Great! Just great!

(Sarcastic)

(My GF's letter was originally addressed to the Dir. of Ops of Italianni's. Parts were
edited and ommited which did not affect the narration. )

My BF and I dined at Italianni's, Mall of Asia branch, last Saturday, August 22nd; around
7:30 pm. Unfortunately, the sub-standard cleanliness and customer service in this
particular branch was really disappointing.

The dinner started off in a usual manner, we were served with bread while waiting for our
orders of Classic Pizza and Baked Zitti. Twenty minutes later, our food arrived. I then
asked for additional Parmesan cheese. I finished a slice of pizza, and the pasta was cold
already, I still did not have the cheese I have asked for. So we requested again another
server to get me the cheese. After 5 more minutes of waiting, we requested for it again, it
arrived two minutes later. We then asked for a glass of water. About 5 minutes, still
without the requested water, my BF noticed a cockroach on the chair (sofa) where I was
seated, about an inch above the back of my head. He immediately called the attention of
the “receptionist” who then killed it with a piece of tissue in her hand . She did not even
apologize or speak to us after killing the cockroach. Halfway through our meal, I then
saw several other cockroaches (about 3) at the other side where my GF was seated. He
immediately waived his hand to call the attention of the servers but none responded,
probably due to other customers being attended to. He was already profusely waiving his
hand for someone to attend to us. A waiter who was at another table looked at him, as if
asking ‘what’s the matter?’ With an ‘I’ll be there in a minute look’, he almost blurted out
about the cockroach, but he didn’t want other patrons to find out about it, thinking it was
unnecessary to lay it on thick and scandalize the situation. He then stood up to command
attention and make the waiters feel a sense of urgency.' But then I saw that one of the
cockroach was about to fly near our plates. I jumped out of my seat in disgust. When they
saw we both stood up and people were all looking at us, one of the servers quickly
approached us to check what just happened.

We were told to transfer to another table, just outside the restaurant. But neither my BF
nor I felt like finishing our pizza and pasta that was already dirty, so I asked the staff
wearing a green shirt and black pants to get me the manager and she only said “Yes,
ma’am.” I did not know that I was talking to the manager already because she did not
even introduce herself. I told her there were cockroaches’ swarming around our table and
that it was very disgusting, my fiancé even butted in and said that a cockroach already
touched the food. Things got worse when she tried to explain that they had sprayed
pesticide the previous day and that must have been the reason for the coming out of the
cockroaches. She then quickly asked, as if to dispose of us, if we would like the food to
be wrapped instead. I was upset with her reply and to cool me down I asked her politely
to get me the glass of water we’ve asked for several minutes earlier.

Our server, Robin, then approached us and apologized for what had happened. We then
asked him to get us the manager. After a minute, he told us that the manager is on her
way. After 5 minutes, the same woman who I was spoke to earlier approached our table,
so I figured that she is the restaurant manager. She brought with her a pana cotta to
probably apologize or pacify us.

My BF accounted to her what had happened and explained to her why we were very
disappointed. He said exactly that “asking thrice for parmesan cheese which arrived after
20 minutes is tolerable, because there are a lot of customers. 15 minutes for water, is
tolerable because there are many customers. But asking us if we wanted for our food, that
has been landed on by a cockroach, to be wrapped, is simply unacceptable. She said, “Ah
ok. Sorry po di ko alam na may cockroach na lumipad sa plate niyo.” And then my fiancé
said, “We said that already earlier that there was a cockroach that touched the food. So
I’m sorry, but we are not interested in the pana cotta. The manager said “Bill out na lang
po?”. By this time, my BF got pissed off already and narrated to her the whole thing
again and said “and now you want us to pay for the half eaten pizza?” and we told her we
will not pay for the food. And she seemed irritated and immediately turned her back on
us and said, “Don’t pay for the bill na lang.” and went inside without even apologizing.

We are both very upset by the unexpected turn of events. This branch is a health hazard
and should be closed to make improvements on the cleanliness and personnel. Other than
the cockroach on the table, we found the service too slow and the manager to be
incompetent. She barely even apologized about the cockroach.

Italianni’s name is not completely sullied to us. We generally still like the restaurant, we
even dined at the Greenbelt branch a day after the incident, and we were enormously
pleased with the food and service.

*I strongly recommend the GB2 branch