Worst New Year's Eve
We spent our worst New Year's Eve at Cafe del Mar in Boracay! The service was horrible. The food was disgusting. The whole experience is one for the horror books. My partner and I booked a New Year's Eve dinner at this place. From our experience in previous years, we thought everything would be as nice as it used to be. However, everything turned out to be a nightmare.

A few nights before the New Year, we went to Cafe del Mar and had our usual favorites, the cheese sticks and the Calamares (squid rings). We had it there before and we clearly remembered how good it was. But this time around, we noticed that the food was different. The cheese sticks were soggy and the calamares was stale and tasted like it had been cooked with used cooking oil. So, we talked to the waitress and she confirmed that the chef who used to cook doesn’t cook anymore. It was his assistant who cooked the food.

Nonetheless, we let it pass and still booked our table for New Year's Eve. We paid P3000 for the meal plus drinks (around $100). Our reservation was for 9:30 pm dinner. We arrived at the place at 9 pm. As soon as we arrived, we told the waitress that we were going to have drinks first (additional revenue for them) and we wanted our food served later when we were ready. She agreed, but insisted that we choose our main course from the menu so that the chef can reserve the food for us. A few minutes later, she came back with our drinks and the appetizer. We told her again that we did not want to eat now and we just wanted to get settled and have some drinks. She insisted that we had to eat right away because the chef said so. What??? She’s telling this to us after I deliberately told her in Tagalog (in case she does not understand English) that we wanted to relax and have some drinks and let her know when we are ready to eat.

After much frustration, we asked for the manager. The manager, who looked like a social-climbing matron in her 70’s, was sitting in the table beside ours. I think her name is Cory. She was busy having fun and dinner with her guests in another table. We explained the situation to her. She talked to the waitress and then told us that I was lying. She said that the waitress told her that I wanted the food served right away. This was just too much. With our disgust and frustration over the situation, my partner told the manager that this is the last time we were dining at their place. The manager replied back, “It’s your choice.”

Obviously, this manager does not know what “customer service” means and did not care as long as she was getting our money. They don’t really care at all because they can fool as many tourists as they want. Now it’s our choice to let this be known to other people. It’s our choice not to come back to that restaurant ever again.

As we left the restaurant, I saw the waitresses pointing at us and giggling in a corner. I don’t know what they were laughing about. I don’t know what they placed in our plates (which we did not finish). But whatever it is, I don’t want to know. We spent another month and a half with our friends in Boracay but never came back to that restaurant.    [25 Feb 2008 22:54:56]

Food: -   Service: -   Ambiance: -   Overall: -

     ­[Taken from submitted description]