By Digoy Fernandez

ONE of the things I have to promise myself is never to make promises I can’t very well keep. In my last post, I mentioned the sloppy service of a restaurant in an upscale restaurant in a tony Alabang mall. Well, my dear son who is my veritable shadow when it comes to wonderful shared experiences like watching movies and eating — not expensive meals in posh restaurants, just good food in tried and tested venues — decided that he wanted to try a particular dish that happened to be available in the restaurant I said I would avoid until hell freezes over. Famous last words!

So, we hunkered over to Gerry’s Grill in Alabang Town Center (I mention them now because of subsequent events that happened in this visit) and — Surprise! Surprise! — a waitress saw us right away and proceeded to seat us at a table. This was 100 percent better than my last visit when I basically got ignored after trying twice to get seated or served, and was left to my own devices for about 15 minutes each time. We were seated and handed menus, and then, almost predictably, saw the waiters and waitresses just lolling around avoiding eye contact. Apparently, they want you to stand up and gesticulate wildly before they come over to serve you or take your order. At any rate, I finally had to wave my hand at one of them — not without vigorous encouragement and mild disapproval from my son, though. Our orders were taken and we settled down for what we hoped would be a nice lunch.

Not long after starting to eat, my son asked me to pass the Pepper, which was not available on our table. The other tables also did not have any Pepper shakers. Since the waiters had left us to survive on our own, I stood up and strode boldly to another section of the restaurant which housed the bar and asked them for pepper. Of course, the barista was befuddled, since they obviously didn’t have pepper on hand. He waved to a supervisor who promptly acceded to my request and mentioned that I didn’t have to stand and look for a shaker by myself. Aha! He gave me the opening for me to mention the extremely sloppy service I received the last time around. He shook his head but thanked me for bringing up the issues of the last time and the present and promised to tell the staff off in the afternoon meeting.

Well, the obvious thing happened next. We had a waiter hovering over our table waiting for the slightest gesture on our part, hoping to anticipate any other needs we had like more ice, napkins, and even straws for the soft drinks (that they failed to give the first time around)! It was a bit unnerving to have them hover over us this time around, but certainly appreciated compared to the essentially lousy service that I had noted them to be consistent with (even with previous visits). When I reached for my wallet to get my senior card, another waiter rushed to our table with the bill already prepared! Hah! They could have fooled me with such fast reaction times this time around!

I hope that the supervisor having berating the service staff will result in better and more consistent service next time around.

Note: I brought out the issue of poor service only when our food had been served, because of my knowledge — based on the admission by several waiters I had befriended in the past — that waiters and waitresses sometimes spit on the food of people they dislike or who treat them badly.