Aubergine - Fort Bonifacio

Restaurant Details
Location: 2nd floor of the building near S&R housing Secret Recipe and McDonald's
Cuisine: French
Price: PPPP
Attire: Smart Casual/Semi-Formal

Our Details
What we had: Roasted Wagyu Tri-tip with Foie Gras (P950) and Roasted Duck Breast (P860)
Rating: ˜ (Unsatisfactory)
Comments:
Food
The beef was not tender as Wagyu beef should be, having just had kobe beef in Kobe a few days before, this was especially highlighted. Serving size is small, the roasted duck breast had 6 slices 1.5 inch long, 1 inch wide, and 0.2 inch thick, but it is not rare as the French would have it. Same goes with the beef – we ordered medium but it was medium well, only one of the five thin slices of beef was near medium. The presentation was good, but apart from that and the newly opened bottle of horseradish, it was difficult to find anything else good about the place that would make us want to go back. Check out the “long story” for details.
Price
Price is ok for the menu item description but given the above note on the food quality, it’s definitely not worth it.
Service
Waiters tried to be formal and sophisticated but failed to do so. There is a lack of adequate training on menu items and general etiquette, which was inconsistent for the restaurant’s target marketing scheme
Ambiance
Interiors were modern and stylish, conducive for holding dinner parties (just don’t look outside the floor to ceiling windows). There’s a huge floor to ceiling wine storage facility made of glass in the middle of the restaurant, which is a highlight yet blends well into the design scheme.
Bathroom
We were in such a bad mood from the first 3 items that we did not visit the bathroom. But judging from the cleanliness of the dining area, the bathroom would most likely be clean as well. (Then again, the restaurant just opened for barely a week when we visited)

The Long Story

We were planning to eat at Duo in Serendra but there was no parking, so we decided to try the strange Japanese restaurant with a funny logo advertising in S&R. We chanced upon Aubergine, and were impressed with the interiors so we popped in, eager to discover the rare good restaurant.
It was 8:50pm and we were starving. 2 minutes of looking at the menu and we were ready to order, but the waiter was talking at 30 words per minute making introductions.
“We’re ready to order,” we declare. The waiter says, “It’s ok, ma’m”. I say, “No, I’m ready to order.” He fumbles around, not knowing what to say next and decides he needs paper. It takes him 5 minutes (really) to get a piece of paper and walk the 10 steps back to our table. We tell him our order – 2 items only, and he makes us repeat the items 3 times because he is unable to capture it. He does not know what horseradish is. He does not understand what “that’s it” means. We spoke in Filipino, in an attempt to bridge any gaps, but the waiter refused to speak the native tongue.
The restaurant does not have service water – I always thought restaurants are required to serve that. He says, “The cheapest water we have is hidden spring.” HOW FREAKING TACKY! I order lemon iced tea – he said, “One lemonade ice tea.” (Oh, the way he repeats the orders is “One beef, one duck, etc” instead of “Ma’m you will have the beef, etc”) I ask, “Do you even have lemonade iced tea?” At this point we were pissed already because it takes less than 5 minutes per side of a 12 ounce steak to cook it at medium.
At last the waiter finishes getting the orders. After 5 minutes, he comes back and asks how I wanted my steak done. And it takes him a LONG time to ask that. We were served bread, which was dry and tough – barely edible. They must have been reinventing the origins of fondue.
There were about 10 chefs/cooks in the kitchen and the food was served at 9:30. There were about 15 waiters, but they were fumbling on who will be serving the food coming out of the kitchen and which table it will go to. So the food came, we thought it was all worthwhile because the presentation was deceiving. The horseradish requested on the side when we first placed our order was not there. So we ask the waiter to get it, he does not understand what horseradish is (again), so he whispers to his assistant waiter, who whispers back. Quarter of the way through our meal, he comes back, saying, “We will get horseradish and serve it to you shortly.” And then after 2 minutes, someone comes and actually gives it to us. Talk about the power of delegation.
The head waiter came by and asked how the food was. We said, “Not up to our expectations.” And he said, “Ok, great.” So definitely they do train on the formalities, but only the head waiter was given the opportunity to obtain the training. He didn’t even blink an eye when we said that. This proves that it was just a formality.
It took them 8 minutes to get the bill, with 1 follow-up. No credit card facility was available and the waiter could not answer straight. He insisted that “You don’t have a credit card facility?” did not warrant a straight “No” or “Not yet”. He kept correcting us, “We are currently applying for the credit card terminal”.
And that was the end of any possibility of going back.