1st Colonial | SM City Legazpi — Restaurant in Legazpi

Had lunch and dinner here during an overnight stay at a nearby hotel. I am continuing to explore the restaurant's menu after a positive experience on a trip last year where I dined thrice at the Pacific Mall branch.

The restaurant itself is nice, brighter and newer than their Pacific Mall branch but smaller in floor area.

For lunch, I had the KKM Kandingga meal, Colonial Burger, and Leche Flan.

The Kandingga (P109) was nice. Good flavor and the right amount of chewy. I've never tried Kandingga or bopis but now it's something I can consider when going over menus. The meal comes with a good amount of plain rice that's just right for the amount of kandingga and some kamote chips. The chips are thin and crispy and paired nicely with the chewy kandingga.

Colonial Burger (P149) was okay. I generally like my burgers to have a really beefy flavor like a Big Mac. This I think is closer to a "homestyle" burger. The burger has a sweet coleslaw like sauce and there are raisins in the burger. Not bad but not really my type of burger. I like the style offered by another local restaurant, Biggs, more.

Leche flan (P69) was ok as well. The center was quite smooth, soft, custardy but the sides were a bit firmer in consistency. I'm not sure if this was intentional. There was a calamansi slice on top but I didn't really detect calamansi flavor in the dish. The syrup was not so sweet but still had a nice dark caramel undertone to it which I liked.

For dinner, I had the BSM Lechon Kawali dish, and Tinutong na Bigas shake.

The BSM meal (P249) was solid and came with pancit bato, iced tea or pink lemonade, and unlimited plain or tinapa rice.

Pancit bato I've tried before at 1st Colonial. It's not my favourite pancit dish in the world but it's pretty okay and pair nicely with the tinapa rice and the lechon kawali.

Lechon kawali had tender meat and adequately crispy skin. Served with sarsa on the side.

The pancit and lechon kawali is enough to get you an extra (large) cup of rice.

Tinapa rice is ok. It's not the greatest fried rice in the world and my cheapskate nature won't order it on its own but it's a step up from plain rice and in this combo meal where the price is the same as plain rice the choice is a no brainer.

You can read more about my thoughts on pancit bato and tinapa rice in my other 1st Colonial review.

Tinutong na Bigas shake is pretty solid and is what you expect from the name. You can really taste the rice and I liked how fine the ice was which can't be said for shakes in all restaurants.

Overall, another good showing from 1st Colonial.

"See...

We had a very good experience in dining in one of the best reviewed and recommended local Bicol restaurant, 1st Colonial Grill.

The service crew were very attentive and they give good recommendations especially concerning the spiciness level of the food that they offer.

We ordered 2 meals actually, merienda and dinner.

We ordered Crispy Spring Rolls, La Paz Batchoy and 3 flavors of Ice Cream: Sili, Carmelado and Cocoa and we like all of them. The Sili Ice Cream is quite unique and eating it was in itself a new experience. The server explained that it has different levels of spiciness and after thoroughly explaining each level, we decided to get the Level 2. Its mild spicy. It was tolerable and quite honestly, it tastes good. We were expecting to taste weird but we actually liked it.

La Paz Batchoy was also a good choice esp its been raining today. It taste close to authentic La Paz Batchoy of Iloilo.

The Crispy Spring Roll is actually very good and as evidence, we finished all of it.

Then we proceeded to have dinner right after finishing our merienda :-)

We ordered Ginataang Gulay na Santol, Tuna Sisig and Colonial Embutido. We really like the gulay na santol. It gas a balanced taste of saltiness and sourness with adequate creaminess. This is highly recommended when you have time to dine in in 1st Colonial Grill.

We were expecting more with the Embutido and Tuna Sisig. Even then, it was acceptable but not something we will order again when we go back to eat in this restaurant.

Overall, its still a very good experience to have dined in in 1st Colonial Grill inside SM Legazpi. And you...

Service so slow and not attentive or concerned about your waiting time. We just ordered 3 very basic meals (won't mention every food coz they might know who we are) and the staff said 20 minutes is the serving time. We waited for almost 30 minutes only to find out that our orders were not taken by the staff! (to think that she has a mini notebook with her and repeated our orders) Then, a staff who is I think higher than her noticed that we haven't been served yet, and asked again what are our orders and said they will "Prior" our orders. They served after I think another 15 minutes.

When it's time to pay, the one on the counter is not handling us the change. It's just on the counter not even showing any politeness to saying that "here's your change" so we don't know if we should get the money placed on the counter or wait until dawn so she can hand the change to us.

All in all, I think they have attitude problem towards work, affecting their service. If you are not happy with your work or boss or having a bad day, please don't let it affect how you treat your diners. I have read also some reviews here which are a year ago already, and one is right, you cannot go here when you're starving. But atleast make your "serving time" truthful, or if it's taking longer than expected, atleast go back to your diners and explain. But in our case we believe our orders were not taken by the staff who came to our table and acted like listing it on her mini...