Contis Bakeshop & Restaurant - Westgate Alabang — Restaurant in Muntinlupa

Cakes were good as per usual. There sit down menu was just ok. Service is bad.

What caught me off guard was the lunch service during Mother's Day 2023. Their Westgate branch initially gave us a good experience with waiting benches before being seated. We were a group of 7 people and as there were no space big enough for us, we were seated back to back with each other which waa understandable.

The bad experience began when a lot of their food items were not available. We were able to put in replacement orders, so we were good. However, after 30 minutes, the server came in several times in installments, to tell us our orders were unavailable. We'd hope they had a better system of tracking their pantry supplies so they can inform their guests and not waste time for putting in and preparing another set of orders.

When our orders came, turns out one of the original items we ordered was available after all, and though we already had a replacement order, we took it so it won't be charged to the server.

We had to get a follow up on one food item which took another 20 minutes to prepare. The result was one very hungry diner which only started to eat her mains while the rest were having dessert already. Feedback was the food was served cold.

My advanced order of halo halo which I requested to be served together with my main dish was served during dessert. We asked one server if the order was put in, she confirmed it wasn't so we had to Re order with additional 2 orders for a total of 3 halo halos.

When the halo halos came in, there was a total of 4. We mentioned that Total should only be 3. Server went away with the extra 1 (which we could have taken off their hands but men, they were already in a streak). Server came back to say that as per their system, their were 4 orders. I called out the server which we had checked and followed up with to verify our story. They took the halo halo away.

What made things worse was when the bill came, they charged us for all food orders that they put in but subsequently informed us that they were out of. We had to review the slip line by line up to 3 times to make sure no other mistakes were made.

On top of all of these, the air-conditioning was really bad. The store was hot, hence the reason I advanced ordered my dessert to be served with my main - but to no avail.

So yeah, one or 2 of these experiences would have been ok - but all these together in one dining experience really highlights a lack of attention to detail and...

I hope the experience we had in this branch does not reflect the performance and quality in other branches as it was just unbelievably horrible. I don’t even know where to start. I was totally disappointed as I really loved my previous experiences but of course, those were with other branches. Took them almost 30 minutes (called for a waiter 3 times to order and was told in all instances “for a while” and it was indeed a while) to get our orders or even put water on our table. Our food arrived cold: Salmon was overcooked, it was on top of rice that was cold and seemed to be sitting somewhere for a bit of time as the top layer of the rice already had that film when food cools down; The crispy pork seemed like days old pork reheated. It was tough to eat. The rice was also cold; The beef salpicao - was initially told it will come in 5 mins but it came in 20 mins. Also came cold, very salty and the “buttered veggies” on the side was almost fridge cold. My mango shake was so watered down, I can barely taste the mango. We left our food unfinished. It was really bad. Took another while to get our bill and I had to follow up a couple of times to get my card back. Highly do not recommend. Took my husband here for him to try Conti’s because it is one of my favorite restaurants but I ended getting embarrassed on the poor service and food quality. Not coming...

Unpopular opinion, the best classic halo halo in the Philippines is in Contis. I like how they stay true to what the dessert is supposed to be without adding anything new or twist.

Some things to improve though with this branch: a) they should be more open to customizing certain food items for their customers. Example: I wanted to remove one element in the halo halo which they easily did in other branches of Contis but in this one they were hesitant until we compared them with other branches. In another incident, I also requested to order additional scramble egg with my meal which I was willing to pay of course, but they declined saying they don’t do that but when I did go to another branch they were happy to do it for me. b) every time we call them to ask if they’re still open they say they’re only until 8pm and their Google profile also says 8pm but we confirmed with the staff they’re actually until 9pm. It make it seems like whoever is managing this branch does not like to work too much.

I still love love Conti’s as a whole. This branch just needs to work...