We met a few of my wife's friends over at dinner last December at Forest House. Believe it or not, it was my first time to visit this place. I never did go around much in Baguio when we were still in the Philippines; I only had weekends then and I preferred to stay at home or visit familiar haunts with my family.
Forest House is quite a cozy place, and since it was Christmas time, the place was especially spruced up for the occasion. I could not think of a better ambience; the place looked so comfortable in its surroundings and cool Baguio air. The atmosphere was relaxing; we stayed and chatted by the fireplace facing the entrance while waiting for the others to arrive.
There were still a number of seats vacant when we were finally ushered to our table, but an hour later the place was filled! It sure is a popular place. The waiters were friendly and accomodating.
It was too good to be true, unfortunately. We were undecided what to order and so we asked for the waiter's recommendation. Lengua was suggested, and so we took that, along with others.
However, there wasn't really anything spectacular with the lengua. There was a lot of it left on the plate when we finished. Unfortunately, same story with the other dishes we ordered. It was generally ok. The sinigang, though, was good.
Here's a little incident with the Bagnet. This was set on our table but we did not really order it. However, with all the chatter going around, nobody could remember exactly what was ordered. We have already taken off this plate when the waitress came by and had to take the bagnet away because it was not on our order. I don't know how restaurants exactly operate but I think courtesy calls that they should just leave the plate on the house, isn't it? It was their fault after all. When the waitress came to take away the bagnet, we didn't know what to do with what we had already taken... return it? Awkward. Restaurants must not make their guests feel such.
There were also problems with the take-out one of our companions made. When everyone was having coffee and desert, she decided to order some take-out. We had to wait for it for more than half an hour. Plus, they brought us the wrong change and so we had to bring it to their attention and waited some more until the right receipt and change was given us.
All was not lost, however. Their silver lining to their cloud is the desert. We ordered a number of cheesecakes and they were divine!
It was a good thing that we were there mainly to catch up on each other's lives so the place and food was secondary, although it would have been an even better evening if we had a great experience with the place. The ambience and the staff were great, food not so much, some service delays... desert's great.
It must be the volume of customers that created the delays. But still, the food does need some looking into. Nonetheless, the place is great for meeting up and chatting over coffee and desert!
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