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 caferizalcame 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. 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 torizalpark 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 atrizalpark 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 hotel restaurant with amazing ambience and very friendly staff.

my first time to eat here . i had my lunch buffet here today.lunch buffet cost php 1250.00 all in. the food is great not bad yummy desserts as well. just a shout out to my hater back alt we live in democracy where there is freedom of speech so if u don't like my blog because i'm cheap so what that's my opinion mind your own business besides you didn't pay for my cheap meal ok and the theme of my blog is cheap affordable meals so deal with it ok . anyway back to my blog thisrizalhotel park it used to be army navy club and they renovated it to a beautiful nice hotel . this place is nostalgic to me because i used to study swimming lessons in army navy club it's nice to be back here . service is superb ;) so love their hakaw its yummy ... overall my dine in experience was good ,i just wish that there is a replica of joserizal monument since the name of the hotel is named after josérizal,i know that jose rizal's monument is just around the corner in luneta but still the name of the hotel is after joserizalso just hoping to see a picture ofrizalin this hotel just saying my curious mind ......

we celebrated christmas eve dinner buffet at caferizaland 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.

came here for the interiors. lovely decor and adaptation of the classic opulence of 1900s. caferizalwas beautiful. they offer buffet options for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. we ordered ala carte only.
kare-kare (php500), which was good to share; and a pot of tea (php165). complimentary soup, bread and butter was served. their menu was modest, not as extensive as other hotels. but you’ll love the tall ceiling, with the soft filtering of curtains, each part of the place was just glorious.

the historic building that was once was the army navy club has been transformed to an elegant hotel that offers world class accommodation in the heart of manila –rizalpark hotel. this hotel retains the classic architecture and ambiance of the historic site while adding state of the art facilities that makes it a perfect destination for tourists and locals alike.

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 caferizalprovides 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! 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 this dinner with balikbayan family, i’ve changed my mind. will no longer be a frequent patron anytime soon.