The service is as unorganized and frazzled as everyone says, and the food is pretty good on average but not so amazing that I'd want to come back anytime soon.
We enjoyed the sisigs the most, and out of the pork, squid, and chicken sisigs, the pork was definitely the best. When I called ahead to order (more on that later), I was asked if we wanted it mild or spicy, and we got one spicy and the other mild, but when we got the food, we could barely taste the difference between spicy/mild...so what I'm saying is, don't be afraid to ask for spicy...if they ask you (when we tacked on a 3rd sisig, they didn't ask how we wanted it).
The lechon kawali (fried pork belly) was well fried, and I liked the crispy skin, but some of the pieces were so fatty (more than half fat), that even the best of our eaters couldn't handle it and had to cut out the fat by the end.
The kare kare was pretty good -- I liked the peanut flavor, and the oxtail was cooked well...very tender.
The lumpia shanghai were pretty standard...nothing special.
The short ribs were battered and fried, which I was not expecting. This was an item we added on, so maybe I was just gassing out, but I didn't enjoy this dish that much (but will admit I'm not the biggest fan of fried beef).
The bihon was fine, but also nothing special.
Finally, for dessert we had the turon, and those were really delicious.
TLDR: get the pork sisig and turon.
Now, on to the experience. We called to make a reservation, and were told to call ahead with our food order, as wait times (for food alone after being seated) could be over an hour, so I followed their advice and placed our food order earlier in the day.
We noticed an empty table when we walked in, and rightfully assumed it was our reserved table, but no one got around to clearing the table or asking us to sit until 5 minutes after our reservation time, which isn't horrible, but it was the first sign of inefficiency (we were there early and just stood there staring at what was going to be our table).
After being seated, our food did come out relatively quickly, but it was all lukewarm. I guess it was made in advance and just left on a warmer somewhere. The sisigs were definitely not sizzling. We tried to ask a server for water, and he looked quite frazzled and said to go to the counter. So we went to ask for water and reminded them of our iced tea order, which we placed right before sitting down. The water came, but the iced tea didn't come until 2 reminders later, after we were almost done with our meal. After a few initial bites, we did go back to the counter to place an order for more food, as the portion sizes looked to be on the small side. The follow-on order came about 35 minutes later, which was better than we expected and actually hot this time.
All in all, food was decent, but given the hectic experience, I think I'd wait until they get their act together before visiting again.
We enjoyed the sisigs the most, and out of the pork, squid, and chicken sisigs, the pork was definitely the best. When I called ahead to order (more on that later), I was asked if we wanted it mild or spicy, and we got one spicy and the other mild, but when we got the food, we could barely taste the difference between spicy/mild...so what I'm saying is, don't be afraid to ask for spicy...if they ask you (when we tacked on a 3rd sisig, they didn't ask how we wanted it).The lechon kawali (fried pork belly) was well fried, and I liked the crispy skin, but some of the pieces were so fatty (more than half fat), that even the best of our eaters couldn't handle it and had to cut out the fat by the end.
The kare kare was pretty good -- I liked the peanut flavor, and the oxtail was cooked well...very tender.
The lumpia shanghai were pretty standard...nothing special.
The short ribs were battered and fried, which I was not expecting. This was an item we added on, so maybe I was just gassing out, but I didn't enjoy this dish that much (but will admit I'm not the biggest fan of fried beef).
The bihon was fine, but also nothing special.
Finally, for dessert we had the turon, and those were really delicious.
TLDR: get the pork sisig and turon.
Now, on to the experience. We called to make a reservation, and were told to call ahead with our food order, as wait times (for food alone after being seated) could be over an hour, so I followed their advice and placed our food order earlier in the day.
We noticed an empty table when we walked in, and rightfully assumed it was our reserved table, but no one got around to clearing the table or asking us to sit until 5 minutes after our reservation time, which isn't horrible, but it was the first sign of inefficiency (we were there early and just stood there staring at what was going to be our table).
After being seated, our food did come out relatively quickly, but it was all lukewarm. I guess it was made in advance and just left on a warmer somewhere. The sisigs were definitely not sizzling. We tried to ask a server for water, and he looked quite frazzled and said to go to the counter. So we went to ask for water and reminded them of our iced tea order, which we placed right before sitting down. The water came, but the iced tea didn't come until 2 reminders later, after we were almost done with our meal. After a few initial bites, we did go back to the counter to place an order for more food, as the portion sizes looked to be on the small side. The follow-on order came about 35 minutes later, which was better than we expected and actually hot this time.
All in all, food was decent, but given the hectic experience, I think I'd wait until they get their act together before visiting again.
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