Soup with Worm, only at Dencio's Tagaytay

I really dislike it when restaurants serve food with hair or any other stuff that's not supposed to be in it. But what if a LIVE WORM was in your dish? What would you do? This post was based on my sister and her colleagues' firsthand experience in Dencio's Bar and Grill Tagaytay.

Date: May 21, 2011
Time: Around 4:00PM

They were a group of 8 who decided to dine in Dencio's Bar and Grill Tagaytay. Part of their meal were 2 orders of Bulalo Soup. When their Bulalo Soup arrived to their table, it was not hot but just in room temperature. They decided to partake in it anyway since they were already hungry. Halfway into the meal, my sister's colleague saw a small LIVE WORM moving in her soup, and immediately called the waiter's attention. The waiter then scooped the worm from the soup, placed it on a piece of tissue paper, and brought it to the kitchen (perhaps to show it to their cook/chef or whoever responsible for that). The waiter came back and apologized for the worm and said that maybe the worm came from the vegetables that was in the soup. Given that the worm was inside the vegetables, it's still not a valid excuse because they ought to clean the vegetables well before cooking and serving it. My sisters' group then decided to just have the 2 orders of Bulalo Soup cancelled from their bill. In a normal scenario, the manager of the restaurant would oblige and just cancel the orders, but not here. Too bad the waiter took the worm immediately, my sister's colleague should have taken a snapshot or a video of it.

The assistant manager of Dencio's Tagaytay, Ms. Galang who was not so magalang, came into the scene and said that their order of 2 Bulalo Soup CANNOT BE CANCELLED because it was already punched inside their system, and kasi bawas na raw yung dish. She pointed out that the restaurant never cancels any orders that are punched in the system. All she can do is either to replace the 2 orders of Bulalo Soup with newly cooked ones OR give them a 20% discount on their Bulalo Soup. Naturally, any customer would not want to be served the same dirty food that was previously served to them. Would you still have the appetite to drink another bowl of Bulalo soup when the previous one served to you had a worm in it? My sister's group wanted their 2 orders of Bulalo soup cancelled, and that was all they wanted! The assistant manager did not oblige and just gave them a 20% discount on their wormy soup.

You think that's bad enough? Read on.

When my sister's group insisted that they wanted the soup cancelled from their bill, the assistant manager kept on insisting that they followed a "standard procedure" for serving their food at a certain temperature, and that it was impossible to be served when the soup was not hot. She kept on stressing the fact that they were following their standard procedure. She also insisted that the worm ought to be dead because they served the soup hot. In the first place, that worm should not have been in the soup. She was arguing with 8 customers who insisted that their soup was served cold and trying to prove herself right. She even told them that they should have complained at once regarding their soup upon serving should there be any problems. It was like she was blaming them for not complaining at once. As a matter of fact, the assistant manager should be thankful that my sister's group were not complaining early on in the meal since they were hungry and they just let it go at first, well, until the worm came up. Shouldn't she be the one who should appease the customers, apologize, and make amends?

The assistant manager also said another statement that made me wonder why she still has her job. She said that the worm might have just fallen down from their wooden ceiling to the soup. WOW. I wonder what kind of training she went through to give those kinds of reasoning.

So there, from the P590.00 their group spent on their wormy soup, they only got 20% off for the 2 orders of the wormy soup, and not even deducted from their entire bill. A total discount of P118.00!

These are the receipts from the said meal.

Note that the second receipt had the 2 orders of Bulalo Soup discounted at 20% off.

Does Dencio's think that the P118.00 discount is enough to suffice if ever the group of 8 got sick because of their dirty food? Is their customer's health that cheap? By the way, I have also read from someone with complaints regarding the Tagaytay branch. His wife's bagoong had a cigarette butt in it! Gross!

Bottomline is, we will NEVER ever go back to any of Dencio's Bar and Grill branches. I hope this gets to the public so they too can be wary of dirty restaurants. I hope this also reaches the authorities so no other consumer can experience the same kind of treatment my sister's group went through.

Just sharing my thoughts,
Helen