ABE-solutely Disappointing (a Review of ABE - Trinoma Branch)

"Mistakes stay in the kitchen.

Ensuring quality and consistency in the kitchen is essential for a successful restaurant. Even if service is busy, it's not an excuse for sloppy plates of food leaving the kitchen. If it's not good enough, don't serve it - it could ruin your reputation." - Gordon Ramsay

I’m always adventurous when it comes to food. I love bold flavors and unexpected combinations.  Ingredients that just don’t make sense together but when they come in contact with your taste-buds your palate just goes “off the charts”.  It is always exciting and refreshing for me to try out something novel and sometimes ridiculously crazy!

Let me say, as my personal “DISCLAIMER” and for future reference, every time I eat out and in every food review I will write about, I always try my best to not be bias and just have an open mind about trying new dishes and places. It must be stressed that if you really love food, you must not be so apprehensive as to shun away from everything outside your “comfort zone” so to speak.  In this way you can develop not only your knowledge about food but also your palate.  I think this is how, in the food industry, came up with the phrase, “an acquired taste”.  For example, for some oysters are delectable and just exquisite, while for others, it could be the most repulsive dish one could ever have. 

      Having said that, I think the same thing goes for restaurants and other food establishments.  I mean, every-one might thing this particular restaurant is the absolute finest, and for others, your experience is just a total disaster, so much so that you wish you just dined in at some shady bar around the corner or maybe just cooked off some of your favorite instant food.   It is a “hazard of the trade” to have a dismal experience when you experiment with food and restaurants.

        In this feast I am going to share with you one of those dismal and disappointing experiences.  It was absolutely unsatisfactory, that I just lost the enthusiasm to even take proper photographs. (if you know me or follow me on my social media, it is just uncharacteristic of me).

Photograph borrowed from Google

    

   I visited ABE – TRINOMA this past Sunday, I checked their site (http://ljcrestaurants.com.ph/abe/), to figure out if their theme of dining, are they casual dining? Fine dining? It doesn’t really indicate that information, whatever they were going for, it was just, plain and simple, a BAD dining experience for me.  Now, remember my disclaimer? Needless to say, before I got there I had, for all intents and purposes, high hopes, considering all the hype surrounding their name and the corporation they are a part of, not to mention the long queues always found outside their restaurant. 

                I am going “off script” for this one, so pardon me if this turns out to be a “rant” rather than a “review”.  I have two (2) pet-peeves when dining out, poor service and bad food.  That basically sums up, in general, any persons dining experience, the way they were served (even if it is a self-service establishment), and the food they were served. 

Let us start with service.  Servers or the front of the house is the backbone of any restaurant.  And while some might disagree, without the servers and other staff at the front, no food will be sent out to the customers, which will lead into a mighty frenzy amongst their customers. 

Abe’s service was not bad but it wasn’t good either.  Servers would generally be attentive enough to get your order and provide you with the service you need, my only, but very critical qualm is their courteousness.  None of them, for the whole duration of my stay, smiled or asked if we needed anything else.  There is a reason restaurants are categorized as a “service industry”.  They provide a certain service, and in business that thrives on it, should offer good service.  No one thinks that being a server is less of a job than being an accountant, which is why I think you should do that job with a certain degree of professionalism and pride, otherwise, don’t do it at all.  Where are the standards? Set those standards with your staff.  Again, put some pride in what you do. 

Another thing I want to point out, the managing of a restaurant, I learned in watching all those food shows early on that the job description of the manager does NOT end at the front of the house, not just working the dining area and the staff, it extends to the kitchen. Do not let your kitchen run out of stock from your inventory, especially when you are open throughout the day. It is just completely frustrating when that happens.

To illustrate, we ordered a few dishes on the menu, one of which was their PASTEL DE LENGUA. As far back as my memory will allow me to recall, I have been a big fan of any version or variation of this dish. I am flat out game for any “lengua” dish you place in front of me. As a matter of fact lengua de gato is one of my favorite sweet snacks. 

Back to the dish, it did live up to its name. The protein, i.e. the tongue, was cooked to perfection, tender and melt-in-your-mouth, as they say “like butter”, and the innards of any animal must be really cooked down to take away the gamey-ness of it.  Neither was the tongue overpowering in taste and the sauce it was cooked in lent very well to that. I loved the way it had a little bit of sweetness from the carrots and the coconut cream, and a little saltiness from the protein and the sauce itself.  It also had a faint acidity to it from the tomato sauce as well.  All in all, it was really good.  The only thing I would take away from this dish is, first, they could add a little more acidity to it, because it tends to be sweeter rather than savory. 

Second, this dish is usually baked with a pastry on top of it, which would have lent some contrast in textures.  Unfortunately, they “ran out” of the pastry dough, I don’t think you can serve that if you don’t have the components of the dish to make as such but, that is just how I am with food.  Give it to me as advertised or as they say “86” i.e. take it off the menu.

Originally we wanted their ‘Calamares in su Tinta’, that is, squid sautéed in its own ink, “adobong posit” in short, but just like the first dish, they ran out of ink. How would you run out of ink if you are going to cook the squid in its OWN ink? That would mean you wouldn’t have the squid either, right?  

Anyway, so instead we decided to order the SINUTENG BABY SQUID. It is tasty, that would be because of the garlic oil that It is swimming in, the toasted garlic lends a sweet taste to the dish since it has been browned and all its garlic-y taste has been cooked out. The squid is tender and not chewy, which is always a good thing when talking about squid, then again it is baby squid.

I have to say, and admit to my limited ignorance, but this was the first time I have ever had sisig that was not sizzling and yet it was better than anything I’ve ever had on a sizzling plate. Their SPICY SISIG PAMAPANGA, as surprised as I was, does not leave that greasy taste and feel we (that’s right, I’m talking to you!) would normally get from having too much sizzling sisig. The right amount of minced siling labuyo was perfect that it gave it that zingy kick and heat to wake up your taste buds but without mouth-washing your palate with so much heat, rather just to wake up your palate and taste the flavors of the dish. You get the crunch from the ‘tenga’ which really gives it another dimension of texture apart from the pork and the other innards finely chopped into it.   

  You can tell that no expense was spared into giving it the traditional flavors of an authentic sisig and you wouldn’t even know that it had components of innards since the bitterness was masked by the overall dish.  For that, I will give them props, it must be the best and most authentic sisig I’ve ever had! That said this gets a GOOD STUFF rating from, truly, a must-order.  Don’t miss out on it when you visit Abe.

Finally, their “MY MOTHER’S RILYENONG MAIS THELMA SAN JUAN” this dish played out differently in my mind while ordering it.  I was expecting a fish dish, maybe a Bangus (milkfish) or maybe tilapia (mudfish), stuffed with corn relish with tomatoes and onions, it was an entrée after all.  Here’s where the food aspect of this dish turned for the worse.

It arrived last from all the dishes that we ordered.  And it took about 35 minutes to get from the hot plate to the table.   I got flabbergasted and annoyed at the same time when it was put in front of me.  They were corn fritters or by the size of them corn pancakes.  “Really?”, I thought to myself.  I am by no means a speed demon in cooking in the kitchen but pancakes for over half an hour? Anyway, what made matters worse was the fact that its flavor profiles were more of a dessert dish rather than an entrée.  It was sweet over sweet since the corn already has an inherently sweet flavor, in addition, they made their batter just as sweet.  It was doughy at the same time leading me to believe that it could have used a few more minutes in the pan or oven.  It was definitely not good eats.

I won’t take anything away from ABE – TRINOMA.  They do put out some of the goods and for the most part of my visit, I liked the food that was sent, however, I don’t know if good food should or will change your dining experience over unsatisfactory service. To be honest, it changed mine negatively. I don’t think a 3 star Michelin dish would ever salvage any good impressions of an establishment if nothing else went the way it was suppose to i.e. bad service.  Good food or not, I think that particular branch of Abe or any restaurant for that matter should really think about the way service is rendered.  It is the overall experience of a customer that really matters.  How they are greeted as they enter the front door up to the time they pay the bill and walk out the same way. 

I take my food seriously, maybe even too seriously, but this is because over the years I have slowly but surely educated and I still continue to educate myself about food and of how things should be.  This is the reason, why I want to share my knowledge to my readers.

 Think about this, always, when you eat out “Is this worth the price of admission?”, for we have to spend, to fund this expensive hobby, eating, so it should be worth our time and money.