Worst service ever : Tempura Japanese Grill
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.
What pretensions do these people have of running a professional, full-service restaurant?
Some useful reviews from MunchPunch :
Tempura Japanese Grill Alabang Town Center :
“My friends and I decided to have dinner here one Saturday evening and we were completely appalled by the service! Though our orders were taken promptly, our food arrived much much later (we waited for more than forty minutes!!). I have never been so frustrated with the service of arestaurant. ”
“According to my companions, the comfort room was icky.”
Tempura Japanese Grill Tomas Morato :
“Food is nothing special, and the service is atrocious. Best to pass on this one.”
Verdict: Eat at your own risk. Tempura is the sister resto of Holy Cow! and Flavours of China and we now have to remind ourselves not to eat in any of them. Duh.
If the restaurant’s CR is yucky, you can just imagine how the kitchen looks like and what the hell they do with that yummy food yer supposed to be eating. Nuff said.
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annalyn is a Technews Columnist of the Manila Bulletin, one of the Philippines most widely-read English broadsheet. You can find her blogging at http://www.annalyn.net, which is her main blog, http://www.weddingfactsheet.com, which is a wedding blog and http://www.balutpenoy.blogspot.com, a food blog.
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ewwww! ayoko ng ganyan. kapag madumi ang toilet ng isang kainan e wag na daw pumasok sa isang restaurant, yan ang sinasabi ni kengkoy.
yes ma’am, kahit dito sa amerika, ganyan din kami. it’s the toilet, comfort room, powder room or palikuran. it pretty much dictates kung ano sila
same here! i’m very particular about the kitchen. it says a lot about the restaurant.
@ajay – que horror naman yang tempura grill! ewwww talaga…
@ajay – at isama mo pa yung comfort room. kung madumi ito, no way! hindi ako kakain ulit sa resto, ever….
I hope the waiter didn’t spit in the food. Ugh!
They were probably still trying to catch(!!!) the prawns. Hehehe! or maybe the members of the kitchen team were not on speaking terms.
I say, at the very first sign of dissatisfying service, thing to do is march out and never look back.
“unsatisfactory service” pala… heheh!
I have this habit of asking the server kung ilang minuto our orders will arrive and then I tell him/her that I’ll time them. It puts a little pressure para maging prompt sila or else, goodbye tippy ocampo. Hehehe
But that icky powder room is definitely not excusable. Yuck.
Imbyerna talaga ako sa sinayang nilang oras. I have a one hour lunch break and I spent 40 minutes of that time waiting for… NOTHING! ILang beses rin naman ako nagfollow-up at pinaasa ako sa wala. I wouldn’t pay this chain one million pesos even for a small franchise fee. They don’t deserve it. It seems wala silang standards whatsoever.
did you get in touch with them? maybe call? or email the link to this entry? HAHAHA
very poor naman ang service ng restaurant na yan, at least now alam ko, hindi kami pupunta ni big daddy diyan para kumain
I ate there a few months ago and had rashes nung kumain ako ng Tempura, must have been old stock. Ako na lang nga customer pero kailangan mo pang tawagin mga waiters na laging nakatingin kung san san hehe.
Bad trip talaga pag nataon ka sa mga ganitong klase ng lugar. Reminds me of another bad experience in Baguio a few weeks ago. Don’t ever go to BEACH HOUSE in Nevada Square. We were charged 100 pesos “entrance fee” (na di nila ma-explain kung para saan) and our orders came in late, nung dumating SUNOG yung mga inihaw hahaha…
Kaya ka nga pumupunta sa mga ganitong lugar para kumain and ma-relax man lang kahit pano. Wala you end up paying for bad food and (self) service.
There should be a BLOG about bad places dito sa Pinas.
Thank you for your honest feedback on Tempura Japanese Grill.. Im ESF their new Operations Manager..just join the group recently and rest assured all your concerns have been our priority these days…I would appreciate if you can send me your email add so I would know where to contact you guys…its esf@topideas.com.ph….
I had this worst experience in this japresto wayback 2006. Though they have so many staff delivery of food is soooo looong. They will make you wait for 30 mins. BUT when I ate there last month to celebrate Mother’s Day with my Mom of course, surprisingly they CHANGED for the better. Even their Holy Cow steaks and Flavours of China restos which I read sister company pala of Tempura, they IMPROVE a LOT LOT LOT.. In the block of SM City North, I heard that one chinese customer there was very happy because his celphone (mukhang mamahalin) was found and returned to him. Contrary to what were written here, what we experienced in these restos are really good.
Same with Hunkyfoodcritic my bad experience in Tempura Japanese Grill happened few years back I think that was 2006 or 2007 the year they were aggressively expanding. Food that time was cold when delivered to your table and despite of so many staff, their service was SO SLOW and LOUSY!!! NOW they CHANGED and IMPROVED,I heard from a friend that they replaced their old people last year and fixed their system with their new management. Mabuti naman bcoz I dont want my favorite resto to be affected by the wrong people they hired before.
I also agree with your observation regarding the service of tempura.
We ate at Tempura Trinoma Branch and found out that there was a long strand of HAIR inside our order of their seafood stew on a sizzling plate(I forgot what it is called
. We informed the waiter of what we found and he promptly brought it to the kitchen. When it was time to pay, we asked them to remove that particular order from the bill. What the waiter did was bring the dish back to us from their kitchen and accused us that we intentionally planted the hair on their dish.
If you are concerned about the cleanliness of what your eating, I suggest that you try to avoid eating at Tempura Trinoma Branch.
upon reading some of the comments i was challenged and wanna prove it myself. we went to tempura trinoma. i was amazed coz we didnt wait that long. the waiter who assisted us was great bec he got our orders accurately no need for us to repeat the said order. then he gave us 10-15 minutes waiting time as a customer im also very particular with the time given to us. the food was served after 12 minutes. the ambiance was good as well. the waiter was friendly, very approchable and accurate,… the food was great! but didnt had time to check there comfort room.