Last July 29, 2015, we celebrated Lasagna Day and House of Lasagna hosted a Buy 1 Take 1 Promo on their beef lasagna.
I wouldn't miss this simply because it's our favorite lasagna!
So the boyfie went ahead to their Greenhills Branch. He got us a seat around 5PM, ordered our favorite Chicken Skin (Php 180) and a Beef Lasagna. I arrived at the branch by 5:45 PM and the only item served was just the Chicken Skin, the complimentary bread wasn't also refilled even though we already requested twice.
So this was the crowd when I got there. Still manageable, but it got really full during our stay.
We waited for another 10 minutes before our Beef Lasagna was served. I again requested for our bread, it was acknowledged, but wasn't delivered. The servers kept on giving bread to other tables who did not request for any even though I called their attention. They're very disoriented and inattentive. You could actually see that they were overwhelmed with the crowd and were severely untrained for such an event. I finally got my bread when I personally went to the counter and waited for it.
While we were eating, I noticed that the guests to my left didn't have anything on their table yet. Kyle told me that they were seated just about 5 minutes after him. So technically, they were waiting to be served for over an hour already. Orders kept on flying out of the kitchen, but their table wasn't served, they already followed up quite a few times, but the orders of those who arrived later were served first. I wonder what training these people underwent, if any. Given the benefit that the place was indeed packed and they were also entertaining take-out orders (yes, they allowed take out even though the promo said it was for "
dine-in only"), they should have anticipated that it would be chaotic.
Going back to our dining experience, we, ofcourse, ran out of bread again. But this time, it took only about 2 to 3 follow-ups and I didn't have to go directly to the counter. The guests to my left were finally served 1 Beef Lasagna (I didn't know why they were served just one when it's a buy 1 take 1 promo and there were 2 of them seated on the table). We asked for our bill around 6:45 PM and that was the only time that the 2nd lasagna of our neighboring guest was served.
It took about another 10 minutes before our bill was served, since I noticed that she was processing another table's bill.
To sum up our dining experience that day, it was very disappointing. Here are a few things that I noticed:
1. The staff were definitely not prepared, very inattentive, resulting to a lot of delays
2. This branch prioritized take-out
3. The serving size of the lasagna was noticeably smaller than the regular serving size (See previous experience
here)
Holding promos are nice, but hopefully, they make sure that they are well-prepared for it. It's a given fact that a massive amount of people will line up when you have a promo, but it shouldn't be an excuse to compromise service and food quality.
This was the scene outside the branch around 7:15 PM.
