hotel. While it was extremely expensive, I was prepared to pay for high-quality food and service.

At first, everything went smoothly. The staff was polite and attentive, and my wife and I felt welcomed. I ordered a dry-aged ribeye steak and asked the waiter for a recommended doneness. He told me the chef recommends medium-well (70% doneness). I agreed.

That’s when the nightmare began.

As soon as the steak arrived, I could tell something was wrong. The surface looked fully cooked—even slightly burnt around the edges. I took one bite, and it was dry, bitter, and tasted more like overcooked pork than steak. I immediately asked the waiter to confirm the doneness. He checked and confirmed that it was, indeed, the recommended medium-well.

For a steak that costs nearly NT$4,000, this was unacceptable. I asked to cancel the dish. The waiter, understandably, said he needed to speak with the manager.

Then came the worst part: the manager’s response. He claimed the steak was overcooked because we left it on the hot plate for too long. He insisted that a medium-well steak should not be juicy or tender, and that the burnt edges were “normal.”

These explanations were absurd.

I’m actually a professional steak chef, and I’ve cooked and tasted steaks from around the world. First, the plate was warm, not hot enough to continue cooking the steak—certainly not to a full doneness. If it were that hot, staff wouldn’t be able to handle it barehanded. Second, I took a bite immediately after it arrived, and even have photos to prove it. There was no time delay.

Also, I encourage them to Google what a medium-well ribeye should look like. It shouldn’t be burnt, bitter, or dry like jerky. Ribeye is one of the most tender and flavorful cuts of beef, and this was a disgrace to its name.

I also noticed similar complaints in other reviews. They advertise the steak as 300g, but based on my experience, it was clearly underweight.

This is my first time ever leaving a negative review abroad, and I’m doing it so that future diners can make a better-informed choice. This restaurant may look luxurious on the outside, but the food quality and management attitude tell a different story.

We spent nearly NT$8,000 in total, and left the restaurant feeling extremely disappointed.

The only bright spot was our waiter, who remained polite and attentive throughout. He truly listened and cared. Honestly, he should be the manager— not the person who clearly doesn’t understand how steak should be...

Dined at Il Primo for Sunday lunch. Very seamless service from start to finish. Complimentary bread was immediately served after ordering our food. I believe their bread varies as we had an olive loaf for our lunch. It was soft but the olive paste served was a little too dry for my liking and both the paste and bread practically tasted the same.

We had the Nustar Fettucine, Rigatoni Carbonara and Prosciutto e Funghi for pizza. Both pasta had a good bite to it. The Carbonara was very rich with that umami pork flavor and was very satisfying. The Nustar Fettucine which was seafood based unfortunately lacked the rich seafood taste I usually seek in seafood pasta however the perfectly cooked prawns and scallops more than made up for this. You would really notice the quality of seafood used for the fettucine.

The pizza was surprisingly bigger than expected . The savory parma ham and tasty huge chunks of grana padano made each slice a tasty treat, not to mention the crust was perfectly cooked. Not too thick or too crisp. The only letdown was they didnt have any arugula and this was replaced with lettuce which did more harm to it as it didnt really do anything to the dish. It felt like a chunk of salad (with huge leaves of lettuce) was topped over our pizza.

We finished off with their Tiramisu. It was perfectly balanced. Perfectly creamy and not overly sweet. It was the perfect treat to cap our meal.

Service was very quick, warm and very seamless. Would be best to make reservations ahead particularly...

Before I went to Il Primo I was a bit biased after reading some of the negative reviews. Luckily I've been convinced of something better. The welcome was warm but there were too many waiters running around actually not serving anyone or not knowing who to serve. They didn't see any flying eyes or hands... Since we were the last guests to arrive at the table, we weren't served anymore... The Espresso we ordered didn't come, then it came, but without sugar and without a spoon, I had to ask twice, until I got the sugar. But there was still no spoon. I had to stir the espresso with the butter knife. That wasn't bad, because the butter we ordered wasn't brought to us either, or it was next to the espresso spoon... OK... but then the food was absolutely great. My wife ate salmon, which was fried to the point and my 300g ribeye steak was actually grilled exactly medium, the fillets were exactly medium rare. You couldn't actually order side dishes, except potatoes in any variation. A restaurant of this caliber, and claiming to have the highest prices in Cebu City, should be able to train their staff to be attentive.

Another negative point is that the acoustics of the restaurant basically do not allow any private conversations. The music found it difficult to assert itself against the loud clattering of dishes and so I found both very disturbing. I wasn't able to overhear too much of the conversations at the table.

The staff was...