Ma Mon Luk — Restaurant in Quezon City

We visit this place twice the first time was when we have our car checked in a shop next to their restaurant just me and my husband. We have a terrible experience we are being ignored by the staff from the waiter to the cashier. But we just let it be because we thought maybe they are just too busy. And the food is ok. We just ordered the mami and siopao.

The second time we brought our whole family because we want them to try the food because my mom loves to eat authentic Chinese foods. We arrived at the place at around 12 noon based on our experience the first time, I just told my siblings to grab any vacant seats that they can find and order as soon as possible. Unfortunately same as the first time we are being ignored, we ask for the menu but the waiter just keep on passing us pretending not to hear anything. So my sister decided to go to the cashier to get a menu but they just told us to get it from the waiters. We just seat there for 15mins till a waiter finally gave us a menu and took our order. But almost everything we ask is not available anymore but we can see them serving it to another customer and they will tell us that it’s the last order they have. And the waiter keep on entertaining another customer while taking our order. So if He will tell me that my order is not available and I will browse thru the menu he will suddenly disappear and just come back after a few more minutes. And when we finally finished our orders we thought our burden is finally over. But after another 15 mins of waiting he came back to us and told us that they ran out of rice. And that the only available food is mami and siopao only.

We left the place after that and ate in another restaurant. We will never go back to that place ever again.

Very bad service and dirty, their table is not wipe clean after every customer. Their floor is disgusting and the paper from the siopao is all over their floor.

I just gave this place a 1 star just to be able to leave a message but even that they don’t deserve.

Horrible HORRIBLE restaurant with...

Mami - The ‘Colgate’ of popular noodle soup dish in Philippines is invented by this renowned food spot. ‘Mami’ is named after the founder’s family name ‘Ma’ and Mi a Chinese words for noodles.

I am so glad they are still around as the other locations are shut now. I barely recall there use to be one in Quiapo .. not that I have been there.

The place is both a museum to the founder and a historic restaurant at the same time. Even the tables and chairs are artifacts from the era. I am also of the belief the dirt stuck in the nooks and crannies of the chairs and tables can contain fossils from those decades it has been in operation 😂

I arrive at 9am. There was already a bit of a crowd forming. I am glad it is as popular as it is today . I need them to be around forever!

The food: Original Mami - served in 2 sizes. I got the bigger one. It is 170 pesos. This really was not that much more than when I was still living in Philippines. It was 110 pesos back then! The soup is much more flavorful than the Masuki version, although the noodles tends to be soggier than the Masuki one. The chasu are so tender, they are great!

The siopao Asado special - I will argue it is one of the great food of tasting in Manila. They don’t skimp on ingredients. Inside you’ll see they packed that siopao with mushed asado to the brim. The Spacial , adds a duck egg inside.

The bolabola - has a whole meatball inside. I think it is slightly saltier. The duck egg is a good addition to the filling.

The siomai - their version is so much larger than the regular dimsum variety. It is taller and in height than typical siomai you’ll get. The taste is just one that brings you back to...

Service - 1/5 Everything takes so much time. From getting your order after seating, receiving your food, getting the bill, and getting your change -- these takes 10-15 minutes each. Had they created a better system for orders, everything would've been faster (e.g. like how they do at fast foods instead, so we can skip waiting for a waiter, getting our bill, and waiting for change since everything is done at the cashier). Condiments aren't 1:1 per table, so you'd have to grab from another table if you need soy, siopao sauce, patis, etc.

When the waiter wiped our table, it smelled very bad. Like an inside of a fridge that wasn't cleaned and not running for a long time. so, we had to wipe it again with alcohol and wipes.

Kudos to our waiter though. He took orders from 2 tables in 1 go without jotting anything down, but came back with accurate orders.

Food - 3/5 What we ordered: Original Mami - 170 php To me, the broth tasted like the sabaw of "Kadyos" -- I wasn't quite sure if I'm happy about this or not. Ample sahog (chicken, pork, and beef). They also give extra sabaw.

Siopao - 100 php Pure meat, savory, and great balance between bun to meat.

Siomai - 2 pcs, 80 php Tasted great. Pure meat (which to me tasted like pork and shrimp?), no floury taste, etc. They don't have chili/chili garlic oil though.

Ambiance - 1 Place is very old, dirty, and had cockroaches. You'll only visit here for the food, for sure. Not a...