Place: Greenwich (SM Fairview)
Date: 31 May 2008

Before I go on with the post, let me just tell that I will insert a new page in this blog that lists all the places I have been to, starting this year. This blog was created in May, so obviously places I have been from January - April hasn’t been blogged yet, but I hope to write an entry about it in the future. I planned on doing a summer 2008 vacation recap, but decided not to; I have a lot of pending posts to write, I cannot insert “miscellaneous” posts as of the moment.

On to the main topic. Towards the end of May, sister and I were asked to do grocery shopping. Living up to my “seize the opportunity” blog battle cry, I asked sister if we could eat at a food place that I still haven’t blogged about, to hit two birds with one stone.

We didn’t have much to spend, so we decided to eat at a fairly reasonable place to eat — Greenwich. I admit, I am not an avid fan of this food place despite the competitive price they have because I have always had a problem with their slow service. I know, I shouldn’t talk bad about something because I might spark up a controversy, but this is hardly criticism, I am just speaking from a customer’s point of view.

I wanted to order the Spaghetti Meatballs meal, but the staff said they don’t have it at the moment. It was still lunch time, and maybe they still weren’t prepared to make the dish. In the end, I ordered the beef cannelloni and chicken plate, while sister had lasagna and chicken plate.

There weren’t too many people in the place, that’s why I started wondering why the order of the man behind me was served first. I did understand that it takes quite sometime for the orders to come up because they still have to prepare the food. I knew that from the start, but then seeing people who came in later than us already eating their food made me a bit annoyed.

But their staff’s courtesy and friendliness was something to commend about. When one of the staff noticed that we’ve been sitting there waiting for our food, he immediately came to our table, talked to us and personally went to the kitchen to follow up our orders. We waited a few more minutes, and after nearly 30 minutes, lunch was served.

It was the first time I ate cannelloni. I still go for spaghetti, but this dish tasted good as well. I love that their filling is very meaty and that white topping (whatever that is) was a good way to tone down the rich taste of the sauce/filling. Their chicken tasted better, too, but I was actually preferring to eat the thigh part. Oh well, maybe it wasn’t available. =)

I paid for the lunch, so sister said she’d buy the desserts because she got so interested in that little advertisement Greenwich had in the table. She got up and was walking to the counter when the same staff came to us and asked if there’s something we needed. I told him my sister was about to order the dessert, but the staff said he’d do it for us. Sister gave him the money and our order — a serving each of Peach Paradise and that other dessert because it only cost 49 pesos per serving. The staff went to the kitchen and got back in our table to tell that the fruits aren’t available yet. Sister decided to order the Brownie Magic instead. After a few minutes, the staff went to our table again to tell that they don’t have ice cream! Bummer.

We don’t have any business there anymore, so we left. I didn’t get mad — it’s just stress, but I cannot understand why in every visit I make in any Greenwich store, there were always problems. I don’t know if I am unlucky, or the store really wasn’t prepared to serve their customers. I don’t understand why at lunch time, they don’t have other ingredients to make up a dish. I do hope that before they open the store, they already have the complete ingredients delivered to avoid problems with the customers.

This isn’t a rant post. This is practically a suggestion because I really would like to eat in Greenwich again. However, I am a bit hesitant because the many problems I have encountered in their stores, I didn’t want to risk my emotions just to eat good food. I just hope that the people running the store would do something about it, because I believe this has been the second time this year that I was hoping to eat Spaghetti Meatballs and failed. I will try again some other time, and I hope I can order that dish already.

*** Jenn **