Gavroche — Restaurant in Panglao

Unfair treatment due to race** Been here 7-8 times for breakfast already. We were 2, wanted to sit in the booths because the seats on the side were quite full and had to squish in between tables. Staff said no to us and insisted we occupy the seats to the side. After seeing that I wanted to leave, cause I felt claustrophoic sitting there, he decided last min. that we can take the booth instead. Mind you that two booths were still empty and the last booth was also occupied by 2 person (1 asian 1 caucasian). He clearly STATED that if a party came in, we HAD to move seats.

Why unfair treatment? We are Asians and I have seen ONE single older caucasian male coming up, walked straight towards the booth, while there were plenty of space on the sides, NO ONE even questioned him. No rejection or conditions mentioned whatsoever. White privilage to its finest and this bistro supports that. Usual customers there are older caucasian male with their Filipina wives. Please dine at this place if you want to experience what discrimination is. Oh, and to top if off, they forgot my croissant. After reminding them, they served me one that was obviously left-over from the night before. Wow, what an experience that I can't even buy with money! But in fact, I did, so...

Disappointed. I ordered a chicken leg with oriental sauce, green salad, iced chocolate and croissant. The chicken leg came out glazed with Teriyaki. When I said I did not want it, the lady owner came at me and was very defensive. She said that they made it clear on their menu the ingredients and she was very quick to show me the menu and only to get herself wrong. She was certain that they put Teriyaki on their menu and argued that Teriyaki is not sweet! I had to explain to her that their menu did not say teriyaki but oriental sauce which could mean anything from the South East. She admitted that she had previous American customers who refused to eat the food because it was not what they expected and she assumed I could be one of those customers. I said to her, I am well aware of the different cuisine and I know what I am getting before ordering because I always read the menu. She finally compromised with me and made another chicken without the teriyaki glaze! However, having an owner like that who assumes that every customer is the same as the previous does not sit well with me. I would not recommend it, not with my first hand experience...

A nice little cafe with pastries and decent coffee. The service can be a bit hit and miss. Some days its good, other days the staff are more interested in gossiping than bringing your food and you are forced to ask them specifically to bring the pastry you ordered. It really depends on which staff are there at the time.

The staff are not very helpful if you want fresh pastries. Several times we have asked when the fresh pastries will come out (rather than eating yesterday’s leftovers, which are still quite ok but fresh hot pastries are always better). Each time they say they “don’t know” and when we ask them nicely if they could check, they always come back saying “one hour”. Several times, after being told “one hour” we settled for day old pastries, only to have the fresh ones come out 5 minutes later. That lack of care and professionalism is quite frustrating. The staff simply don’t care if you get what you want or not. All in all its a decent place that could be so much better. We still go there but only because there isn’t many good...