I'm always a little skeptical about going to a Chinese restaurant in Manila but decided to try Hap Chan because a friend told us that this was their go-to Chinese restaurant.
First off, the food was only 2-stars. We ordered salted fish and chicken fried rice, beef noodles, half fried chicken, chinese broccoli, shrimp dumplings, pork dumplings, soup, and deep fried squid. The best thing we ordered was the fried chicken but definitely not worth going back.
I'm giving this restaurant 1-star because the service was pretty bad. Here's what happened...
Even though we ordered salted fish and chicken fried rice, the waiter gave us shrimp and pork fried rice. At first I just thought it was the correct dish but just tasted and looked the way it did because it was crappy Chinese restaurant and this was their pathetic version of salted fish and chicken fried rice even though there were obvious pieces of pork and shrimp (note: salted fish and chicken fried rice is never cooked with pork or shrimp). But my family was convinced that the waiter gave us the wrong dish so we checked with the same waiter to make sure that this was what we ordered. He confirmed that it was.
After a few more minutes, we were certain that the waiter had given us the wrong dish. When we told the same waiter and asked where was the salted fish and chicken, he proceeds to take the serving spoon and stir the dish around and eventually scoops up a piece of shrimp and tells us that that was the chicken. If that was the case, then chicken in the Phillipines looks like shrimp everywhere else in the world!
Anyway, after some more unnecessary back and forth the manager eventually came and told us that we'd be getting the actual dish we ordered (instead of a random dish our waiter decided to give us). My issue is that if the waiter just acknowledged the mistake and took the dish back rather than trying to convince us that it was what we ordered, I wouldn't be so determined to provide this review.
After everything except for the noodle had arrived, we reminded the same waiter that we were still waiting on our final dish. He told us that it was coming.
After a few minutes, we told another waiter that we were waiting on a final dish but this time he actually went to the kitchen to find out what was happening. Our initial waiter came back only to tell us that the order had not been placed (even after we reminded him!).
The food itself was pretty disappointing but the service was completely unacceptable. Mistakes happen, trying to cover it up or pretending nothing is wrong is not how to deal with them. read more