Resto Bites: Maple

I wanted to like Maple. I really did. I chose the restaurant for my despedida lunch with my office friends before I left my former job. Our office was near Shangri-La Plaza, and the recently-opened East Wing promised a lot of new restaurants waiting to be tried. The day before we went there, I saw Christine Dychiao post a photo of their Truffle Omelette Souffle on her Instagram account.

Maple is a modest-sized restaurant with dark wooden furniture, giving off a warm, log cabin vibe. An accent wall has a huge stencil of a Maple tree, with backlighting that emits an amber glow. Their menu reads like a fairy tale book, and they offer traditional and modern American dishes.

Only a couple of tables were taken when we came in (the photos above were taken after our meal), but the restaurant was filled soon after we sat down. The ratio of the servers to the tables weren't quite balanced, we only saw about three servers for more than twelve tables, and they were always out of sight.

Our bad experience started with the dusty water glasses. Ten called the attention of one waitress and told her of our concern. What I noticed was the waitress didn't apologize or seem bothered, she even thought what we were pointing out was a lime pulp, which they serve with their house water. That was fine, we let it pass. Our water glasses were replaced.

We ordered four dishes: Huevos Rancheros, Truffle Omelette Souffle, the Blueberry and Cream Cheese Pancake Tower, and Bourbon Bread Pudding for dessert. Presentation-wise, the souffle looked the best, while the pancake tower left us disappointed. It was lopsided and looked like it was put together hastily.

Huevos Rancheros is a Mexican breakfast dish composed of fried tortilla chips, beans, chicken and cabbage, topped with a sunny-side up egg, cheese, and a special ranchero sauce. We liked this dish, but you have to finish this immediately while it's hot, as the tortilla chips tend to get soggy when left untouched. Think of this as breakfast nachos.

Taste-wise, I also liked the omelette best. I never had an omelette souffle before so the texture of the dish was a welcome surprise. The smell of truffle (or was it truffle oil?) got us hooked. The dish, like most of Maple's offerings, is big enough to share. It is served with slices of garlic bread, but you can also order a side of rice if you want a more filling meal.

Now, remember the sad pancake tower? It turns out, it WAS put together hastily, because after only one bite of those pancakes, I had to stop and check why there was a metallic taste in my mouth. Out came a piece of aluminum foil the size of my thumb nail. Sorry, I was too shocked to think of bringing out my phone so there is no photo. We showed the waiter the piece of aluminum foil, and guess what he said? "Ay galing po yan sa cream cheese (That's from the cream cheese packaging)." As if we didn't realize that. The good thing is he asked us if we wanted the dish to be replaced (of course). The bad thing is he didn't apologize either! He just took my plate and acted like it was an ordinary thing, as if they always find a piece of foil casually mixed in their dishes all the time.

Our second tower of pancakes came and it didn't look any better, only there was no foil anymore.

But it's hard to get past the incident, and after that everything just tasted blah. Even the Bourbon Bread Pudding didn't do anything for me, and I love pudding!

In one of Top Chef's episodes, Chef Tom Colicchio said people come to a restaurant for the food, but they come back because of the service. And this is really what Maple should improve on. It was so hard to call the servers' attention, they were always inside the kitchen. And when we did get their attention, they seemed apathetic to the concerns we were raising. If they don't care about what they are putting out, why should we bother coming back?

Our bill, when split among us three, didn't really hurt our pockets. But I'd rather spend my hard-earned money some place else, one that has great food and even greater service.


MAPLE
L/GL East Wing
Shangri-La Plaza
Mandaluyong City

2/FL San Antonio Plaza Arcade
50 McKinley Road
Forbes Park, Makati City