Mooon Cafe

The one time I have been there I had the filet mignon based on a neighbor's recommendation. 1st, don't think of it as filet mignon, think of it as a steak. In that regard it is pretty tasty, was cooked well (medium not well done, well cooked lol), and real mashed potatoes. I also recommend it and will have it again.

 

If you are going to be out at least 3 things on your menu, you had better have a fallback something. Lest we forget what we are talking about, restaurants that serve food. They have menus, hopefully people go there to have the type of food you serve. Why should they have to experiment with something else off your menu that they do not want? What is the point of having a menu if people have to ask you what you DO have today? Which asking is a losing proposition as the server will have no clue. I wold have walked out but my friends had already ordered and presumably their food was being prepared and I was brought my coke and about 10 minutes after the orders were placed then I was told no stock of fajitas. I forget what my second choice was but I recall that my third was pork barbecue. Every time I ordered they took my order and walked away and had to come back to tell me No stock sir. I went back one more time. Sat down with the lady I was seeing and I ordered and they didn't have fajitas again and we just got up and left and ate at Chowking. I never went back in Mooon. I went to Dong Juans, Shakeys, Garcias, Flip Flops, Haya Hay, Coco Amigos, D&C chicken, Taco Tayo, One Love, MK Food Court, Jo's chicken Dumaguete and by the sea in Sibulan, and occasionally Gie Gie's and a few other places from time to time.

I gave Mooon two chances, both were miserable, or would have been if I hadn't walked out the second time.

I refrained from telling them it would be a great place to open a restaurant, it looks like all you would need is FOOD!

 

I ate there a couple times and regretted even just sticking to salads. This outlet in no way shape or form compares to the Ayala Terrace. Moon sucks in Robinsons. All terrible offerings and mostly Filipinos fill the place probably because of the low cost.

 

I had similar problem. I went in on a Monday and they were out of most everything. I go there fairly regularly so the waitress knows us and was friendly and explained they ran out of food due to many customers at the fiesta over the weekend so we thanked her and went to eat somewhere else but have returned again as my SO, child and I enjoy the place. Decent food and friendly staff plus convenient as we only live about 5 minutes away.

 

That is another issue and a major one at that. I can't understand why a manager at any of these places can't say to the staff "hey, run down to the market and buy XYZ, here's some cash". What I find is the utter worst is eating in a place in a mall or next to a grocery store and they say "sorry, no stock" on things like coke and so forth. They charge you 45 peso's or more for a can of coke yet they can't run over to the grocery store 100 meters away and buy a dozen cans of coke at 21 peso's each or whatever it is? Yes, they may make less profit then what they do selling from what they order but as they have no stock its better making slightly less profit then upsetting customers with "sorry, not available" and "sorry, no stock".

I guess though I'm a bit biased as I had issues and still do taking Filipina's and Filipino family out for something nice and they always fall back to the same couple Filipino dishes and that dratted fall back menu.

I remember my first time at that Chinese restaurant on the boulevard (Chan's?). I was here visiting Dumaguete before I moved here. I ordered a Chinese dish which they came back 2 minutes later "sorry, not available", ordered another dish and again 2 minutes later "sorry, not available", ordered a 3rd dish and "sorry, not available| again 5 minutes later but this time they brought the drinks. I just stood up with my partner and walked out as they were trying to put the drinks down on the table. It took me maybe 3 years before I gave them a 2nd chance. They actually impressed me somewhat on the 2nd chance but not enough to really have me wanting to go back.

Speaking of Chinese food I do miss it. I enjoyed Dimsum Diner downtown before they closed down. I also enjoyed the Chinese restaurant that was next to Hypermart now being a Bingo hall I think.... they closed down as well. Where can someone get some actually good Chinese food around here now?

 

I assume the difficulty is that who ever owns Mooons doesn't trust the staff enough to make decisions on their own or worse may punish employees who show initiative. So many times (in my experiences here) I have seen employees afraid to do anything not expressly written or directed to do by management because personal initiative is always a lose-lose situation for the employee. If they take the initiative to do something and it is beneficial the manager takes all the credit and punishes the employee because they didn't ask for approval from the same manager before doing it or worse (which happens more often than not) the employee shows some initiative to do something they think will please a customer and they lose their job because of it either because of jealousy from other employees or management. So basically they are damned if they do and damned if they don't but safer if they don't. Hence no initiative taken by employees in the PI.

Employees here are very cheap, at least a dime a dozen (as the saying goes) so when/if they do get a job they only do that which is expressly told to them to do and nothing more for fear of upsetting management or other employees and losing their job and income. Jealousy and infighting here is vicious at the work place as every employee has relatives and friends that desperately need jobs and if they can get someone they dislike at work fired maybe their friend or relative can get hired. As screwed up as that logic is that is precisely what the employees are thinking.

Again I am not the best at explaining my thoughts on paper but I hope you get the gist!

 

Both could world. I like Chinese and American-Chinese food. But I'm not keen on the Filipino take on Chinese food (chow king for instance)

Its not just them but almost every place I have been to that has said *not available*. Sometimes of course it can't just be picked up at the corner but so often it can be. It shouldn't be falling to the worker but the manager as they should be getting stock updates and be able to as the manager think for themselves and handle it. The place I see actually do this is McDonalds and KFC. I have seen KFC buy 1.5L bottles of coke when they are out of stock on the tap. I have seen McDonalds buy bottle's of coke and even slices of cheese when ran out of stock. The slices of cheese may have even cost them some profit margins on a number of items but just think how much business McDonalds will do if they have no cheese. What is left are a few burgers (most want cheese and w/o would pass) and chicken mcdo meals.

I'd actually be more tempted to FIRE a worker who can't take a bit of initiative and costs me business rather then taking initiative as long as the worker who takes initiative tried to contact me first and if failed soon as was able to explained the issue. But in the Philippines it doesn't work like that and employee's aren't rewarded for going above and beyond. One of the key problems here in my opinion and why so many workers are crappy workers. They don't have any reward system to encourage better then the bare minimum.

 

WE WERE GETTING TIRED OF THE SLOW KITCHEN, AND SOMETIMES BAD FOOD TOO!! SO ONE DAY WHILE DRIVING BACK FROM GOLF, MY WIFE SAID " LETS TRY THE BLVD MOON'S" ! I SAID MAYBE THEY GOT NEW PEOPLE THERE!! WELL WE BOTH WERE SURPRISED!! REALLY SURPRISED!! I ORDERED A NACHO AND AND SHE HAD A FISH SOMETHING! BUT MY NACHO WAS AWESOME AND SO BIG I COULD NOT FINISH IT!! SO WE NOW GO THERE INSTEAD OF ROBBIES MOON'S!!

 

We have only been to one downtown. Their steaks ate the best in the region served with great mashed potato. However their limp and rubbery frozen mixed vegetables we can do without.