United Steaks of Disappointment (12.29.11)

While looking for somewhere to eat at Gateway we came upon a restaurant just a stone's throw away from the mall. We haven't seen anything interesting on their directory so we walked over there to take a look.

Unlike other steak joints out there, they are branding themselves as fast food. So don't expect 'to be seated' nor ask for the menu, just stand right there on the cashier to place an order and pay.

How they will ever cook steak that fast is a wonder to me not to mention how the price is truly cheap. For less than 150 you already have a meal of steak with rice and drink of your choice. That's a far cry to the usual cost of 1000 up.

Knowing my BF, he always splurges us both with so much food (hence our weight gain) so he went for the combo meal good for 4. Even the one who took our order had a quick shock when he placed the order. The meal cost was 699 for 2 patties, 2 ribs, 4 glasses of soda and 4 cups of Java rice for 699php.

A minute or two in the wait my regrets start. For an extremely hot day, we just realized that their aircon doesn't work. It doesn't help that they've raised their blinds up to let in more sunshine. When we finally caught the attention of their waitress, she just said that it failed for some reason (thank you Captain Obvious) and 'someone' is already fixing it. What's more annoying is that they haven't had back up of any sorts.

The rice came first. Seeing it with that tiny bowl of thin soup makes me want to snatch my bf and run away. By this alone we now have an idea what we are expecting.

And then came the saddening serving of ribs and patty in one plate (2 pieces each). The ribs are hard to slice and chew. Both doesn't have any memorable taste like as if there ain't no definite recipe they're trying to achieve and what's that sour taste of the meat?

Next served were the chopped wings with a cob of corn. They didn't even bother chopping the corn for share so if you're eating out with a bunch of friends it would be really inconvenient for anyone to man handle the sharing part.

The spicy wings on the other hand was the only redeeming dish there is on the combo, although the breading is spread out too thick. If that doesn't bother you then you might enjoy ordering this more.

There's just too many red flags in this restaurant I really don't enjoy the entire experience I hope management will resolve in the future. Here are keypoints:

1. Their waitresses are much more occupied with their own gossips than our needs, they're not even friendly when we asked to have food for take out (we decided to give it out to street children after).

2. Speaking of take out they just shove everything on one styro box like as if it's pig feed (maybe to save on styro costs).

3. They don't have any plan b in case the aircon doesn't work.

4. Their food is not well tended, and the sour taste could only mean that it's been out of the fridge for too long.

5. They ought to have a pitcher instead of manually serving us our drinks straight from the bottle, they didn't bother to even add ice.

6. While I don't have any say to whatever annoying music they choose to listen to, at least have the decency to tune it a bit down, so they'd be able to hear us more since their counter is obstructed by a wall you will need good luck just to catch their attention.

Verdict? Will not come back ever.