Couple's Trip

It was not long ago when my mom passed away and during those times, I did not really eat as much as I used to. I mean who would have the appetite to eat? Imagine, my mom was confined in the emergency room for what? Was it three days? And the times that I visit her and looked after her often had gruesome scenarios taking place in the background. Feel free to imagine whatever comes to your mind with the word “gruesome”. I seriously did not bother having breakfast, lunch or even dinner. I did not even drink any liquids during those days. I was like that for those couple of days I spent time watching over mom.

Anyway, I am actually not here to give a recount of my day to day experience during those depressing moments. Rather, I am here to share a neat experience I had with my girl in those gloomy days. As I have mentioned prior, I did not bother eating much during those times but whenever I get back home, I invite my girl to eat out in a nearby dining place. At first glance, the place where we eat appears to be a small eatery which serves your usual tapsilog. The dining area is actually set outside with just a couple of tables available for customers. Looking at the signboard, the place introduces itself as “Ichiban Da Ne”. For those who do not know what it means, it actually means “We are number one!” It actually has the translation printed just underneath the name of the eatery saying “Number 1 di ba?” which almost means the same thing. Now, I would not normally write something about just any place where I have eaten unless it was really a neat and decent place.

Ichi Ban Da Ne

But that is the thing here. Though the food is quite decent, nothing really spectacular, I cannot help myself but admire the customer service that the staff provides their customers. I mean, look at this. There was this time where a customer totally forgot to get their change. You know what happened? The manager, or so me and my girl think he is, went out of his way to chase those people. Unfortunately, he was not able to catch up to them but hey, you actually do not see those kind of things everyday especially at the kind of place where we ate. I would not be surprised if it was done by a manager in fastfood chains or fine dining restaurants. But in the place where I live in?
Furthermore, the staff was cordial enough to offer my girl free soup during our first visit. Yes, it is offered by most fine dining but they only do that towards their customers. At that time, I was the only one who ate there since my girl was still full. But she was still offered free soup. There was also this time wherein I asked if they sell ice since the refrigerator at home is dysfunctional (Courtesy of Ondoy). The manager said yes, they do sell ice and asked me how much do I need. I just said a few since it was already past midnight. I just wanted to drink some cold water when I get home. And you know what the manager did? He just dug up a lot of ice and gave it to us for free saying that he will not need those since it was already past midnight!

And these things happened in a span of what, a week or less? I told my girlfriend that it would be a sin on my part if I did not blog about that experience or the place so here it is. I just cannot help myself but admire the customer service. It was one of the best customer service experiences and I just could not help but smile whenever I remember those moments. I hope that they continue to do those simple, but great gestures. I am pretty confident that in due time, more customers will visit that place and appreciate it the way I did.

*Reviewed by Raven Knives