Al Qaysar - مطعم القيصر — Restaurant in Manila

Experience in HRM - so yes, I DO know the industry, so please save your snide remarks

What terrible experienceSsss... meaning, after each terrible time, I visited again and again - hoping they would be better than the previous... unfortunately, no Dinner service is less than 1 star - from the moment walking in until food service No greeter/seater, no initial server greeting, no update on order issues/delay - as there 100% ALWAYS is one or more...main meal is cold WHEN the accompanying rice or other food finally arrives No matter how many take-out orders there are, the actual dine-in customers should NEVER be last to serve Services, brunch and dinner, were basically non-existent since the customer has to ask for the menu after having been seated, sometimes after up to 30 minutes...then has to call server(s) to have any attention paid to the table - after which requests still need to be repeated so that they can be brought to the table, such as a simple request of napkins - something basic that should already be placed when seating customers, as well as other basics such as water and wares Foods, ones that are actually available (many orders, mine as well as other tables', usually, have not been available) are not over-specialty types that require 1 hour or longer to prepare before reaching the table, and yet almost always takes 30-75 minutes before doing so - Mutabal, Arabic Salad, and Turkish Naan shouldn't take an hour to arrive...Mandi Rice ordered upfront should not need to be asked about 75 minutes after ordering, if it's OK that it's going to take another hour...why? Because it wasn't placed or because it was forgotten about? Parking is limited, as it usually is for the area Take-out...how does it get "thrown away"??? when it was asked to be wrapped to take home? Atmosphere is basic, but comfortable enough...however, during rushes seating is limited, sometimes waiting for 30 minutes or longer for a table to become available After bringing potential repeat customers, I hoped to write a more positive review after repeatedly visiting Al Qaysar for years; however, it has not improved in service, rather declined Please come and try their menu items and be kind to the staff, as one should always be...just bring an abundance of patience for the experience Hopefully, YOUR experiences here will be great and you'll dine on...

Latest update- in regard to the last visit, a day ago up here - the guy who waited our tables of 10 members, was behaving awkwardly I really don’t know the reason, were as the visit that was made almost a week ago up here was good were a filipino lady waited our table and was so welcoming and we were happy with our time that we spent with almost 12-14 members over there. When we went there this time , the Filipino lady who waited out table last time welcomed us with a smile when she saw our group.

I hope the management would note the behavior of the staffs , anyway am posting the photo of the person who waited my table. How good the food is, yet the staffs cannot exhibit good customer relations and is not warm in welcoming. The business goes down.

Al Qaysar

It says Arabic, Turkish Grill, Indian, Filipino, sea food

Seafood grill, Mediterranean Cuisines and cafe

They have tried their part in getting it towards so as to have an Arabic Touch, almost there but bit more to go, honestly

This doesn’t mean that the food wasn’t nice , however my taste buds didn’t get that feel completely

They have rice dishes- Mandi, biriyani, Kabsa..🥘🍚🍙 I wish, they had more varieties of rice preparations in Arabic- like the Madfoon... With these kabsa and shatta-(the tomato sauce) that usually accompanies was not there.

Tried both mix grill 🥓🍖, shawarma- both lamb and chicken ( I’d say and recommend LAMB shawarma. 🌮)

They should also include Jarjir ☘️🌿with cheese. And lettuce 🥬

This should have been part of the main course where ai didn’t see any clue of them

The Lamb in the mix grill was good enough in taste but their presence was just for name sake , could include bit more... had one beef kebab, chicken kabab and a lots of french fries and one big Khuboos

The Ambiance was nice They have separate area equivalent to the size of the restaurant by side where I saw , was designated for shisha 🚬

I cannot say that its 💯 percent authentic Arabic food. Still will do

To the final touch , I would suggest- yemeni Tea with mint, And dessert- like Loqqaimat, khunafa

The over all...

Food is delicious, BUT the customer service is beyond terrible and horrendous - the experience almost gives everything a bitter after taste. First off, there were no attendees upon entering and it also took a while for us to receive the menu.

Being new to mediterranean and arabic food, we were quite eager to learn more of the cuisine but was quickly turned off by this rude waiter's nonchalance and passive disinterest, making sure to make us feel that he would rather be somewhere else than be bugged by bothersome questions.

It took a long while for our food to arrive (we ordered mugalgal chicken, biryani rice and moussaka eggplant), and when two of the dishes came, they were carelessly thrown at our table (in Filipino, "padabog") by the waiter without so much an apology. Our iced tea was only served to us after a follow up, and worse the moussaka came after we finished eating our main course and only after this waiter overheard us talking to the female servers that we plan on cancelling the order. The moussaka, for the second time, was thrown aggresively at our table by this male waiter without so much an apology.

Later we learned that this rude waiter was supposed to be their supervisor, who seemed to show no regard at all for their customers and who know so little of their menu when I was asking for some pollotarian and vegetarian options. The female servers were quick to apologize when we brought this up, and told us that everyone is busy and that they were understaffed.

Final verdict: Will not come back and will never recommend.

(Postscript: Read a few of the one star reviews out of curiosity, and was shocked by so many who experienced the same treatment regardless of nationality. Makes us think twice of the reason behind this most awful customer service. It could be the staff are purposely doing this either in retribution for previous bad foreign customer behaviour (the Arabs infamously treating the Filipino waiters as servants), or in retribution to maltreatment from the restaurant's...