Horrible experience last MD!

We dropped by here from Pangasinan to have a dinner as I usually dine in here whenever in SF.

We arrived at 645pm, there is no host to assist all arriving guest. We need to go inside the main dining area where most of them are at the cashier/runner area despite there are people on alfresco waiting to be assisted and private room.

Base on my observation. There are 8 employees on the day. 1 was assigned at the bar counter outside the main hall. And including the manager are at at the cashier/dinning area.

Manager just focus on cashiering as she stand there for the whole time. With such a big restaurnat, i dont understand why she need to stand there instead of doing operational task.

1. The whole operations looks disaster and never organised at all. Why?, no one was assigned at alfresco dining area and private room area. When we arrived, i saw couple waiting for their food. Bulalo came first and it was on the table for a long period of time before other viands/rice arrived.

2. I need to go to the main dining area to ask someone to take our orders since we are seated at the alfresco. It was around 7.15pm.

3. We received our starter at 7.50pm(fresh lumpia-photo attached)

4. 8pm we received the bulalo and its LUKE WARM. I ask the waiter to reheat. First time i order Bulalo that was Luke warm.

5. 8.15pm all our orders arrived. And all of the food was COLD. I even ask the waiter/food runner to try and touch the food. The guy just ignore me and went back to the main dining hall.

6. I call up another staff to follow up on the plain rice that was missing. When she arrived she was apologetic. It seems like the staff(food runner) raise the issue. The waitress mentioned that the food was ready but they wanted to serve the all the orders at the same time since some customer complaint about why they need to serge the food 1 by 1. I did not buy it and told her not to generalize all customer. We order an appetizer( fried pork slice) and how come Bulalo came first before the appetizer? We wanted our food to be serve hot as food best to eat while its hot and not cold.

7. I went to the cashier area to pay my bills as no one is outside, to my surprise I saw all the food at the food counter area and no one is serving all of it. This makes me conclude why the food was serve cold and why most of the customers are keep looking around and seems waiting for the food. During payment, same girl staffwho is apologetic assisted me to settle my bills. I over heard customers following up their orders.

Here's my advise.

1. During special events- pls ensure you do have more than enough staff both kitchen and service. Think ahead of time. You can avoid giving offdays and rejecting request.
2. Train people how to handle stress.
3. Pre planned or do a shift briefing before opening and make a scenario of possible situation may happened.
4. Make sure that MOD(manager on duty) is visible. He or she is the first defense for the feedback and seevice recovery. By right she or he need to engage to every customers.
5. Check your inventory and planned ahead of time. We wanted Okoy and Spring chicken but the staff mention it was item 86. Thats why we settled on fresh lumpia and the fried pork(i forgot the menu name) as appetizer.

Btw..

Kudos to the mestiza lady that was apologetic to us. She was the only person i think who run the show on that night base on my observation.

2nd person was the bar guy, who I beleived received all the pressure from getting all the drinks order, serving the drink, and clearing tables.

3rd The security uncle who really do his job well assisting customers at the parking area. And moving around bringing his whiteboard to ask the owner of the car.

Thank you to the 3 person above.

The rest, they need to be calibrate.

Fyi. Its my fifth times on that day. Previous dining experience were all good. I even brought my Singaporean Colleague here. Maybe, there are lack of preparations or IDK.

PS. The temperature at the alfresco is hotter than the food that was served. Except the plain rice.