Karilagan — Restaurant in South San Francisco

Yesterday was my birthday, and since we haven't gone to Karilagan for months, I really wanted some good Filipino food, and so we went. We enjoyed all the delicious food as usual until I checked the service charge added to our bill without our consent. We love eating here, and my husband and I are good at tipping, but to charge us for over $29 for just 3 people and a baby for a bit over an hour is extreme. It was my very first time seeing "SERVICE CHARGE" on a bill, so I went up to one of the employees and asked what the service charge was for? I was informed that it's mandatory and that it states on their menu, which I failed to see or notice. According to law, staff/workers must inform customers/consumers about additional charges before asking them to order. Well, we were not informed at all. We don't mind tipping good, but it should be decided by us(customers), not workers. Since I confronted them about the charges, they lowered the additonal "SERVICE CHARGE," which it ended to be over $22 dollars. With the service that we received, I don't think it's worth that much. They should at least help customers pack the leftovers if they are going to charge this much. Since I was so curious about this whole "SERVICE CHARGE" thing, I research about it and found out that as of July 1, 2024, IT IS ILLEGAL TO CHARGE AUTOMATIC SERVICE CHARGE IN RESTURANTS IN CALIFORNIA. Anyone who is still charging an automatic service charge can lead to a lawsuit. BEWARE RESTURANTS OWNERS. We understand that servers are underpaid, and that is why most people tip well, like ourselves. However, you can't do illegal things and lose customers by it. We will decline additional service in the future. Tips should come from the heart and should be decided by how well customers are served.

Overall, food was still good but not...

I came from a night shift duty; me and my wife decided to eat outside because we don’t have time to cook and prepare food for us and for our toddler as well. We usually go to Max’s restaurant (because they served filipino foods far better than any other Filipino restaurants here in South San Francisco area). As we passed by Max’s, there’s a restaurant that caught our eyes just before the restaurant and its called “Karilagan”, we decided to try their food but to our suprise, it’s not that scrumptious as what it depicts in the pictures on their website, my wife jokingly said to me: “ MAS MASARAP PA AT MAS NAUUBOS KO PA ANG LUTO MO DAD KESA DITO SA LUTO NILA”.. which I replied: “sabi ko na sayo mag Max’s nalang tayo eh!”, after eating a portion of every meal that we ordered, we decided to asks for “to go boxes” to bring home all the leftovers, we even asks for our bill, and to our surprise there’s a certain thing as “SERVICE CHARGE” which on our part did not expected it that is included in our bill, they never told us beforehand and this is our first time to hear about this thing. As far as I know, it is not allowed to charge a customer without their consent apart from the overcharge from their food. I attached here the article that states about “service charge” for everyone’s information. After this day, me and my wife decided not to come back in this restaurant again,...

All is good n excellent but one thing I didn't like is when they post they're time to be open till 8pm and we arrive at 7:20 they said they're already closed. Just bcuz they have enough customer inside. I'm almost sure they'll take us if the place is empty. But whether they're busy or not if u arrive at 7:30 they won't take you. PLS. CHANGE YOUR CLOSING TIME TO 7:30 PM IF YOUR NOT ACCEPTING CUSTOMER SINCE WE CAME FROM FAR SIDE OF THE City N EXPECTING WE CAN MAKE IT AT 7:30 ONLY TO BE TURN DOWN. The worst thing is that after my review was posted went back to dine in, we arrive at 7:05 ask for table and she responded by saying let me ask the people inside if we can serve and finally they let us dine in. We order tinola n bangus. They said maybe they're out of bangus, she check the kitchen n said ok they have it. Tinola that was serve was the worst tinola I ever had it was obviously stale n old , I end up with diarrhea, n didn't even touch it. It is a retaliation from my past review. I would never go back there worried theyll served me with I don't know what. Sorry for doing this honest review. I used to like it only complain I had is the business hours posted on their door but now I can't take any chances of how wicked they could react of...