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)

14 comments:

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MANDAYA MOORE: Ang bayot sa bukid said...

talawan ka. mention the name of the place oi para matagam

bananas said...

mandy, naa na no. ako nang gibutang ang name sa place. hahahaha...tagam gyud. bitaw. tinuod man pud!

Russ Ligtas said...

that happens...

tin-tin said...

grabe naman sila! di man lang sinabi na magsasara na. pero bilib ako sayo. mabait ka. kse bumabalik ka pa din doon

john be anonymous said...

isumbong mo sa DTI.. hehehe...

Anonymous said...

aha man na kay adtuon nato, mag-awarding ceremonies ta'g insakto didto.

bananas said...

yas, yeah it does and it surprises me that things like these can actually happen just to anybody.

tin, bumalik ako kasi nga masarap ang food.pero after the recent incident, siguro di na ako babalik doon.

john, yan ang plano ko. hahaha.

diwata, tol! kabuang gyud kaayo kay kabalo ka, u know this place...duol ra ni sa gimikan nato sa rizal. downtown kaayo uy!

johnnypanic said...

i was planning to check it out baya...thanks for the heads up. jekoy's nalang ko ui

Anonymous said...

hahaha! what an overpriced coke! it's almost double the original price.

i think, you should report that restaurant to the authority. esp. DTI.

para dili na managhan ang magmahay. waaa!

thanks by the way for the info, basin mukalit lang kog sulod dra nga restaurant. nah! makahugas jud ko.. hehehhe

Any given madness said...

ay naku, nakaka inis nga yung mga ganyan. di na dapat balikan. parang mga walang yang ex lang yan. dapat ng kinalilimutan at di na tinitikman pang muli.

by the way, i meme you in my blog. :) (i dunno how to conjugate meme).

Lyka Bergen said...

Avoyan? Baka Coca-Cola-Malaysia pa ang gawa ng Coke na yan ha!

ruff nurse-du-jour said...

i'm not into oysters. hmmm. i'm blaming the overhyped politically incorrect association of some parts of the female anatomy into that sinful, albeit delectable dish. hahaha.

the coke? mineral water na lang dear. but then again, baka san pellegrino pa ang ibigay sa inyo. hehehe. =)