Hibiscus Restaurant and Bar — Restaurant in Puerto Princesa

First, the bad: Over the past few months I've noticed the girls in the bar playing on their phone. The bar is set up with a non-premium youtube account with ads, which often cometes audibly with the central music from the restaurant that the bar cannot turn off. That means to have a drink one often has two conflicting sounds to start. When the girls play with their phone it both signals that they have other priorities than hosting and ads a third conflicting sound to the mix.

Most of the staff at hibiscus are fantastic. However, one particularly rude bar girl, consistently radiates an attitude of superiority and indifference. I try to avoid her, sometimes leaving the bar when she's there because it is the opposite of Filipino hospitality. On this night I had an appointment at the bar so I could not leave for the drink (I left for the dinner, which I took to Princesa Gardens for a much nicer experience, which is one of many meals this staff member has cost the owners of Hibiscus). When Che plays with her phone she is always friendly and will stop when I ask, or at least use headphones. However, when I asked this bargirl to stop playing with her phone so loudly I heard it across the room she looks up incredulously and asks "why?" I asked "You don't get training on not using your phone on the job? It's disrupting my conversation." At this point she suggested that I leave the bar area ad go to another room so that she can continue violating all courtesy and training at the company and guest expense. I told her she was being rude, that I would write a review as the best way to draw attention to the owners. She ignored me and kept playing with her phone. I took my dinner elsewhere and have not gone back since. This is the only staff member I know of in any of the restaurants I visit including Guni Guni, Reef Cafe and Artisans with this attitude. I don't think hospitality is a good job for her, as there are other jobs where hostility and rudeness don't destroy the business.

Now for the mixed: The food is not the greatest. Pizzas are better at Reef Cafe. Smoothies are better at Princesa Gardens. They don't have the fresh orange Juice I love at Guni Guni, or feta cheese, but it is decent. Worse is the chimney design: 50% of the time I'm in the restaurant by the pool I have smoke blowing into my face because the kitchen chimney is not high enough to take it over the roof or they are doing some BBQ at the level of the restaurant. Sometimes I leave for this reason.

Now the best part: I've had dozens of meals over the past few months for three key reasons:

1. They are the only place to have my favorite Fever Tree tonic water.
2. All the other staff are either OK or very friendly.
3. It has the quietest ambiance around, twice as peaceful as Guni Guni,...

I did not say that I am a food expert. The review function allows each consumer to leave his or her own feelings about the restaurant. According to your logic, can only food experts write Google reviews?

From beginning to end of my review, I didn't say anything was bad, and I didn't leave a star because of it.

I believe that blaming customers will not help your business in any way. If you think your business is very good, of course you don't need to pay attention to my comments because obviously you are very confident in your food.

I think my comment is in Chinese, so the translation may cause you some misunderstanding. I will re-narrate it in English.

The vegetables in the salad don’t have enough water. I’m not asking you to add water to them. The chicken in the salad tastes very bad. I believe this is a problem with your choice of ingredients. I will never taste such quality in any Paris restaurant. The steak didn’t taste like medium rare. Maybe this is different for everyone, but it is a fact that the meat quality is not good. Pad Thai may be a translation problem. Your menu clearly states Pad Thai, and you can copy this text and check on YouTube to find out what Pad Thai is. (I also used Google to translate your menu) The french fries part, maybe it’s the way each country cooks it, but I’m just saying how I feel As for the wrong soup, I immediately reported it to the waiter. You can call up the monitor screen.

1 Be Polite when you are entering a restaurant. When people great you , it is nice and free to sit hello back.

reply:No one expressed appreciation to me

2 Learn more about food Be sure of what you saying. People will read your comment and they will understand that your food know ledge is very limited.

Reply: Actually, I just want to show my feelings to the restaurant owner, so that he can improve and have a better business. I don’t care about other users.

3 Better to talk to the Manager than putting non sense comment

Reply: I'm sorry, my English is not good, I'm worried that he can't understand my comments

4 If you dont like the food, dont finish your plate and mention it to a staff

Reply: I eat up all the food because Chinese culture is not to waste food. Even if I don’t like this item, I will still try my best to finish it.

By the way, when you are free, you can pay attention to the expressions of the guests. When I was dining that day, I found that the expressions of the guests after eating the food were not very good.

I wish all the best to the customers who are going to take care of your...

I want to be constructive here because this place could be great and I hope this review is taken that way by management. The setting is beautiful around a Zen like garden alongside the swimming pool. The entres me and my partner shared were excellent. Gambas (prawns) and very enjoyable pork spring rolls. Before we were half way through our entres our mains were brought out. They were taken away when I said we were far from ready. Both of us ordered the pork chops as mains and obviously they just placed them in the oven for another 20 minutes so when eventually served they were dryer and tougher than an old gumboot. Had they been fresh they would still have been 40% fat and bone and perhaps 70gms of meat total per serve. Basically inedible. The red wine came straight from a fridge served cold. (?) They have an impressive gin selection however an order (30ml shot) is served in a goldfish bowl (at least 300ml) of tonic so I couldn't even taste if there was gin in it let alone appreciate the nuance of the selection. Again a very pleasant place and the entres were excellent but currently there is a lack of basic understanding that could easily be cured and turn this place into one that deserves 5 stars. I will go back again one day to see whether they've...