The Bad Birthday Dinner

Last week, my sisters and I had dinner to celebrate my birthday. We had a few choices in mind but I decided that I wanted to try Cravings because I know I heard a few people from our school say that they had good food. Maybe it’s just me or maybe I just had high expectations, but Cravings failed me miserably.

We got seated right away and were also given the menu right away but i had to call the waiter back to take our orders even though there was hardly anyone in the restaurant. He took in all our orders but when we got to dessert, I got disappointed when the Twix Cheesecake was not available. I changed my order to the Belgian Dark Rich Chocolate Cheesecake and again, the waiter said it wasn’t available. I tried my best to be nice and asked which ones were available because we might go on and on if he doesn’t just tell me straight up. I don’t think he understood me very much because when he came back, he said I should try their Warmed Chocolate Caramel with Vanilla Ice Cream because it was their best-seller. I bit back saying, “I didn’t ask you what your best-seller is!” and instead I told him to just leave the menu and I’ll order dessert for later. Cravings has a display case of their desserts upfront so I just went there and checked what they had. I didn’t find anything that interested me or maybe it was just the fact that I was getting disappointed already so I abandoned the thought of dessert. The waiter came back with our drinks and I gave him back the menu. Then he said that we were each entitled to unlimited soup and salad because we each ordered main courses. My enthusiasm came back again and I headed to the soup station and salad bar. I got the chicken noodle soup and made myself a Caesar salad. I started with the soup but it did not quite please me because there hardly was any noodle or chicken in the soup and I’m pretty sure I tasted a bit of sourness in it, like a hint of lemon, which I didn’t appreciate. I expect chicken noodle soup to be hearty but then again, it was free soup. i dived into my Caesar salad next and enjoyed it. But then, it wasn’t exactly a Caesar salad because they only had iceberg and green leaf lettuce. The lettuces were fresh and crisp. Their dressing was good, just the right amount of saltiness and tartness and the croutons were tasty and toasty. 

soup and salad

We ordered Buffalo wings (Php 265) which came a few minutes after we started our soups and salads. They tasted good but I wouldn’t exactly call them Buffalo wings because they absolutely lacked the heat and the buttery taste. To me, it tasted more like a honey barbeque glazed wings. 

Buffalo wings (the only thing i liked)

Our entrees came after 5-10minutes. My youngest sister, Nina, had Parmesan Crusted Fish Fillet (Php 365), which didn’t seem like there was any parmesan used. 

Parmesan Crusted Fish Fillet

My other sister, Zyra, had the Chicken ala Chef Jonathan (Php 335), which was so-so. It was good but there wasn’t anything too memorable about the dish. It was just a roasted chicken with mushroom gravy and rosemary. 

Chicken ala Chef Jonathan

I had the Crab-Stuffed Fish Fillet (Php 360), which I was super excited to try but disappointed. It lacked seasoning and flavor. It was plain bland. I don’t think they used any seasoning at all. Not even salt or pepper. I expected to taste butter and paprika and cheese melting into the crab and fish meat. But all I tasted was bland fish stuffed with bland crab with some Quickmelt cheese. There wasn’t even a lemon-butter sauce to go with it.

Crab-Stuffed Fish Fillet

After we paid the bill and left the restaurant, I huddled in with my sisters and said what was not being spoken among us. “I didn’t like the food”, I said and Zyra smirked and agreed. I told her that at least now we know and we won’t be coming back again. As we were walking around the mall, I couldn’t help but compare the food with the ones that taste better but cheaper that Cravings. I shook my head and told them, I would have enjoyed eating at Gerry’s grill more. Oh well, lessoned learned.