Hey, Botejyu! You have delicious food BUT your staff in SM City Fairview
severely needs customer service training. I rarely start a post negatively
so I want to taper that down by enumerating the things that we liked first
before proceeding to the other story.
Botejyu SM City Fairview: The Good and The Bad
The Good
Mommy Khris and I went out for a quick errand one Sunday afternoon. Since we
were outside anyway, we decided to have a quick date since we still seldom go
out. We wanted to treat ourselves to something special so we decided to try
Botejyu SM City Fairview.
Suffice it to say that the food at Botejyu is really delicious. We are no
Japanese food connoisseurs but we did enjoy the food. They were flavorful and
the quality is well within our expectations.
Here’s what we ordered:
Beef & Tamagotoji Egg Rice Bowl (P412.50)
Mommy Khris got the Beef & Tamagotoji Egg Rice Bowl This is a simple beef
and egg dish served on top of rice. What makes this dish delicious is its
secret sauce which, naturally, we can’t say much about except that it really
tasted good.
Pork Tonkatsu Cutlet with Egg Teishoku (₱456.50)
I ordered the Pork Tonkatsu Cutlet with Egg Teishoku. When I find the items in
the menu to be unfamiliar, I always settle for the typical. I never imagined
that the way it will be served was beyond typical because it came with a soup,
a salad, and a saucer of kimchi. Again, this is delicious food
Pork Tonkotsu Ramen with Char Siu Pork (₱533.50)
The Pork Tonkotsu Ramen with Char Siu Pork was also delicious although there
are better ramen dishes in other restaurants.
The Bad
Now, moving on to our not-so-good experience, here’s what happened:
After checking the menu displayed outside the restaurant, we asked the
receptionist if there was an available table for two. She then replied,
“Vaccination card po.” We showed the cards to her, glimpsed at them, and
motioned for us to follow her inside. Yes, no greeting whatsoever.
We were given a table near the ultra-busy kitchen area that was naturally
abuzz with activity. The receptionist then put the menus, utensils, and paper
tissues in front of us without saying anything, without even telling us to
call the waiters in case we were ready to order.
When we were ready to order, I gestured to an approaching waiter to take our
order. He just stood there and said nothing so I proceeded to dictate our
choices. Since I could already feel the coldness of the Botejyu staff, I did
my best to pronounce our orders correctly so as to send the signal that I knew
what I was doing.
After that, he was kind enough to repeat our orders and ended his statement
with a stern “10 to 15 minutes po bago dumating ang order. Strictly no
takeout.” So, yeah.
My order came first. The server just said, “kanino ‘to?” Yes, you read
that right – "kanino ‘to?". I said it was mine and he just placed the
food in front of me and left.
The second order to arrive was Mommy Khris’. It was obvious that the food was
hers since I already mine in front of me but what the server did was place her
food bowl in front of me, so I still had to hand it over to her. It was a
simple task but what made it a bit annoying was the manner the servers
delivered the food.
I’m not sure why the Botejyu SM City Fairview personnel were like that. Maybe
I haven’t dressed appropriately for their restaurant? I was just wearing old
shorts and slippers, anyway.
Nonetheless, we were paying customers and their food was so expensive. We were
just expecting more in terms of the experience plus it was our first time to
try Botejyu that’s why we were excited.
The people at Tokyo Tokyo were a lot friendlier that the receptionist and
servers at Botejyu. I’d choose Tokyo Tokyo over Botejyu anytime for their good
customer service.
Anyway, I’m sure we’re not their loss but I do hope that they can improve
their customer service for their other clients.
We left hurriedly as soon as our change was handed over to us.
Similar stories:
Everything looked good. In the Korean Supermarket food court near our house, mga tag $15 ang mga ganyang dishes. Sa downtown Japanese restaurant, mga mas mahal lang ng $2 to $4, plus 15-18% tip. The "kanino to" sounded so tactless.
Wow, that's also so expensive. Oo, super tactless. Nagulat nga ako pagkarinig ko, hindi na lang ako nagreact.
Rich or poor one must properly dress up when you go out for a trip or wherever. When I sit and eat at a restaurant bad trip ako pag katabi ko nakapambahay , nakatsinelas, bad trip lalo nakataas pa paa or yung tsinelas nakahubad. ..and this is at Cristostomos restaurant where i tried to enyoy my meal . Konting bihis disente lang po pag pumapasyal sa labas.
You do you. I'm not going to educate you because that's your parents' responsibility.