our experience at PBR

To satisfy your curiosity on my post regarding Pampanga’s Binalot Restaurant, allow me to share with you what happened. Don’t worry, I didn’t make a scene or anything. I’m not the type of person who confronts others or points out their flaws directly to their face...that’s why I decided to blog about it so that others would be aware. For those who still wish to try out the restaurant after reading this, well, I’m not warning anyone, but at least you know what to expect. And if you’re unfortunate to go through what we experienced, I hope you’ll have the guts to tell the people there how much they fail in the service department.

We arrived at 7:08pm to a restaurant with all its tables full with approximately 12 diners already there. Luckily, there was one vacant table just below where the TV was, so that’s where we seated ourselves. Unfortunately, even though the place was packed, we couldn’t find anyone we could give our orders to; no one was at the counter!

After around 15 minutes, a lady came out and served the food to the early comers or took everyone else’s orders...everyone’s that is, except ours. We tried to get her attention by calling her and waving, but she was busy and didn’t look our way. I was like, are we invisible or something?!

Finally, I told Ate Cel to go to the lady (I didn’t bother to get her name) and tell her our orders. However, out of their 12 binalot choices on the menu, only 2 were available (imagine!). So, we told her that we’ll settle for 1 tapa and 2 adobos. You’d have thought that with a simple order as that, they would have loads of it ready and it would be served right away. But NOOOOO...we got our food past 8pm…and it wasn’t even right! She gave us 1 adobo and 2 tapas. Jeez! It’s a good thing Ate Cel wasn’t that particular so she just settled with the other tapa.

Beside our table, a group had just finished and requested for the bill. When they checked, they told her that there was an item that they didn’t order; she told them to disregard that. Checking their bill further down, they noticed another item that they were wrongly charged for, so she told them to disregard that as well. Sheesh!

Back to our table...since it had taken so much time for the food to reach our table, we had expected it to be smoking hot. We were wrong. It was hot, yes, but it was like the banana leaves were the ones that had been cooked and the ready-made contents just got its heat from the leaves. Hay! In fairness though, the food was good and really tasted like “homemade Pinoy”.

After some time, hubby took a bottle of water from their fridge and then requested the lady for 3 glasses. The good thing is she gave them right away. What surprised me was how she gave them: in her left hand, she held one of them properly, but she put her thumb, index and middle fingers of her left hand INSIDE THE 2 OTHER GLASSES to carry them! I was so disgusted!!! I was too shocked to do or say anything so I just told hubby about it. Unfortunately, he didn’t want to make a fuss because the waitress looked exhausted and he felt a bit sorry for her. So we shared the one clean glass and Ate Cel opted to drink whatever was left from the bottle after we were done. Oh well!

Really, our experience there was a big disappointment. The service was veeeeeeeery slow and the people working at the restaurant DIDN'T SMILE AT ALL! The place was full, ok fine. We could understand that one person cannot wait on all the tables by herself and respond promptly, especially during peak times. But she should have at least gotten things right and she should at least know how to handle glasses properly, right?!

If the staff at Pampanga’s Binalot Restaurant continue this way, I wouldn’t be surprised if they decide na ibalot ang restaurant!