Encima Roofdeck Restaurant, Makati — Restaurant in Makati

Disappointing Experience at Encima Rooftop Bar

I had high hopes for Encima Rooftop Tex-Mex Restaurant, but my visit was an overall disappointing experience. While the location and prices were great, the service was severely lacking.

First, the waiter spoke no English at all, which is surprising since most Filipinos are fluent. He didn’t know the menu, and almost everything we tried to order was unavailable. A simple solution, like marking unavailable items on the menu or offering a daily menu, could have prevented this frustration.

The kitchen was visibly understaffed, with only two cooks for the entire restaurant. Food was brought out one plate at a time, leaving us to either eat while others watched or wait until everything arrived—cold.

The food itself was a mixed bag. The truffle noodles were decent, but the salad, which was supposed to come with ranch dressing, had thousand island instead. It was fine but unremarkable. One of our dishes, a noodle plate, was inedibly peppery—just overwhelming and unpleasant. The pizza, however, was excellent and saved the meal from being a total disaster. We liked it so much we ordered a second one.

Service issues extended to the desserts. I asked for both brownies and ice cream together so we could enjoy them as a pair. The ice cream came first, but the brownies didn’t arrive until fifteen minutes later—long after we’d finished the ice cream.

Even basics like water service were mishandled. We had six people but only got four waters—three cold and one warm. The beers were also inconsistent; some were warm early in the evening, while others were cold later.

To top it off, the waiter didn’t know what a MasterCard was when I asked about payment. This isn’t a language barrier; it’s a training issue.

The only redeeming factor was the pizza, and that’s the only reason I’m not giving this a one-star review. Sadly, everything else—from service to food handling—was chaotic and poorly managed. I can’t recommend this place unless serious...

Decided to celebrate our anniversary here since we wanted to try roofdeck restaurants. I can say it was a nice first time experience. Food is nice! I enjoyed everything we ordered. The sauce of the truffle fries was good, my partner liked it. Four cheese pizza was not too overpowering and the crust is soft. The pasta is well seasoned too! I liked the herb chicken, though my partner says there’s nothing that unique about it (to which I kind of agree, I just love fried chicken). I really loved the desserts we had though, the brownie was fudgy and the blueberry cheesecake was just the right dense and fluffy. Servings were big for two people so we did have a lot of leftovers!

We were accomodated nicely naman, though there were times were we had to wait for a time just to get the attention of the server. Also I kind of expected a complimentary dessert because they asked us what occassion we were celebrating but we didn’t get any, it’s not that big of a deal though.

Atmosphere wise, it’s definitely better at night with the lights and all that. We arrived around 4:30 so there’s daylight still. Interior is simple. Though my partner commented how it’s a little mood-breaker to see the pool from his view, thankfully there weren’t many people so no half-naked people going around during our meal 😆 It would be a little problem too if it started raining, since the roofdeck was quite open, we did wonder what the contigency was if it suddenly started pouring.

Either way, it was nice for a...

We celebrated our anniversary tonight at Encima. While the overall experience was okay, there were a few things that could be improved. To begin with, when we called to make a reservation, the food and beverage coordinator we spoke with was noticeably rude and seemed irritated when answering our questions. This left us with a less-than-welcoming first impression. Due to the rain, we were moved to the second-floor restaurant. The space isn’t very large, but it was cozy enough. Since our reservation was at 5 PM, we started with happy hour drinks: the mango margarita (on the rocks), mojito, and red sangria. We paired these with calamari and fish tacos. The calamari was enjoyable, but the fish tacos were underwhelming—we’ve definitely had better. For our couple’s dinner, the meal was a mixed experience. The pork was quite dry, and we had to request additional gravy just to make it easier to eat. The beef was more enjoyable—tender and nicely done. The mashed potatoes were fairly standard, and the mushroom soup and salad were just okay. For dessert, we had the strawberry panna cotta and the brownie. Again, these were decent but nothing memorable. Overall, the dining experience had some highlights, but also several areas where improvements could be made, especially with service and food consistency. Thank you for the evening, and we hope this feedback helps enhance future guest...