I’ve eaten twice in this resto before, and I don’t know what happened along the way. It’s rare that i RANT, but when I do, my Kamote Award for Worst Service and Sanitation by a restaurant chain goes to ….. Tempura Japanese Grill.

How else do you explain being an office worker on a one-hour lunch break, and 35 minutes later, your order still hasn’t arrived? We ate at their United Nations Avenue branch, and I had to beg for a glass of water just to quench my thirst while waiting. In the meantime, I had to use their toilet which was strewn with used tissue toilet paper (!!!) by the entrance door. And upon entering, there was a small container for used tissues which was sitting on top of the toilet bowl where the water receptacle for flushing was. EWWEEE!

The waiter told me it takes 15 minutes for food orders to be delivered, and I reminded him that it was definitely past that already. After 35 minutes, he comes marching in with a plate of gyoza that was submerged in oil. I told him it certainly looks “very oily” and we were leaving, never mind the fact that there was no sign of our other orders arriving.

The (mis)manager, a certain Kim, told moi, there was a “computer error” in the processing of food orders, hence the delay. Computer error kaya, o hindi lang kayo marunong gumamit ng computer? Ano naman ang koneksyon ng kompyuter kung ilang hakbang lang ang layo ng kusina? (what does it matter if the kitchen is just a couple of steps away?)

The husband can only grumble in silence: “Exactly, how does that explain their service? I’m fairly sure my waiter was human, not some hybrid, like Schwarzenegger in ‘Terminator.’ It wasn’t like Rosie from the Jetsons was moonlighting there. Sheesh.”

I told an officemate about my predicament, and she agreed. It took them 30 minutes to give her the final bill the last time she dined there, and it wasn’t even a busy hour.
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