Crustasia, Power Plant

We like Crustasia, or maybe change that verb to the past tense to read, "We liked Crustasia", all branches, until last week when very hungry, my husband and I proceeded to their branch in Power Plant, straight from the car. We asked for suggestions from the lady who attended to us and she said "Shrimp pancakes" for appetizer. I asked if she could place the order ahead as I was really hungry. She left us to go to the kitchen.

In the meantime, she gave us the julienne cut singkamas and carrots stuck in a bowl of ice, with three sauces to choose from: hoisin, plum and I don't know what. The plum sauce reminds me of dikiam or something. Anyway, we read the menu to choose other entrees. I can't now remember what they were but suffice it to say that after a while, the waitress came back to say they were out of shrimp pancakes. Groan. SO I asked, what do you have, one you're sure is available. She recommended stuffed tofu. I said, fine. Then, after a while, a waiter this time came to approach us. He said they had tofu but not the stuffing for it. I think prior to this I also chose another entree which they said they didn't have. At any rate, I accepted the waiter's apology and proceeded to look at the menu again. Then the waitress came back. So I asked her, what can you get us that you're sure you have? Earlier you said you had the tofu and so we ordered, only to be told that you didn't have the stuffing. I guess this girl wasn't the type to enjoy explaining things so she said, "I'll call the manager." The manager said, "Ma'am may nahanap kaming stuffing." "Nahanap?" I was incredulous. Where, pray tell, did they find the stuffing? Buried under so many kilos of meat? In the deep recesses of the freezer? So how old was this? I name dropped and said I knew the mother of the owner (actually it's my sister who does but we were introduced once). Then she said, "Ma'am ilonggo ka?" I wanted to say, "So what?" but instead, I just said yes. Then I told her, I'm sorry but we cannot eat here. We left.

Incidentally, the manager said they had so many customers the previous night that they ran out of supplies. That's poor inventory control. Years back, that happened to an Aristocrat branch we patronized. We chose two or three entrees and all were unavailable. A few months later, the branch closed.

I guess I'll just have to eat in Crustasia Podium or nevermore.