Because my wife Ilyn and I really enjoyed the food at Shanghai Palace (San Benito, Alaminos, Laguna), we decided to bring my mom and dad there for lunch on Mother's Day. (See my first review of Shanghai Palace here.)
What Ilyn really loved about her first stay was the Mango Sago dessert. She just absolutely freaked out over it. I really don't recall too many times she similarly freaked out over any kind of food, so she was really eager to come back. She told me that she didn't care what I ordered, as long as she got her Mango Sago.
I wish I could say this second go round at Shanghai Palace was a great one. Unfortunately, it wasn't. If fact, it was kind of bad. It wasn't an absolute disaster by any means as there are plenty of good things to say about it, but there are also some really bad ones.
Anyway, we arrived at the place at 11:45 in the morning. The place was about half full. That was quite a surprise at the time because every time we passed by this place it never really seemed to have that many people. But very soon the place will be filled to capacity, leaving other people standing around waiting to get seats.
I suppose I shouldn't really be that surprised since it is, after all, Mother's Day, and other people were celebrating Mother's Day as well. My mom and my aunt met a lot of people they knew over there so that was great.
I got kind of worried because the first time we were there, it took 30 minutes for our food to arrive, and that was when there was hardly any people there. This time it was full. I wondered how long we were going to wait. I didn't have to wonder too long because the surprise of the day is, all our orders came in within 15 minutes. Which was definitely a surprise. And a very welcome one.
I ordered the Hakaw because I really liked that the first time. This time I added Lumpiang Shanghai, Chop Suey, Miki Bihon and Shrimp Brocolli. The lumpia was really nice, although they forgot to give us the sweet and sour dipping sauce. It took two follow-ups and 10 minutes for them to bring it. By that time we already ate half of it. I had asked for chopsticks, and it never came. Never bothered to follow up because it's becoming obvious to me that the wait staff was starting to get overwhelmed by the amount of people who arrived. I'm told later that they only had 5 people on the wait staff and that made it kind of difficult for them to handle so many people.
After the main meal, we ordered our dessert. I ordered two Mango Sago for me and Ilyn. My mom wanted the Lychee with the Almond Jelly but the almond jelly wasn't available. It wasn't available the first time we were there either. I wonder why. So my mom and aunt ordered simply the Lychee. My dad ordered Buchi.
We had been waiting for some 30 minutes when a waiter came to our table, noticing that we were no longer eating. I thought he was going to tell us of the status of our dessert, but instead, he asked if we wanted our bill. What the hell? Immediately, I felt really hot in the face. Meaning I got really mad. I mean, it was already obvious to me that our desert was now taking much much longer to arrive than our main meal, and I was already starting to get restless. And now THIS?
They were actually trying to hurry us up and go? Because that certainly how it felt. Our dessert hasn't even arrived yet! They were probably getting really harassed because there were a lot of people arriving and there were no longer any seats. They were probably eager to get people going once they were done.
But guess what? We weren't done. And we weren't going to BE done until they bring us our dessert.
Later, this same waiter came back and said that our order wasn't rung up on the kitchen and was ready to take our order again. What The Hell. Thankfully, the original waitress who took our order passed by and she confirmed that our order was indeed rung up in the kitchen. So ok, we waited some more.
My dad's Buchi was the first to arrive, followed some 10 minutes later by mom and aunt's Lychee. By this time it was already 45 minutes since we first ordered dessert. Surprisingly, they gave my mom an extra Mais Con Yelo, as a kind of a Mother's Day thing, which was nice. We follow-up our Mango Sago. Nothing yet.
It was getting close to an hour and our Mango Sago hasn't arrived yet. Ilyn was getting visibly upset. By upset I mean she was no longer smiling and she's being very quiet. And that is very unusual for her. That means she was very mad.
Close to an hour and more than five followups, Ilyn has had enough. She went to the counter and said that if the Mango Sago still wasn't ready after almost an hour, then they just better cancel it. Apparently, after ALMOST AN HOUR the Mango Sago was unbelievably STILL NOT READY. So they agreed to cancel it. Unbelievable. Absolutely unbelievable.
I really can't even begin to describe how frustrating that is, and how upsetting it was to Ilyn, who went to Shanghai Palace specifically so she can have that Mango Sago again. That's the only thing she went there for, guys. THAT is the only thing. And for some strange reason you just won't give it to her. That's just screwed up. Really screwed up.
They were sorry, but I'm sorry Shanghai Palace, apologies aren't really enough. Words aren't going to be enough. You owe my wife MORE than that. You really have to make it up to my wife. How? Well, it's really going to have to be up to you, isn't it? Because until you do something, WE ARE NOT COMING BACK, and we will share this story with ALL our friends. Which is too bad because we do enjoy your food. But based on how many people were eating there today, I'm sure you won't miss us anyway, so we're not really expecting any response. After all, sino ba kami?
In any case, if you want get in touch my wife, you can contact her through her twitter: https://twitter.com/ilynflorese
You know, Shanghai Palace, you really ruined Mother's Day for us. We tried not to show how frustrated we were to my Mom and Dad, who were perfectly happy to eat there, but we're transparent people and they could tell how upset we were. So Mother's Day was tainted for them as well.
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