Monday, October 24, 2011

The Carvery, Wesgate Alabang

It was the weekend once again, post my birthday. Hubby and I decide to eat out for lunch, just the two of us. I couldn't make up my mind on where to go except that I didn't want to go very far from where we live. Westgate is just 15 minutes away by car. So, off we went. Such an old fart, I know.

It's been a while since we scoured the Westgate area for restaurants. It seems that most of the restaurants in Westgate have closed down. There's a restaurant there that we haven't tried yet. It's called The Carvery, they serve roast beef. I was very skeptical upon reaching the restaurant because it was a little past noon and the place was empty. Oh my, should we even try?


We pressed on, just to see if they were any good. It was a slow Saturday after all. Most restaurants in Westgate were devoid of customers. Hmmmmm.... ghost town?


Anyway, hubby tried the Cream of Asparagus Soup. He liked it very much and ate it up to the last drop. Then again, Hubby's usually perfectly happy with a heated can of Campbell's cream of mushroom soup.


Moving on. Hubby and I shared a Caeesar's Salad with a slice of roastbeef, cooked medium rare. I liked the roast beef very much. Tender and juicy. The salad itself is very ordinary and they didn't even bother to cut off the yellowed ends of the romaine lettuce.


Hubby ordered the Prime Rib, which he finished in five minutes flat. Hubby enjoyed it very much, obviously. It was very tender and cooked perfectly. The side of corn looked very dry though and seamed like it was sitting in the fridge for days.





I on the other hand, ordered a Roast Beef Sandwich with mozzarella, pesto and roasted peppers. It was nicely presented, as you can see from the photo below. The filling was good, the roast beef was tender and cooked perfectly. However, the whole wheat bread that they used were hard as rocks, and I kept taking off hardened portions (only a small portion of the bread was left). Totally ruined a perfectly good sandwich. Obviously, the bread wasn't freshly baked and was probably sitting in their cupboard for days.


The lowdown? The roast beef was good, I admit. Everything else was just so so.  The coleslaw that came with my sandwich tasted old, if that makes sense at all. Hubby loves colesalw but after taking a bite, he set it aside and never touched it again.

The chips were very oily and the mayonnaise was not the best kind. I have a thing about a particular brand of butter and mayonnaise. I just can't stand them, specially if I am paying.

The cherry tomato on top of my sandwich was probably a hundred years old, it was dry and wrinkly. Just like me, ha ha ha! I needn't be reminded that I'm pushing 40!

The waiters knew I wasn't happy with my meal and asked me what's wrong. I told them that the bread was stale and hard. The waiter just told me that they toasted it too long in the toaster. Riiiiight. You can't fool me. The bread was S-T-A-L-E. They should have offered me an apology and a replacement for my sandwich or something. They saw me taking pictures of the food. Hello, I could be a famous blogger or food columnist.

They're just lucky that I am not, bwa ha ha ha! :-)

Seriously though, when you see an empty restaurant, during lunch time, on a weekend, trust your gut and spend your money elsewhere.






















4 comments:

Andoy said...

Hi Leica...i just came across your blog and wanted to share my recent experience as well...and yes i agree with your ending for this post... I just came from this Restaurant this evening, the interiors and catchy signage enticed my brood to give this new Restaurant a try.... to the restaurants credit the steaks are good and value for money however......

The waiter recommended their best seller Roast beef on Charcoal bread what intrigued me apart from the unique bread was the prospect of eating roast beed with Jalapeños as described in the Menu... and to add more filling i ordered their horseradish mash potatoes..

When the food came and i started to eat it something felt wrong first of all the Horesraddish mashed potatoes was just "mashed potatoes" no hint of Horseraddish at all...an what made it worse was when i asked the waiter why they did not put any he just said that the Owners had tasted the dish one time and ordered to remove it...so why still keep it in the menu in the first place????? when the menu is just a simple one pager that was laminated...one can easily print this in a decent colored printer and laminate it again...or are they scrimping....

next up was the sandwich... as i happily ate the roast beef sandwich u sensed that i could not taste Jalapeños at all.... when i summoned the waiter to ask if the chef/cook put jalapeños he went down to ask the kitchen ..... and after a few minutes he comes back and sheepishly tells me they ran out of Jalapeños and decided not to include it??????

Oh boy in this day and age does this restaurants Chef/Cook think he can just change the contents of the menu and think that the customer will not notice it??? what kind of training for their "cooks" (if they have any) does this restaurant have???....

At the end of the day all i got was a sorry from the waiter and no word either from the chef or manager....sheesh...

Safe to say am never coming back.....too bad the concept and the food is good...i know my self appointed boycott won't make an impact but there are many restaurants out there that take extra care of their brand and product..

I just hope that whoever made this blog would let the owners know about this....we went here after my daughters Ballet recital and hoped to have a special dinner.....

Andoy said...

Hi Leica...i just came across your blog and wanted to share my recent experience as well...and yes i agree with your ending for this post... I just came from this Restaurant this evening, the interiors and catchy signage enticed my brood to give this new Restaurant a try.... to the restaurants credit the steaks are good and value for money however......

The waiter recommended their best seller Roast beef on Charcoal bread what intrigued me apart from the unique bread was the prospect of eating roast beed with Jalapeños as described in the Menu... and to add more filling i ordered their horseradish mash potatoes..

When the food came and i started to eat it something felt wrong first of all the Horesraddish mashed potatoes was just "mashed potatoes" no hint of Horseraddish at all...an what made it worse was when i asked the waiter why they did not put any he just said that the Owners had tasted the dish one time and ordered to remove it...so why still keep it in the menu in the first place????? when the menu is just a simple one pager that was laminated...one can easily print this in a decent colored printer and laminate it again...or are they scrimping....

next up was the sandwich... as i happily ate the roast beef sandwich u sensed that i could not taste Jalapeños at all.... when i summoned the waiter to ask if the chef/cook put jalapeños he went down to ask the kitchen ..... and after a few minutes he comes back and sheepishly tells me they ran out of Jalapeños and decided not to include it??????

Oh boy in this day and age does this restaurants Chef/Cook think he can just change the contents of the menu and think that the customer will not notice it??? what kind of training for their "cooks" (if they have any) does this restaurant have???....

At the end of the day all i got was a sorry from the waiter and no word either from the chef or manager....sheesh...

Safe to say am never coming back.....too bad the concept and the food is good...i know my self appointed boycott won't make an impact but there are many restaurants out there that take extra care of their brand and product..

I just hope that whoever made this blog would let the owners know about this....we went here after my daughters Ballet recital and hoped to have a special dinner.....

Andoy said...

Hi Leica...i just came across your blog and wanted to share my recent experience as well...and yes i agree with your ending for this post... I just came from this Restaurant this evening, the interiors and catchy signage enticed my brood to give this new Restaurant a try.... to the restaurants credit the steaks are good and value for money however......

The waiter recommended their best seller Roast beef on Charcoal bread what intrigued me apart from the unique bread was the prospect of eating roast beed with Jalapeños as described in the Menu... and to add more filling i ordered their horseradish mash potatoes..

When the food came and i started to eat it something felt wrong first of all the Horesraddish mashed potatoes was just "mashed potatoes" no hint of Horseraddish at all...an what made it worse was when i asked the waiter why they did not put any he just said that the Owners had tasted the dish one time and ordered to remove it...so why still keep it in the menu in the first place????? when the menu is just a simple one pager that was laminated...one can easily print this in a decent colored printer and laminate it again...or are they scrimping....

next up was the sandwich... as i happily ate the roast beef sandwich u sensed that i could not taste Jalapeños at all.... when i summoned the waiter to ask if the chef/cook put jalapeños he went down to ask the kitchen ..... and after a few minutes he comes back and sheepishly tells me they ran out of Jalapeños and decided not to include it??????

Oh boy in this day and age does this restaurants Chef/Cook think he can just change the contents of the menu and think that the customer will not notice it??? what kind of training for their "cooks" (if they have any) does this restaurant have???....

At the end of the day all i got was a sorry from the waiter and no word either from the chef or manager....sheesh...

Safe to say am never coming back.....too bad the concept and the food is good...i know my self appointed boycott won't make an impact but there are many restaurants out there that take extra care of their brand and product..

I just hope that whoever made this blog would let the owners know about this....we went here after my daughters Ballet recital and hoped to have a special dinner.....

Andoy said...

Hi Leica...i just came across your blog and wanted to share my recent experience as well...and yes i agree with your ending for this post... I just came from this Restaurant this evening, the interiors and catchy signage enticed my brood to give this new Restaurant a try.... to the restaurants credit the steaks are good and value for money however......

The waiter recommended their best seller Roast beef on Charcoal bread what intrigued me apart from the unique bread was the prospect of eating roast beed with Jalapeños as described in the Menu... and to add more filling i ordered their horseradish mash potatoes..

When the food came and i started to eat it something felt wrong first of all the Horesraddish mashed potatoes was just "mashed potatoes" no hint of Horseraddish at all...an what made it worse was when i asked the waiter why they did not put any he just said that the Owners had tasted the dish one time and ordered to remove it...so why still keep it in the menu in the first place????? when the menu is just a simple one pager that was laminated...one can easily print this in a decent colored printer and laminate it again...or are they scrimping....

next up was the sandwich... as i happily ate the roast beef sandwich u sensed that i could not taste Jalapeños at all.... when i summoned the waiter to ask if the chef/cook put jalapeños he went down to ask the kitchen ..... and after a few minutes he comes back and sheepishly tells me they ran out of Jalapeños and decided not to include it??????

Oh boy in this day and age does this restaurants Chef/Cook think he can just change the contents of the menu and think that the customer will not notice it??? what kind of training for their "cooks" (if they have any) does this restaurant have???....

At the end of the day all i got was a sorry from the waiter and no word either from the chef or manager....sheesh...

Safe to say am never coming back.....too bad the concept and the food is good...i know my self appointed boycott won't make an impact but there are many restaurants out there that take extra care of their brand and product..

I just hope that whoever made this blog would let the owners know about this....we went here after my daughters Ballet recital and hoped to have a special dinner.....