Esmeralda Kitchen — Restaurant in Quezon City

We had our lunch here last 4/28/23 1PM. We wanted to go somewhere with delicious food and this place did not disappoint us.

Food - the food here at first glance is really expensive but the waiter was actually able to advise us as to what certain entree is good for sharing even if it says solo. We ordered the brick chicken which has 4 slices and since there are 3 of us, we shared. We also ordered the steamed mahi mahi for sharing as well as the rice. My boss ordered coffee from their bar. They also have bakery side but we did not check it. The food is actually delicious. For health-conscious people this place has healthy set because most of the sauces are green. We can also tell from the texture that they are using healthy oil, not the fat ones.

Ambience - this place has a really nice ambience. The decor is well thought and everything just gives you the alta feeling. There were even a group of elderly women having their get together there. You can really feel the sophistication in the whole decor.

Service - there are two things I want to emphasize here. The service is good and bad. It was good in a sense that our server was actually able to give good recommendation for more affordable and shareable entrees. The bad part are 1) when we billed out, it took them almost 20 minutes to give our bill which was also after my boss asked another waiter to follow-up on the bill. 2) This part made me not like the service... We were still eating and although it was evident that we were still eating, the server took some of the plates where the food was served. Yes we were almost done but is it not customary to let the customer finish eating before taking the plates? This actually was more shocking on the next table because the elderly guy was still taking food from his bowl but the server (a lady) took his bowl away. The poor manong was shocked. 3) This part actually made my boss angry. After the long wait for the bill, my boss gave her credit card and after more than 10 minutes, she was angry because she does not find it comfortable to give her credit card to other people for that long. Not to be paranoid but it was not normal.

All in all the whole experience was not good. We enjoyed the food but the service really needs improvement.

Food 10/10 Decor 10/10 Ambience...

The food here is exceptional. They most probably have trained cooks in here. The prices are a little high but for the ample servings they're quite justified.

The restaurant looks nice, but just don't get the table near the counter where the waiters pass by often to go to the kitchen. It's a badly situated table and waiters don't care if they bump your chair when they pass by. They would even ask you to move your chair more towards the table even if you are not comfortable in that position just so they could pass. First time I've encountered such a thing in a restaurant.

I've eaten here several times and one thing I thought this place lacked were good staff. I've read one review that specifically calls out the poor service here and I can totally agree.

Although, I can say that the service has somewhat improved since last year, I still encountered not-so-good service when we ate here very recently.

Advice to the owners: please make sure your staff knows the products well. Please also tell them to be friendly to customers. In fairness, most of the staff I interacted with during my most recent visit were relatively nice, but there was one guy who needs further improvement in his customer service skills. He didn't seem to know by heart the items on the menu, and when we called the attention of the restaurant to a wrong item on our bill, he insisted that it was correct eventhough right in front of him, on the table, I was showing him what we really ordered. Good thing the supervisor or manager stepped in and immediately understood what I was saying and took over the correction. It turned out that the wrong item on the bill was even cheaper than what we really ate. The restaurant would have suffered a loss if we didn't had the bill corrected.

I hope the restaurant irons out the kinks in their service department. It's such a waste to lose a restaurant that serves good food because of problems with service. I've seen this happen to many good...

Appetizer : The crispy kesong puti triangles and cheese-filled squash blossoms with the sweet Iloco reduction was an excellent starter. Light and not too heavy to leave room for the eagerly anticipated upcoming mains.

Mains: The Tinumok was surprisingly good! I've never had laing prepared this way. The coconut bits in the wrapped minced pork added flavor to the filling.

The Kare-Kare was similar to the way my Grandmother prepares this well-loved Filipino dish, I.e., no shortcuts.

The Adobo is another dish worth having. The 3-in-1 style mix of pork and chicken pieces were perfectly complimented by the sauces.

The different cooking method of the prawns in Suahe Sinigang was delightful. However the soup that was served in a small pot was lukewarm. Soup should always be served piping hot. I was a bit shocked that extra serving of the soup was chargeable. We wanted to ask for more soup hoping it would be hotter than the first serving but decided otherwise as we didn't want to risk paying for another lukewarm pot of soup.

Desserts: The halo-halo ni Esme was not bad but not very good either. It is hard to make a bad halo-halo but even harder to make a very good one. In other words, it's a safe choice.

The turon sundae on the hand is much more enjoyable than the halo-halo. Definitely and highly recommended.

Coffee: I tried the latik-coco cream coffee to end the meal. It was very aromatic and enticing. Sadly, it didn't taste that special for me. If I didn't smell the aroma, it was just like a normal Cafe latte.

The unanimous feedback from my family was that food MUST always be served hot if it's meant to be hot.

I must commend the staff for their attentiveness. It would be nice if they are more familiar with the ingredients of their dishes.

The overall ambience of the restaurant was...