café rizal - rizal park hotel

it’s christmas time and people look forward to meeting friends whom they haven’t for a long time due to busy schedules. now, a group of friends would like to maintain a “meeting place” to be somewhere of the best ambiance, gastronomic experience when it comes to the food, and superb guest service to make that once a yeardinnera memorable one.

rizal park hotel’s cafe rizal came to mind. the beautiful interiors, after its renovation and conversion to a hotel, have been beautifully exposed online, luring ignorant people like us to consider and give their place a visit, again in this once a year gathering. oh the regrets.

interiors / ambiance
an easy 5/5 if i were to rate it. from the outside, the interiors shout of simplicity and elegance, every angle is instagram worthy and you can’t help but take shots of the place. it’s christmas time and their tree is beautifully placed as a centerpiece in their small lobby. lighting and the audio system on point.

food and service 1/5
this is where the beauty of the interiors get pulled really into the lowest low. think we were overreacting? it really spoiled everything for us.

we didn’t have problems with booking a table for 10 pax. one of our friends contacted them ahead of time.

we arrived 7:30pm and ourdinnerwas served around 9:30pm. here’s when our experience started spiraling towards disappointment.

1. our orders were taken by someone who seem to be not confident and not aware of the food items in the menu.
2. after placing our orders, they had to spend 10-20 minutes before they go back to inform us the food we want to eat is not available. it was okay during the first dish not available but when they had to come back three times (yes three separate occasions) to inform us that three different dishes were not available, you know something’s wrong. and this fiasco delayed all our orders to 9:30pm.
3. understaffed servers. the refilling of water is supposed to be done reflexively. too bad this resto never showed us this, instead had us keep on calling the servers (too busy and far from our table) numerous times to the point of requesting them to leave a pitcher with us. hay.
4. no restaurant manager available for us to voice out our concerns. why should this happen?
5. they charged us service tax for an almost no service experienced. when we complained, they gave us poor quality cake to apologize for this.

to be fair, their food’s taste was acceptable but not right for the expensive pricing. i got jimmy’s choice bla bla which arrived to be spicy spareribs with yangchow fried rice which initially lacked the vinegar that supposed to come with it. the personnel gave me vinegar from their buffet table, what a joke.

merry christmas to rizal park hotel, hope you guys get to read this review for your improvement. it was really a bad night and i sincerely hope other guests don’t experience the disaster we did.

we checked in at rizal park hotel and decided to have lunch anddinnerhere to make the most out of our staycation. for lunch, we had:

beef and wanton noodles — broth was pretty good, serving size is good for 2 people
kare kare — ox tripe with beef. the sauce is really good but not enough for 3 people :d
— p1200

dinner:

1/2 pound burger — pure beef, no extenders. comes with salad and fries
pork sinigang w rice — super sour which is how i like it
— p1100

prices are not bad for a hotel restaurant with amazing ambience and very friendly staff.

the variety of food actually exceeds my expectation. spread of seafood 🦞 🦐 🐟 was delightfully satisfying. the ambiance of a buffet spread that is very relaxing as it should always be. no elbow to elbows o the counters. people/ guest are very polite. the hotel staff were very courteous and accommodating. i will definitely return here fordinnernext time. 😉😊

we celebrated christmas evedinnerbuffet at cafe rizal and all the selections of food is at par with the current buffet leader vikings and taste wise spot on excellent. normally we base it on roast meat carving cheese board selection salmon slice quality and the chinese dimsum and ofcourse desert. it is value for money plus nice ambiance. try it and like us we enjoyed the spread. if your in a group of 16 like we are book the vip room for added privacy. recomendations roasted ribeye rolled porklechon with paella salmon gravlax macaroni and cheese japanese siomai assorted cheese chocolate balls avocado icecream ube creme brulee is the topper. price 1500+ per head. drinks included are coffee and tea. go with a bottle of chilled sweet chilean white wine at 1k. excellent.

rizal park hotel is an early 1900s building whose elegant restoration is still on-going. it's most beautiful at night, and thedinnerbuffet at cafe rizal provides a variety of dishes that vary from day-to-day, satisfying both the calorie-conscious or the ravenous post-duty doctor. the service is attentive and cheerfully efficient. thedinnerbuffet was surprisingly just php 1500 per person. parking space is plenty. my rating for this original visit: 4 stars

so, after several different visits over the past months since my original impression, i was so sadly disappointed last 2018 june 8 when i brought family of 8 persons to dinner. my 85 year-old aunt decided on a la carte, since she was not too hungry. her food arrived, after much follow-up, 30 minutes later! she was not happy with the way the salmon looked, so sent it back for additional cooking. another 15 minutes. luckily, her grandkids were around her, otherwise she’d be speaking in ilonggo to me and the staff! the restaurant was less than half full that evening, just to put things in perspective.

the buffet selection was ok, although there was less seafood choices for grilling. the last straw i had was when the restaurant had no working credit card terminal/device working! i paid in cash but my aunt kept asking what kind of place was this restaurant...

i called the attention of the manager, who could do nothing but apologize. my original rating for this restaurant was 4 stars then but after thisdinnerwith balikbayan family, i’ve changed my mind. will no longer be a frequent patron anytime soon.

the place is lovely and cozy. buffet is quite expensive, lunch @1,400+ anddinner@1,900+, but choices are just limited. a few hits but a lot misses and desserts tasted ok if only those were served in an ordinary restaurants, but for a hotel buffet standard, they really need a lot of improvements, taste and presentation wise. service is superb though. their buffet may be on the steep range but surprisingly, the prices for their a la carte menu are quite reasonable. will definitely go back not for their buffet but to try the a la carte meals.