One Sunday @ Gerry's Grill Tagaytay

We had Australian and Singaporean visitors over the last few weeks and the highlight of their visit to PH was dinner at Antonio's (yes the posh Antonio's place). We, however, decided to have some drinks and merienda first and so we drove along the highway until one of them screamed "Gerry's Grill!" So off we went to this popular Pinoy food place.

While waiting for food to come, we came to a point where we discussed our favourites. The list below is almost all that we ordered, except for the pinakbet.

- One of them said that the Pinakbet is the best native veggie dish he has ever had in PH, with special mention of the bitter gourd (amapalaya)

- Another highlighted the Beef Casserole (Nilagang Baka), which was his first dish of its kind

- Squid Heads was the unanimous choice among all the free pica-pica food (pulutan). You get one free pulutan dish for every bucket of Red Horse and/or probably some other brands of beer.

- Pork Sisig was something everyone looked forward to

- Garlic Adobo Flakes is something one of them will kill for (lol)

- Chicken Lollipop which is a first for everyone

- Baked Scallops was an attempt to "neutralize" all the unhealthy food

- Chichabits which was not available at that time

- Deadly and sinful was the Chicken Skin

- Hot Calamansi was really great, made me feel better (I was sporting a cough and cold that time)

- RHB Red Horse Beer of course. (did I need to mention that? :-)

Despite of all of the delicious food we had and the enchanting view of the Taal Volcano, we got totally turned off with the terrible quality of service we received from the crew.

- At the entrance, a lady greeted us but no one even asked how many seats we required. We just ended up choosing a table at the upper loft which smelled less of the bird poo. (they have a mini aviary)

- I diligently pointed and stated our orders to the lady who was in charge of our table. She repeated everything correctly and we were excited about the food.

- Around 20 minutes later, the drinks came, and all the orders except the chicken lollipop and the baked scallops. Of course the food was gone in a matter of minutes.

- Another half an hour later came another round of RHBs, and still no chickeln lollipop and baked scallops. I had to call one of the food servers who told me that the baked scallops they initially prepared was overcooked, and that we did not order the chicken lollipops. Screw them. Anyway, I still kept my cool and waited. We had to ask for the chicken lollipops twice. And the wait wasn't worth it. Not a good pulutan piece it was.

I felt embarrassed that our visitors had to go through that nasty customer service. I was somehow relieved though when one of them actually said that he really never expects restaurants in Tagaytay to pick his wish list up correctly the first time. Looks like he always had to say what he wanted more than twice before his wish got finally- and correctly- granted.

The funny thing is the space they have is really huge, and they have a lot of servers walking around the place. I wonder how the place goes during their peak family days and hours?

It was also a challenge to get the food server's attention by the way. I am not sure if they really weren't seeing us, or if they were simply ignoring us. (Nobody smiled too!)

This is bad rep for Michael V who is their endorser, as he seems to be very friendly and accommodating. What a waste on their really catchy slogan which says "A Pinoy Original."