Cafe Mary Grace - Serendra — Restaurant in Taguig

Walked in to Mary Grace during lunch, seeking for some comfort food. It was almost full, but I managed to get a seat. The staff are very accomodating and hospitable. The food was served within a reasonable period (15-20 minutes). I ordered Classic Carbonara, Wild Rsspberry Tea, and Caramel Vanilla Bean Cake.

The Classic Carbonara was too classic, so to speak. It was a bit on the bland side, even for my standards in seasoning which is on the lesser side of the scale.

The Raspberry Tea, however, was refreshing and flavorful. You won't like it when you get to the last drop. It's that good! It even had actual raspberries in it!

Finally, the Caramel Vanilla Bean Cake was very good, but not good enough to put a glimmer in my eyes. It is a 4-layer chiffon (or sponge?) cake with 2 types of different icings for the outer and inner parts of the cake. The sides are sprinkled with what tastes like crushed lengua de gato. You can taste that it was only made with high quality ingredients, compared to commercially-sold cakes.

I shall return again for the desserts and drinks. But I may have to go...

I am a regular patron of this cafe to the point that I have memorized their menu. Been happy with the food and service of different branches. However, the experience we just had from this branch changed my view about their service. My order of chicken inasal came with cassava chips instead of potato chips and I was not informed upon ordering. When I asked to replace the dip to onion, which is the usual dip when you order cassava chips, I was told that there’s an P80 charge. Tess, the manager came but instead of resolving the concern, explained the same thing about the charge. That was SO CHEAP! She was not empowered to decide and do recovery on the mistake of a staff. Their signage on the table that says to reach out to the manager for any concerns is useless as the manager (Tess) cannot even resolve a very simple concern. Please ensure you hire qualified managers who can do the job, knows what service is and empowered to decide. Totally turn off with the...

Lower ground of SM Aura. Relatively small branch compared to it's other branches but service is still good.

I liked their Apple pies before but I'm not sure if the recipe changed because it wasn't as good as I remembered it. I've tried a lot of their cakes as well, some of the good ones I can remember are the ones with mangoes (pictured), the strawberry shortcake and of course the classic chocolate cake - can't go wrong with either of these, especially with coffee (black please).

They're a bit (relatively) on the pricier side of deserts, very similar to Contis if you've ever been there, so take that into consideration if you're planning to eat here.

Btw, they also serve other types of food asides from deserts and pastries but for the life of me, nothing stands out (IMO) so didn't really focus my review there, just thought to write it there just in case you...