Friday, July 24, 2009

Chili Peppers @ Eastwood Libis

Located at the 3rd floor of CyberOne Building, Eastwood, Libis.....the newly opened Chili Peppers had its "dry run" today .... and believe me, if that was the dry run they surely succeeded in making the dining experience memorable......in a NEGATIVE way.

I thought these kinds of openings should make the diners feel impressed and more likely to come back to their diner. Unfortunately, I don't think they've thought of that... The minute I looked at the menu, then gave my order, I felt like a trapped animal who wanted to run for the hills :) Instantly I wish to turn back and go eat somewhere else.

The cashier was friendly, but she was the only highlight in the place.

The food is sooo overpriced. I mean they didn't even try to compete with Tenderoast (hmm, need to do a separate write-up for this). I was soo surprised at how overpriced the steaks are. They were about 250-300php each, unlike in Tenderoast which were either 99php - 200php only. Plus, the one thing that really made me want to retract my order is that they don't have drinks!!. They only have filtered water. I don't really like drinking water in ready-to-serve-pitchers because you don't really know how potable it is. I mean most people I know get sick or get bowel problems after drinking water in some dining establishments ..and I am really cautious about that so it won't happent to me. I swear, I really thought of just forgetting the order and walking out, but the lady behind the counter seemed really nice and I thought to myself that maybe, the food quality might just redeem itself from the inadequacies of the place.

I mean have you ever heard of a diner or a restaurant that doesn't serve drinks? Weird, they were forcing water on people, haha.

So I ordered my Chubster Chicken and soup of the day. I was given a semi-dusty plastic cup. Which I only found out that it was dusty when I was pouring water in it. Because there are fingerprints outside the cup...oh well I managed to get over that. Really.

I was given a number for my order so I waited patiently for it. While waiting , I went to the utensils area to get my fork and spoon. I was surprised at how irresponsible and unclean the container for the utensils is. They don't even have a heater nor have they diluted the forks and spoon in warm / hot water to kill the germs. It was just in a plastic bin...the sort of container used when the crew are cleaning the dishes / forks/spoons. I was aghast. I really wanted to go already but I couldn't because of my order. I was sincerely mortified by how low the management's standards are when it comes to the overall maintenance of their plastic cups and utensils.

After that, when my order was ready to be delivered to my table, the nice register lady, called for the busboy to claim the dish at the counter and deliver to me. He was currently inspecting the counter where the water and utensils were.....and he ignored the girl!!! I mean I had to claim my own food at the counter because the busboy did not want to deliver it to my table...the customer's table!!!. Amongst the other negative things I was thinking of the place already, I added how untrained their staff is. I mean, I didn't know if it was just me or if he did that to the other customers. But I swear I was on my best behavior, I was cool, calm and wasn't even complaining at all. I just kept my thoughts to myself.

I was affronted, but I continued on.....I was determined to get through the meal... I looked at the Chubster chicken, and it was an acceptable size. Taste is good, somewhat garlicky but nice. Oh yeah, it was served with semi-cold and lumpy gravy. As a matter of fact, the food wasn't hot at all. The soup was also lumpy but the right temperature. Not that delicious. Soup of the day was cream of chicken..but it didn't taste anything like cream of chicken. The taste was just similar to those quick and easy knorr powdered soups that you stir for like 15 mins (nothing wrong with that, but you have to cook it properly so that it wont be lumpy...but apparently the Chili Pepper's chef didnt know that).

To be fair, the place is only on it's test / dry run. However, I think they should have worked on impressing the diners during this stage rather than giving them a negative impression of their starting diner.

Overall, I wouldn't really want to go back to the place. I'd rather go to Tenderoast for my cheap steaks. Or to Italiannis,if I wanted to splurge.

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