So this is over due. My first resto review. But I'm not gonna go easy just because it's my first.
Barkadahan Grill
As a person who loves to laugh, I really don't think dining should be a laughing matter. But I'd prefer that, over getting aggravated at the time when I'm most hungry and want to devour a feast.
Barkadahan Grill is conveniently located at T. Neri cor. Pabayo St. Divisoria, right in the heart of the business central of the city. So a lot of people go by it all the time. All those times, I can remember only a couple of times dining in. I didn't think about the reasons why I ate there only a couple of times when in fact I eat out all the time.
From the outside, you'd see a small dining place not too inviting for passers-by to come in. You'd get a mixed scent of seafood being cooked that you'd want to linger for, for a while. But I'm not much of a seafood person. So having that in mind all those times, that they serve mostly seafood, must have been the reason why I don't go there. But that night, it was late, so all the other small restos I go to are already closed. And I was so hungry, I would've eaten anything. So I took the short walk in.
Price, within budget. Check. General look, clean. Check.
Taking the order from the counter I decided, "Tonight, I'm going to have liempo." I was wonderfully surprised to know they served all the rice you can eat with no additional charge.
And so while waiting, I had a good feel of the place. Good number of people dinning in despite the late hour. "Business going well," I assumed. I positioned myself to dine, and the table decided to make it's presence known making this rocking motion. That's just one of two things I most dislike when dining, uneven floor where the table moves back and forth over when you lean on.
Bossa songs played not long after I sat down. Which I didn't mind at all. But this most distracting sound you'd expect from any restaurant, reverberated throughout the small space. I looked up to see where the sound is coming from and found 2 small desktop computer speakers. This one is just borderline annoying and distracting. Like FM radio station not properly tuned in, or the ice age walkie-talkie getting chappy signals, or whatnot.
And so I had to endure that because I was so hungry. I tried not to mind and just waited patiently. A good 15 minutes passed and the food was finally served. I didn't have time to get a photo when the plate was still full. It was OK. I was just so hungry. And then I took this shot.
Excuse me. I do not eat as sloppy as the image here shows. You know those small glass vials that restos use to store condiments like soy sauce and vinegar with the tin lids having small holes at the tip? This one has holes all over the lid where there shouldn't be. And so when you tip it over expecting small drops of soy sauce to come out, it just spills all over the place. I purposely didn't clean up so they'll see that the vial they're using needs to be checked and replaced.
Secondly, if you take a closer look at the fork, the tip of the second teeth of that is bent 140 degrees backwards. At the expense of saying hurtful words to the host/hostess, I took a deep breath, closed my eyes, relaxed and focused on my hunger the whole time.
Using my camfone, I took another closer shot and noticed something else.
You look close enough, you'll figure out that that's actually a very large mosquito stuck in the plate. And that's just entirely unacceptable. And so you get the funny part I was talking about? I would've joined "Survivor" instead had I known they were serving exotic dishes here. I could have won something.
My rating for Barkadahan Grill, 1/5 plates.
Needless to say, I'm never dining there again.
