Steak Garden — Restaurant in Dauis

OK...I came here for dinner about 13 kilometers from where I am staying based on the previous reviews and hungering for a quality steak. While the price is expensive in terms of eating out normally in the Philippines, the actual value, peso for peso is there. The value is a bargain for those from the West. As a retired chef, I was pleasantly pleased. The menu besides quality steaks has plenty of options including several lamb dishes in their specials for the day list that I was sorely tempted by. The presentation of my meal exceeded my expectations, the sides my steak came with were flavorful, and there was even a bit of color by painting the plate with streaks of some coulis. And to top it off, my steak even had some caramelized onions or some refer to as onion confit or onion jelly. My steak was cooked perfectly to order, very tender, well marbled and very flavorful. No need for salt or pepper, the correct amount of salt prior to cooking was added and I ordered the peppercon sauce to accompany my steak. The service was good, staff attentive and answered menu questions well. The outdoor seating was plenty cool enough and comfortable. 4 months and 7 islands now and I have sat in enough seats designed for smaller people to last a lifetime. If you want a really nice meal at a very fair price for what you receive, like smaller crowds than you might find elsewhere on Panglao Island, then I would highly recommend having...

EDIT: big let down on second visit to this place. First visit was good. Showed up single, just me. No tables available. Waitress put me at the bar. So far so good. Ordered pasta, still checking the place out and holding off on ordering an expensive imported steak until satisfied theyre overall service is consistent. Ordered a beer while waiting for the pasta. After waiting 40 minutes waitress tells me they're too busy and it will be another hour for a plate of pasta. Huh? I told her pasta basically requires boiling water. The big fail was her attitude. Zero interest in service. She just turned from me and started joking with another waitress. I walked out unlikely I'll be back. Ever. Cannot trust this group to even do basic customer service and hospitality. cannot trust a kitchen that cannot muster a single plate of noodles in 90 minutes. Very disappointed. I've watched the Dao strip develop for years. Verdict is not ready for prime time. Some of the other establishment keep random hours and lack a legitimate restaurant culture. Best bet is drive another 2 minutes up the road to Sicily restaurant. They also have imported steaks. Been eating there several years and they never...

I really wanted to like this place. It is in the neighbourhood I like to frequent. And I was so excited when the place was being built and I heard it was going to be a steak restaurant. And tonight, celebrating an anniversary, I thought I would splurge a little. We had looked at the menu online before and were quite excited. We arrived at around 6.30 pm on a Wednesday and ordered drinks while taking another look at the menu. The atmosphere is really nice. And then we ordered...... There was only 1 steak available. So disappointed. And coming in at a hefty 2350 pesos for 550 grams I decided they did not deserve my money. Just to remind you, the restaurant is named Steak Garden. To have only 1 option was disgraceful. To not order more steak when they were running low on stock is baffling. So we ordered pork loin ( good but should have been more tender), and Angus brisket. The brisket was quite tasty in a white sauce. Reminded me of the corned beef I used to cook back in Australia with a white sauce with peppercorn. Only my version was better. I can see there are so many 5 star reviews. I guess we came on a bad night. We...