Qualification: Impeccable Customer Service

friday nights are usually reserved for dinner and nightout with friends. whenever i have to go out, i often ask if we can have it on a friday so i don't have to be a killjoy when i need to leave by 9pm since there's work the next day.

last friday was booked for K, C and M. dinner was at banana leaf, as agreed with K. it was my second time and though my first one was a disaster, to say the least, i was willing to give the new restaurant another chance. banana leaf is among the several new restaurants that opened at the ayala terraces. cuisine is asian fusion and though a bit on the pricey side, their food is yum yum. but customer service is horrible.

the first time i was there, the rotti, which is an appetizer, was served during dessert. and we had to wait for 30 minutes (after the first batch of food was served) for two of our dishes. their waitresses were not alert to refill our drinks and most of the staff weren't friendly. when i subtlely raised my concern, i was assured by one of their friendlier waitresses that it was only that day when their kitchen staff's a little slow. "karon ra gyd ni mam," was what she told me. i jokingly said that their chef might be having a bad day. we let it go because it was their first week anyway and well, there's always room for improvement.

fast forward to last friday, a month or so after my first visit, i was aghast to discovered that they still have the same unfriendly and uber slow service. we ordered three dishes. the first two, grilled squid and kangkong, were served a little after 15 minutes. we started eating because C, K's husband, still has work. 20 minutes later, we made a follow up on the third dish, clams in chili sauce, if i remember it right. we were told it would be ready in 2 minutes. 1, 2, 3, 5, 10 minutes after, there's still no clams in chili sauce on our table. we then decided to cancel the order and ask for our bill. para tagam ba. K did all the talking because she was the braver one. hahaha.

the waitress appeared on our table after we called out to another staff that we want our bill. she asked if we'd cancel the order and we said, "yes." that was when she started her monologue. she requested if we can just cancel our "cancellation" and bring the dish home instead since the cost of it would be deducted from her salary. softhearted as we are, we looked at one another and tried considering our decision but medyo lisod na. we said, "no, we're done eating. we don't want it anymore."

we can sense her fear when she left our table. then she came back, with the manager in tow. the manager reiterated the request if we can just bring home the order instead of cancelling it because the waitress would have to pay for it. we were like, "what the?" K explained that we understand that it's not the waitress' fault but it's not ours, either. they didn't serve the order on time and there wasn't even an apology for it. we were expecting the manager to apologize for the service but instead, he was asking us to pay for the food we didn't, and don't want to eat anymore! the waitress almost begged, "mam, sir, please give me a chance." i was heartbroken because i understood her situation, she didn't have control over the kitchen but our point is, it's the restaurant or the management's problem. eventually we gave in and had the dish wrapped and ready for take out.

before we left, K gave the manager a big piece of her mind. you see, it wasn't the first time. and we eat out often enough to know that not all restaurants have the same lousy service as banana leaf offers to their customers. i was irritated at how the manager handled the situation. other restos would profusely apologize for the inconvenience and would even offer to give the food for free. but what did this banana leaf manager do? helped his waitress beg for us to take out the food, no explanation whatsoever. i don't think he knows the responsibility his position entails.

i don't know if i'd ever go back there. yes, the food is delicious but eating there stresses me so much. and you know what they say, that even if you serve the most tempting cuisine yet your service sucks, you're bound to go down the drain. so i say, good luck banana leaf.

trying to forget the dinner fiasco, we trooped to coffee bean and tea leaf for our nightcap. i am not allowed to have coffee but i drink decaf fraps. my absolute fave is starbucks' decaf caramel frap. i asked the CBTL's cashier upon ordering if they do decaf for their ice blended drinks. he said, "yes" so i ordered one decaf caramel ice blended drink. when i claimed my order, i double checked if it's indeed decaf. the staff answered, "ay mam sorry, we don't have decaf for the ice blended drinks." what the?? are you gonna kill me? and he didn't even sound sorry.

i took a deep breath, counted 1 to 5 and said, "okay, you should've told me earlier. the cashier said you do decaf but anyway, it's all right." i wasn't about to lose my cool on a P135 drink. but it took so much for me to resist the urge of saying something not so nice to the cashier. so i drank the coffee but knowing how much i'm gonna suffer later, i only finished 1/4 of it. i had palpitations until saturday afternoon.

establishments like banana leaf and CBTL (but it was the first time i had a bad experience there so maybe i can still forgive them) should really start working on improving their service. nowadays, people are more aware that they deserve good customer service than anything else. i used to let things like these pass by but lately, i have been more outspoken and more aggressive. we are paying customers, we deserve nothing less than impeccable service. and if you can't give us that, then we're heading off to the next restaurant. and i bet, the food there is way, way better than yours.