BF bought a laptop at Thinking Tools Inc. in SM last Saturday. After buying his laptop, it was already time for dinner so we immediately picked a resto. BF and I loves dimsum so I suggested we eat at Mandarin Tea Garden and like any other good boyfriend, he agreed.
 |
| menu |
Mandarin Tea Garden is located at 2nd level SM City Cebu. Upon entering, we were greeted by a female staff and led us to a vacant table. She gave us the menu and went away. After finally deciding what to order, we looked for the waiters to get our orders. This one's a bit disappointing because nobody seemed to care. As BF said, no one would dare give you an eye contact so they can't be disturbed or called upon. We looked for available staffs/waiters to accommodate us but seems like their all busy. We got so frustrated and annoyed that we almost left our seats. Luckily, I saw someone available so I raised my hand and called him. He took our orders - pork asado(P72), beef brisket noodle soup(P79), 2 cups of rice(P22/cup), quail egg siomai(P56), a can of coke light and a cold milk tea which I asked to have it in a take-out cup and lastly, asked for a glass of tap water as I was so thirsty. He told us to expect our orders in about 10mins and left.
We waited patiently for our orders and one by one it arrived safely in our tables. After getting the 3 viands, it was then again waiting time for us to have our rice delivered. Imagine, the viands came in first before the rice. Does that mean that the rice takes longer to cook and more difficult to prepare? I doubt it. We almost finished our soup when our rice arrived, oh well that's life. Oh by the way, did I mention that our glass of water came after asking 2 waiters and 2 follow-ups and almost got dehydrated(..just exaggerating).
 |
| beef brisket noodle soup |
Enough of the negativity, despite the bad service we encountered at Mandarin Tea Garden their food was superb. They offer great dishes that's worth every penny. The beef brisket noodle soup was still hot when served. This one's very good especially for cold weather. Serving size was huge, probably good for 2-3 pax with average appetite. The beef was indeed tender and the noodle was of a thin variety.
 |
| pork asado |
 |
| quail egg siomai |
The pork asado was also my favorite. Though I'm not fond of sweet viands, this one's got just enough sweetness. It tastes like sweet bacon or sweet hamon de bola. It compliments greatly well with their very spicy siomai sauce. The trick would be taking a small bite of siomai dipped in hot/spicy sauce and take a small amount of pork asado. I was also amazed of the pork asado's serving size which is more than what I expected. For just P79 you got this adequate slices of pork. With regards to the quail egg siomai, I won't comment that much as it tasted so ordinary and a bit dry.
Would I go back to Mandarin Tea Garden despite the bad service encountered? Definitely yes. As I always mention here in my blog, I always love restaurants that offer value-for-money and this ones not an exemption. They offer affordable and delicious meals without sacrificing quality - but service is, hehehe.
On the other hand, I'd just want to mention about their siomai sauce which is ideally placed in each table so you get as much siomai sauce as you want but keep in mind the siomai sauce is really spicy - you've just been warned :D.
0 comments