What La Mesa Lacks (12.25.11)

I have raved much about our repeating lovely experience in Mesa at the Megamall Atrium branch and it was one of the restaurants you sure will be proud taking the entire family along so by Christmas day we went to their sister restaurant, La Mesa Grill.

Kare-kare is a staple food for Filipino-based restaurants so we got that. It was served on a shallow plate unlike the usual deep clay pots standard for the dish.

We also had their mixed platter with chicken, pork and seafood. I reckon this is a better choice than order so many dishes and have the usual issue of take out. It is just okay with fair sized appetites so better order twice of it if you must. As for the taste, well, just your typical grilled food smothered with marinade sauce.

Then the rice. Tinapa and Laing are both winners at Mesa so we ordered them both (would have loved Bagoong rice too but sister is allergic). They are good but they weren't as tasty back in Mesa. Maybe the scrimping of ingredients not sure.

I promised that when we get to finish everything we will order dessert and this is where it got nasty.

My sisters got leche flan and I got the Palitaw w/ chocnut. Leche flan was served easy but mine took around 30 mins to materialize on our table. What was annoying was that we basically told each waiter/waitress that we are waiting for it and no one can give us a definite answer why it's taking so long. As you can see from the pictures the sun is still up and when my order came, sun has almost set.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with the food it's totally fine but how we were served this day is just too awful I will not visit this branch JUST FOR THE SERVICE alone. Fine, I ordered food that MAY take long to make but come on, this is just palitaw, ONE ORDER. It will not take 30 mins just for this. And EVEN if their chef will take that much time JUST to serve us this dessert, it does not make up for the reason that this is such an inconvenience they might just have put some warning to their menu or have their all so 'competent' waiters/esses tell us. I'm so angry at this ordeal that I haven't even taken a photo of it. And you know what? They only panicked when we asked for the tab. Guess they're too scared they have to pay for that dessert in case we left and complained not to pay for it.

There is no way I'm going back to this restaurant at all. I'd just stick to the Mesa I know because no dining is a good experience when the service is that awful.