SOLEDAD RESTAURANT — Restaurant in Naga

Dined in, on a Sunday, around 6:00PM. There were 3 of us: 2 obviously senior women plus 1 who can still get away with it. I have another sister (wasn't with us when we ate) who raved about Soledad Restaurant so we decided to try it. I was very disappointed. First of, why are all the servers male?... but I won't get into this matter here.

Soledad have a good selection of food and on this early evening, did serve good, tasty food. However, the service was terrible. We were seated promptly enough, along the front wall. The seat was too low. As we wait, I observed the waiters, there were 4, all of which moved around sluggishly. 3 of them came near us, walked & looked around, but ignored us. 20 minutes later, I see one of them paying attention to new arrivals that occupied the table in front of us and started to take their orders!! I was livid. I got his attention, complained as to why we arrived half-hour before those people but are being ignored. I got an insincere "Sorry po!" but at least he called on another waiter to attend to us. After we finished the main course, we ordered halo-halo for dessert. Almost 10 minutes later, I had to call another waiter to get our table cleared then he disappeared. A few more minutes passed and I see our waiter collecting the used glasses from the same "newly arrived" table in front of us that's been vacated. Very inefficient move: our table should have been completely cleared first since we have halo-halo coming and will need the space. While eating halo-halo, I see a waiter cleaning the newly-vacated tables but he wipes only the exposed surfaces of table; he didn't wipe the placemats or the surfaces under them! Then he just whisked the remaining debris on to the floor. A second waiter cleaning another table did the exact same thing. All throughout, these waiters behaved with apathetic, lethargic, disinterested, lackadaisical & tired demeanor - like zombies. The management failed to train these servers properly. So, unfortunately my Soledad experience is an unhappy one.

We had: sinigang salmon belly, dinailan, crispy dinuguan, fresh lumpia,...

I'm not quite satisfied with your service. I always have to look for a waiter to get our needs taken cared of. Granted that there was another party in the next room that booked the same time as ours. The waiters always leave the door open (that blocks out the sounds from the other party) so the noise from the other party would spill over hence disturbing the silence and it was difficult to hear conversations! Next time, I would suggest that if you have a big crowd of people per party, the establishment should assign a couple (2 maybe 3) waiters per party. That way, the needs of your guests are met. I have to constantly ask for a refill for drinking water, ask for coffee to be served or the desserts to be served. Those assigned waiters can then provide better service to your patrons. Speaking of desserts, I know it cannot be helped that your expected delivery did not arrive but I was told that the cakes/blueberry cheesecake was always available. I had informed the front desk that I needed 2 whole blueberry cheesecake but by the time my guests arrived, there was only 2/3 of a blueberry cheesecake and a half of a chocolate mousse cake! So not everyone of my guests for dessert! Which is embarrassing on my part! I had 2 Bishops that were my guests, 2 out of town priests and the other local clergy. I had to profusely apologize to the guests who didn't get any dessert! Your establishment came highly recommended and the food is outstanding (5 *) but your service needs to be improved by maybe providing more waiters on days that there are 2 big parties going on at the same time. As for the atmosphere, the "veranda room" became too warm for my guests then the rain came pouring down and the water started dripping on my guests!! We just had to adjust our chairs so we won't get soaked by the...

Today, August 30, I had a reservation through fb messenger with advance order given, paid 4,000php in total(1,000php for reservation fee + 3,000php for 50% of our total food order), I sent the payment @ around 3:30pm. Our reservation is @ 6:00pm and we arrived @ 5:50pm @ Soledad.

Unfortunately, the FOOD WAS SERVED AFTER 50MIN(DESPITE RESERVATION FEE of 1000php AND DOWNPAYMENT OF 3000php was given).

In addition to this, we saw that they served the other customer first that arrived later than us(seems they were prioritized). We were informed by the serving staff that the other customers were prioritized because their food was around 7,000php in total and they paid a downpayment fee for that. Then we answered to them that we also paid whatever is needed as we gave our advance orders.

That was our last dinner as a big family before me and my husband will go back to New Zealand tomorrow. All we felt was disappointment from the service that was rendered. We saw the unequal treatment and poor service. Luckily, their food were good. It's just that poor service talag and unfair treatment. Even the initial bill that was given to us was not updated, they didn't deduct the initial payment of 4,000php. Kung hindi ko tinanong, hindi ibabawas. Nakakalungkot sobra. Kelan magbabago ang service sa Pinas. Kahit nagbayad ka na, kung hindi mukhang mapera ang customer, hindi priority. Sad but true. Improve your service and learn to accept your...