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 year dinner a 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 our dinner was 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. norestaurantmanager 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 and dinner here 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 hotelrestaurantwith amazing ambience and very friendly staff.

i came here with my family on a saturday morning for the breakfast buffet. the hotel is beautiful and elegant looking from the lobby. therestaurantwas no different. i enjoyed the corned beef and garlic fried rice, as well as the eggs benedict and waffles. i know i ate other things which i’m sure were good as well. service was great. they made sure we didn’t have plates piling up.

the reason this review is 4 stars is really for the detox shots. i haven’t been to any buffet that has this many detox shots. they were very yummy and the sign about them were informative. this really made this place stand out!

we came here yesterday for lunch after availing a discount voucher from metrodeal and overall, it was an excellent experience.

ambiance - 5/5
the hotel itself was very elegant, despite being named after rizal, the interior and exterior gives off such a luxurious vibe. i can say that its like an old spanish house with its decor and interior. the cafe was neat and well lit, the color schemes being white and gold made it look even more elegant. i never wanted to leave the place!

food quality - 4/5
everything we got from the buffet was delicious. a few that made us come back for more were the hakaw, chicken feet, yang chow fried rice, sesame buchi, rib eye, tempura, french onion soup and the roast chicken. a very memorable one i got was the chinese steamed bun with braised pork belly inside with lettuce, it had these crushed peanuts inside which gave it a sweet and nutty twist.

food variety - 3.5/5
although everything we got tasted good, i find their buffet choices to be a bit lacking. they didn't have much seafood dishes, their desserts only had a few choices, and most of their food can be found at every other buffet. whenever i try new restaurants, i always want to discover a new or unique dish which i can only have there but they didn't have anything close to being unique. and i think most of their cakes somehow tasted the same.

service - 5/5
hands down the bestrestaurantservice i've ever experienced. from the moment we got inside, all of their servers and even hotel staff greeted us good morning with such sincere smiles on their faces. the servers always attended to our needs and often went to our table just to ask if we were enjoying our food. even the managers were doing their rounds and even clearing empty plates from some tables, something we don't see much as we only see some managers from other restaurants giving orders to their servers.

i can't really comment on their buffet rates because of our discount voucher but even if i had to pay full price, it will surely be worth it. we will definitely come back. i hope they add more choices to their buffet. (total points is 4.375 but i just rounded it off to 4.)

rizal park hotel is an early 1900s building whose elegant restoration is still on-going. it's most beautiful at night, and the dinner buffet 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. the dinner buffet 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! therestaurantwas 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 therestauranthad 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 thisrestaurantwas 4 stars then but after this dinner with balikbayan family, i’ve changed my mind. will no longer be a frequent patron anytime soon.