There's this oyster restaurant in Davao City called Talaba Joe where the food is almost great but the service sucks up to the hilt. I guess the owners still do not realize that with their kind of service, people are going out of their small place puking the almost great food out, minus the refund.

The place cannot deny its pretensions: charming on the outside and nothing follows. Well, a lot of things follow actually, only that these will make you feel that you are caught in the middle of a grand rip off. And you are privy to it. And you cannot do anything about it but pay for the expensive food and the service that sucks. And instead of going home feeling satisfied, you'd feel like you the greatest loser in the tanan-tanang kalibutan (wide, wide world).

This place closes at 10pm during weekdays and an hour earlier during Sundays. Good for someone like me who often eats dinner late. One Tuesday night though, with Athan in tow, I went to the place, entered into a half-openned door, and welcomed by the emptiness.

That it was already empty was perfect because we found out that the restaurant's cooling system malfunctioned, the reason why the main door had to be kept half-open.

Ten minutes after we've taken a table, the waiter appeared from the kitchen which was just few meters away from us--beads of sweats running from his forehead down to his neck. He took our order--mine was a pesto-flavored oyster while Athan wanted a t-bone; 2 cups of rice, and their famous chocolate cake.

Ten minutes after, the waiter arrived with no pestoed-oyster, t-bone, 2 cups of rice and a slice of chocolate cake.

Why?

"Mag-close na man diay gud mi sir," the waiter said sheepishly while glancing at the clock on the wall. It was still 9pm.

And we were there, like, 20 minutes already.

c(@_@)0

Because I wanted to give this place a chance, I went back after two weeks but this time, I had to make sure that I was earlier than the last time. This time, the aircon was already working. This time, the waiter came to us quickly than before and took our order with a promise that everything would be fast. So I thought...and I was wrong.

"Sir, wala na pong cake."

"Eh, anong meron?"

"Pretzel sir."

I saw Athan making a face.

"Wag na lang...ok na kami don sa ibang order."

The waiter left and came back immediately with his tray. No problem right? Yeah, so we thought until we ordered a bottle of Coca Cola, drank it and were finally ready to pay.

"Check namin."

"Ito po..."

Athan, the numbercian, riffled through the pieces of paper and bowled over something that he caught the attention of other customers.

"Magkano ang Coke ninyo?"

"Forty po."

"Forty? Isang litro, forty?"

"Opo."

"Grabe naman! Overpricing pud kaayo uy!"


(NOTE: Image from www.eatstuff.net)