Melo's Restaurant — Restaurant in Quezon City

Was craving steak on a random Thursday so we decided to throw it back at Melo’s. Parking was tough since they share the space with another restaurant, but the attendants were helpful. First impression: the place feels dark and dated and definitely could use a refresh.

We started with raclette (with cocktail onions, cornichons, lettuce, and potato) which was good.

The dinner set we each had came with Melo’s pate and a choice of soup or salad. I got the caesar salad and my husband got the crab and corn soup. Both underwhelming and forgettable. We couldn’t have enough for the sweet fluffy dinner rolls tho!

For mains, I had the Japanese Wagyu medium rare topped with foie gras which were both perfectly cooked and absolutely delicious. My husband got his steak rare topped with a lobster tail. Steak was great as expected, but the lobster tail was malansa, overcooked and tasted old.

Dessert was also forgettable. I had red wine by the glass but it seemed poorly stored, served chilled and already rancid.

Service was the biggest letdown. Staff looked like they didn’t want to be there. They were scowling, inattentive, and everything felt like a chore. We came in a good mood, but it really dampened the experience. Dinner set us back close to ₱9k even with the BDO 50% discount on the steak sets, so it wasn’t cheap. We just expected more from something at this level. Glad they still do steak well, but the service and atmosphere really...

For context, we came to the restaurant on a sunday, during lunch time.

Food: 2/5 The steak was a bit off. It came in being warm, not hot. My plate also had black residues as if the waiter that served mine had dirty wet hands. Also, the sea bass tasted frozen.. The same fatiness and texture you get from Manila Hotel’s Ilang Ilang buffet.

Ambience: 1/5 The place was dark, you couldn’t see what you were eating. It was really hard to see through the pitch dark setting.

Customer Service: 2/5 Waiters were as if untrained. They didn’t know how to respond to our queries. The waiter also didn’t notify us that the food we ordered may be too much (considering that most of our party consisted of women). The guard also wasn’t able to assist us as we left. (the parking space was so small). Overall, customer service was dissapointing. But considering the price of the items in the menu, I would rather go to Antonio’s in Tagaytay. (CS in antonio’s are the best💯).

Price: 2/5 hmph, not much words to say except for the food not...

It's good, though not great. I'm not keen on using paper over the tablecloth. Is laundry not in the budget? Quite unhygienic since the napkins touches the side of the tablecloth and changing just the papers wont suffice. Or scared to get stains so waste paper? 😞

The staff are very nice, but the service needs refinement. After dropping off the plates without any introduction, they failed to check back on us even once.

I enjoyed the house wine tho! The escargot and carbonara were okay, but I've had tastier. Could you take another look at the Caesar dressing? The steak was cooked to perfection; I just didn't expect the sauce to come from a bottle.

Perhaps consider improving table management too, seating a group next to a couple on a date isn't ideal especially when the room...