Only at Renee's ~ A Taste of Pampanga, Philippines — Restaurant in Virginia Beach

When we walk in, the gentleman is very welcoming and let us sit wherever we wanted. The atmosphere here is great, there are many baskets and little plants on the wall, and the tables are all wood with metal chairs etc. As a design student, I appreciate this vintage style of furnishing. It makes me feel comfortable and mordern at the same time.

The menu is not really big but if you are not a Filipino, with a Filipino friend or it's your first time coming here, be prepared to ask a lot of questions about the menu or take a long while to look at the menu because there are many Filipino food names. I ordered bbq chicken with melon(cantaloupe drink) because my friend said she really like their bbq dishes and she ordered the bbq combo too.

The price I paid is fair I would say. I paid $26 with tax and tips for a drink, an entree, and a dessert. There are 4 chicken thighs with two sides in my bbq chicken, which I picked the garlic rice and fried plantains(banana chips). I wish they can provide a 2 piece version of it for lunch with a lower price like a lunch special because 4 thighs for a lunch is too much for me or others.

The drink Melon is a cantaloupe water with shredded contaloupe. It is a perfect drink for summer because it tasted a little sweet and refreshing. However, I recommend them to provide a spoon or something to eat the shredded cantaloupe instead of using our straw to hardly bring them to our mouth. The fried plantains taste fresh, it's even better with dipping the vinegar that comes with it. It's like french fries with ketchup, perfect combination. The garlic rice is too dry but the flavor is good so half half. The flavor of the chicken is really good the sauce is a bit like ketchup with a little barbecue sauce. I also had a little piece of my friend's pork from her bbq combo and I instantly regret that I did not get the combo or just pork because it tasted really good. We also ordered the Ube balls for our dessert. It's actually nothing special, just some purple yam that's sweet amd topped with some shredded crunchy coconut. I would've pick something else if I know it was nothing special.

The only main criticism of my visit is the waiting time for our check. After we had our boxes to pack whatever we didn't finish we waited for about 10 minutes for our bill.

Overall the workers are nice, the atmosphere is nice, the food is not bad, I will definitely come back and try other food if I come...

If I could, I would give this place a 0! I recommended this restaurant to my sisters for lunch and totally regret it!

The whole experience has left a terrible taste in my mouth and will never come here again. Let's start with the atmosphere. When I walked in to add our name on the list, only 1 customer was ahead of me who was upset already that her group of 3 had checked in first and a group of 5 was seated before them. I thought it may have been an oversight on the staff but after experiencing it myself, PLEASE BEWARE.

The way they run their business and how they seat people is atrocious. They'll allow walk-in of 2 people & seat them even if you've been waiting for over an hr for a table and if the customer is friends with someone who works there, expect for them to write in their friend's name ahead of yours even if the group is larger. Then have Uncle with long hair tell you, "that's not what I see on our list." "The List" is on a notebook that doesn't follow the lines and huge spaces between each name and phones numbers.

Also 20% gratuity should not be added if we're waiting for a table for over an hr, we're writing our own orders down, pouring our own water, having to try to get waiters attention multiple times, receiving desserts before the entree, missing the sides to be able to eat the entree, not receiving items that we wrote down, waiting for your drinks until you've eaten most of your food for them to tell you they've ran out of that juice, and them assuming everyone is on the same bill. Also having Uncle long hair get upset that we split the bill.

Some of the plates and utensils were still dirty when brought to the table and the food was subpar. I've had better at filipino parties. The price for the food are not worth it especially with the kare kare, mostly fat and barely any meat. Sisig has no crunch and does not taste great. I've had better and paid half the price which included cooked egg, rice and sinigang soup.

Take your chances if you want. We waited over an hour with terrible service/experience SO I will NEVER recommend this place ever again. JUST TURN AROUND AND DONT...

Unfortunately my expectation for dining here was way too high. It could have potential to be a respected establishment however it is poorly managed/operated. My family and I waited an hour to be seated/was overlooked and sat after others that came after us- this could have been avoided if they had a designated host that stayed up front and managed the wait list. I had hoped the atmosphere and food would have helped change my mind but after being greeted with the most unwelcomed feeling from front staff (mainly older guy with a pony tail) it made me instantly regret staying. It felt more like they were annoyed that we stayed to eat there vs having an authentic filipino family welcomed atmosphere. It just kept going downhill from there- it is unfortunate that after taking our own order by writing down each item we wanted on a notepad, we still had multiple missing items/orders (sad that instead of being apologetic for forgetting the item- the guy with a pony tail was more upset that I no longer wanted the order that was placed and never brought out as well as being annoyed that we wanted to split our bill) on top of all of that we were forced into a 20% gratuity (hope it went to our waiter and kitchen staff only) which in my opinion should be earned based on service not because you chose to dine there with your family and friends. I do respect our waiter (tall young guy with tattoos) for trying and the only one to be apologetic for the wait after ordering and for all the missed/forgotten orders. He and the kitchen staff really tried to turn the experience around but it was way too far gone. Only at Renee's where you pay a premium to be treated like...