Definitely NOT employee of the month material…

Last Thursday, Aljude and I went to Robinson’s Place to have dinner. I wanted to go to The Old Spaghetti House (TOSH) for desserts, since their banana split is one of the best I’ve tasted since Magnolia Ice Cream house closed down years ago. We always eat at TOSH’s different branches (Near Greenbelt, Robinsons Pioneer), but I must warn you, the TOSH in Robinson’s Place (Ermita) is like something out of the twilight zone.

So we went to TOSH and this girl escorted us to our seats and gave us the menu. My husband started to order but in mid-sentence, was rudely cut off by the waitress and she brusquely said “sa waiter kayo mag-order.” I was taken aback by the attitude, but decided not to take it against the establishment if one of the waitresses was acting as if she was PMS-ing. We waited a long time for the waiter the girl pointed to us to attend to us because he was flirting with the customer at the other table. We waved at other waiters around but none of them seemed interested in taking our orders. When finally my husband gave our orders to the waiter, he sauntered off to the kitchen. It took them a  looooong time to finally serve the banana split and when they did, the split was already a sorry puddle of strawberry, chocolate and vanilla ice cream. It was literally half-melted. Usually when I’m not happy with the service or the food, I don’t make a scene, I’m not too hard on the waiters at all. I just make a mental note never to go back there again, but what happened after the melted banana split was way too annoying.

After finishing off the sorry excuse for a banana split that they served us, we asked for our bill. Again, it takes them two reminders and a looooooooong time to give us the bill. The waiter who brought the bill to our table was walking slowly. Slowly! Towards the table. Even looking down on his feet, taking his sweet time instead of directly bringing us the bill. I called him and motioned him to come to me instead of zigzagging his way slowly to our table. He picked up his pace a bit. I asked him why it took them so long to give us our bill. He was looking at me blankly. Instead of answering me, he turned and walked away. Now, that, people… that really made me mad. I called him again before he can take two steps away from us, and said “kinakausap pa kita” (I’m still talking to you). He went back to our table, stood in front of me, expressionless. I told him that this was the worst TOSH branch I’ve ever been to. Told him that it took ages for the waiter to take our order, deliver our melted desserts that are seriously not worth eating anymore, took a long time to give us our bill, and then his attitude is so disgusting, he didn’t even bother to apologize. I asked for the manager and he just said that the manager was on break. What kind of half-assed service is that? Believe me, if he had only apologized, or if one of the senior waiters standing around stepped in to apologize for the whole fiasco, I would have let it go in a heartbeat. Seeing that he was obviously not disturbed that a customer is mad about his attitude, the food, and the service, my husband just gave them the exact amount in the bill so we won’t have to wait for our change, got up and left the restaurant, vowing never to go back and telling our friends not to go there either. The Old Spaghetti House in Robinson’s Place Ermita is a disgrace compared to the other outlets.

I had to struggle not to giggle, though, when I imagined myself shaking my fist at the staff of that godforsaken restaurant and screaming, “I’m blogging this!” at them.