Ate at MAX Restaurant, SM Mall of Asia, last December 26, 2010 to celebrate my mom’s birthday. Not too fancy but wishing to be able to get good food and good service as their reputation for the past years dictates.
The restaurant was not as full for the Mall just opened. It was about 10:30 so people was just coming in from a tiring celebration the day before.
Just the two of us, my mom and I, so we ordered their famous fried chicken (regular), fresh lumpiang ubod and pancit bihon. Just house water to go with it for we will be going to have coffee after.
Bad service already started when we have to wait for about 20 minutes before the first two order came. Fried chicken and lumpiang ubod came with our plain rice. Hungry, we cannot wait for the pancit so we decided to start off with what’s on the table.
I noticed that the chicken was so dry looked like it had been cooked or re-heated at least twice. Some of the chicken parts was so dry and burned you cannot eat any meat from them. But my mom said, that’s how their chicken is served (normally). Hungry… so I let it go.
So, My mom started with the lumpiang ubod which she ordered because she wanted to have vegetables, but to her surprise, the lumpia was served without the greens. Just the ubod. We called the waiter’s attention to this to ask the cook if this is really how the lumpia is served. Contrary to the picture presented in the menu which should come with lettuce, we waited for their response. The waiter seemed to “forgot” to ask the kitchen so we call to get their attention again. The waiter then went to the kitchen and came back to us saying “we usually serve the lumpiang ubod with the greens, but we seem to have no stock of the greens this morning”… still they served it and didn’t bother to inform us before hand. So we returned the lumpia and cancelled it.
After some time, the noodles arrived. Just to see that the small sized noodle was so small that even a kid won’t get full from it. Anyway, the size was just part of the problem, we ordered for BIHON but they served us CANTON. Again, we call for the waiter’s attention. They checked the order given, looked confused, and checked on their record. After which, she came back, grab the plate and left. I asked if she got it wrong or the kitchen made the mistake. She didn’t say a word and just left. So we are left hanging, are they going to change the menu or we will just cancel it? Come to think of it, she even repeated all the order before sending the list to the kitchen… duh!
WE already lost our appetite and it took another 15 to 20 minutes before the BIHON arrived. So we decided to grab the check, and get out of there.
So the check came and I paid with my card. I also asked my mom, “you still going to use your senior’s discount?” she replied with an irritating voice, “of course, with all this? Our money didn’t get its worth!”
So when another waiter came with the receipt, he went to my mom for her to sign for the senior discount, then he just placed the card on the table and left. I grabbed the pen to sign the card bill when the waiter suddenly turn around, went back to the table, grabbed the pen from my hand and left. Looking at me as if saying “give me back my pen, that’s mine”. I called on to him and said “I was not able to sign the card yet. “ he seemed confused and surprised. I said, “You want us to leave here without paying the bill?“ then the waiter realized his fault and asked me to sign the f*** card.
I have filled out a comment card and asked where the store manager is. I want to make sure that the manager receives the comment card so he may know what’s been going on. To my surprise, at 11:15, the store manager is still nowhere to be found and the waiter have no idea what time he will be arriving.
I then found out that the MAX RESTAURANT in MOA is a franchise. Hopefully, that is the only branch with the crappy service and crew. Or else, their reputation will surely go downhill sooner or later. But personally, I will NOT enter another MAX RESTAURANT ever again. There are other restaurants with better service and better food quality that will give your money’s worth and MAX is NOT one of them.
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