The 22 Prime restaurant is located on the 22nd floor of the Discovery Suites hotel in Pasig. The 22 Prime restaurant serves as the Discovery Suite's main food and beverage outlet. The view and ambiance are nice, but I am not here to discuss cosmetics. I want to highlight a poorly managed restaurant that has the potential to be something to rave about.
I ordered the Black Truffle Risotto with chicken breast served with mushrooms and parmesan shavings. My daughter ordered the Sirloin Steak with fries.
It took 30 minutes for my Risotto to be served, and surprise! It was cold and rather disgusting. The Risotto was bland, and the consistency was like overcooked oatmeal. There were 3 small pieces of mushroom and a chunk of rancid cheese that was supposed to be the "shaved parmesan". The worst part of my experience was nearly breaking my molar on a bone in the chicken breast. The server stated he would check with the chef and later returned with the most idiotic excuse I have ever heard. "Sir, the boneless piece of chicken breast sometimes has chick bones." This is not at all fully incorrect, as a poorly cut or inspected piece of chicken may be served with unintentional pieces of bones, but this was the size of a chicken wing drum bone. You would figure a manager or chef would visit the table with a correction or apology, but the manager just sat behind the bar flipping receipts.
My daughter placed her order at the same time I did and ordered the sirloin steak with truffle french fries. Special instructions were given to the waitress that no salt or pepper was to be added, as my daughter likes to season on her own. Simple and direct. After my horrible food experience, I followed up with the waitress as 45 minutes had passed and no food had been delivered to my daughter. She advised me that she would go check, but never returned. This is the messed-up part. One of the people on my table ordered the all-you-can-eat steak option and, to test the kitchen, ordered one with no salt and pepper. His steak came out way before my daughter's food. An hour and 15 minutes had passed, and I was completely upset as we had never received her food. I watched a waiter try to sneak behind me and deliver my daughter's food. I immediately jumped up and checked her food. It was cold, overcooked, and over-seasoned. It took the kitchen an hour and a half to make a messed-up steak. I told them to leave it because I wanted to pay for the right to write this review.
The manager did not bother to leave the bar area and sat back, expressing his frustrations to the employees. I was trying to understand why he refused to step up and help his employees. I believe leaders/managers should lead by example and own the responsibility for their employees' actions or inactions. I guess Discover Suites and 22 Prime have a different idea of leadership ethos.
As I sat back completely upset and disgusted, waiting for my party to finish their food, a man who was identified as the general manager of the hotel/restaurant walked in, and I kindly introduced myself and asked if I could speak with him about my experience at 22 Prime. He said yes and began speaking with someone else on the opposite side of our table. I later noticed he slipped around the back to avoid me and exited from the back of the restaurant. I am going to maintain my professionalism and not address his level of cowardice in this review, but attribute it again to the Discover Suites management's ethos.
3 other families attended dinner with us that night and placed their order, but never received their food. Some of them had to order GRAB to get a Jollibee chicken delivered because it was the only thing open at that time. One of the families had the food sent to their room, and it was delivered cold and disgusting. I felt extremely bad for these families as they had smaller children with them. The worst part was that the restaurant charged them for the poor quality food.
A few days later, I received an invitation to attend a "make-up dinner" hosted by the hotel management for the people who were impacted by their lack of quality service. I appreciate any attempt to rectify a bad experience, but the presented dinner was set, cooked in advance, and fell far from exemplary. I will respectfully bite my tongue and delete the details from this dinner.
I was expecting a representative from the hotel/restaurant management to at least do a small presentation or give an apology to the families. This, of course, did not happen and reinforces my opinion of the Discovery Suites management ethos.
I stayed in the hotel for over a week and noticed that this restaurant was never full. Given all the great reviews and location, I would expect this place to be packed every night.
Note to readers: I apologize if this review offends you or contradicts your personal experiences with this establishment. My review is based on factual events and intertwined with my opinions. Thank you for reading, and I hope read more