Cafe Mary Grace - Newport World Resorts — Restaurant in Pasay

I’ve always enjoyed dining at Mary Grace, its consistently high-quality food and warm service have made it a favorite of mine across several branches. That’s why I was especially disappointed with my recent experience at the Newport Mall branch.

It wasn’t peak hour when we arrived, and we could clearly see that many tables were unoccupied. We requested a table for two from one of the staff, a young woman, and were asked to wait. Understanding that they may have needed to prepare a table, we patiently agreed.

I was carrying a heavy backpack at the time and, feeling the strain, placed it on a nearby chair in plain view of the staff member, hoping it subtly signaled my discomfort and need for a seat. After a while, I followed up to ask if we could be seated, but was told that the tables were still being cleaned. I glanced around again—there were still several visibly vacant tables, seemingly ready for guests.

It felt as though we were being made to wait simply because they preferred to place us at a specific two-seater table, rather than letting us occupy one of the larger available tables. After nearly 15 minutes of standing with no updates or action, we decided to leave. We informed another staff member that we no longer wished to dine there and walked over to Italianni’s, where we were promptly seated and served.

To make things worse, prices here are significantly higher—like their bangus dish at ₱538, compared to ₱378 at other branches (see pic). What makes this location so special to justify that?

Sadly, this was my worst experience at any Mary...

The staff was incredibly disrespectful and mediocre, unable to accommodate the most simple and basic task, and they badmouthed customers in Tagalog when they thought none of us spoke it.

I came to this place at the recommendation of my friends and we came as a large group so knowing that splitting the bill would be difficult, I decided to place my order directly at the cashier (a Mary Grace Tandem, i.e. bread and hot chocolate). When I noticed that the cashier lady might not have understood what I tried to do, I asked my filipina friend to speak with her and placed my order. I repeated Mary Grace Tandem several times and I was charged but they did not give me a receipt. I just let it go. However, when the whole bill came, there was an extra charge that none of us could explain. As it turned out, the lady had ALLEGEDLY only charged me for the bread and charged the chocolate on the collective bill, which is not only incredibly stupid (I don’t even know the name of the bread, I just ordered it on my friend’s recommendation) but also dubious since it was significantly more than what it’s written down in the menu.

Then, they proceeded to call us annoying for coming here and splitting the bill assuming my other friend couldn’t understand it, even though she paid for the whole thing with her card and it was only ONE person (me) who made a separate count—at the cashier, without bothering the servers.

Be reassured, we will NEVER be...

1.) Ordered the Sirloin Beef Tapa and the texture of the meat was very disappointing. Poor beef quality. Meat texture was not tender and rubbery to chew. For the price of over 500 pesos, it can be much2x better. We also ordered the Brownie Ala Mode but there's really nothing special to it. The ice cream was fine but the brownie can be improved. Not a stand-out dessert at all. 2.) Service quality was also poor. We had to follow-up on our dessert two times and staff doesn't seem to bother. No apologies for the long wait (dedma). It also took so long for them to generate our receipt and we had to go to the counter to follow-up on it. Not very sure as to what took them so long. In the advent of technology, generating a receipt should be one of the fastest process unless they had to manually write down everything. When we left the café, the staff at the door just looked at us. No thank you whatsoever. 3.) As always, Mary Grace interiors are great. One of the reasons why I dine here. They really invest on the atmosphere of their restaurants. Overall, I hope Mary Grace, can look into other matters like food quality and service. I always love seeing homegrown Filipino brands like Mary Grace becoming successful and I will would love to continue supporting these brands. I really hope they can greatly improve on the...