Upon returning from El Nido, a stay at the farm near Tarlac and our aborted trip to see the Hundred Isles, we spent a week close to our home in Baguio. My BIL, who was also our driver, returned to Manila for a week of work and my wife spent her time going out and meeting various groups of her friends and former classmates. As a husband, I sometimes went and sometimes didn't, depending on venue and what my wife was requesting. None of it was terribly exciting though so I won't bore you with the details.
At some point though during that week, I took my kids and their cousins out to eat at a local eatery called "Good Taste". It was quite the experience and I could come up with nothing quite like it that I've ever been too. First and foremost, the restaurant is massive and consists of five floors! At least the one floor we ate on, level five, could seat probably 300 to 400 people. I would say it was only half full when we got there so maybe around 200 people. I have no idea how many people were eating on the other three floors because we took the elevator to the top floor.
On the first floor when you entered the restaurant was the kitchen area where all the meals were cooked and a bank of food elevators seen above to whisk your completed food up to the floor you were sitting on. The food itself was all served family style which made it easier but still quite impressive in my mind knowing how many tables were on each floor.
After being seated, we looked over the menu and decided what dishes to order. At that point, you just flagged down one of the servers in red and they came over with their electronic tablet and took your order. They had ample time to do this in large part due to the robots, one of which you can see above. Once your drink order or later dessert order was entered into the system, they were electronically sent to the drink station or dessert station on the floor where they were filled and then the robot programmed to deliver them directly to our table without human help. There it would pause until we unloaded our drinks and desserts and hit a button on the screen saying we had everything. Our meal came to another station, at the other end of the bank of elevators and were placed on carts and manually delivered by the human servers on large wheeled carts.
All in all, it was an incredibly efficient design and I imagine a very profitable one since to wait on hundreds if not close to a thousand people at once, they only needed very minimal wait staff. The food lived up to it's name and tasted very good and overall I was pleased with the experience. I imagine this sort of thing will arrive here soon if it hasn't already.
On a related side note but worthy of mentioning, is that there isn't tipping in the Philippines like there is here in the States. When you go to the restaurant and want to pay by credit card, they will bring the credit card reader over to your table, punch in the amount and you scan your card. They don't turn it around to allow you to add a tip. They just hand you a receipt and tell you to have a great day while smiling. It is so refreshing compared to say my experience last night where I stopped into a local Chinese restaurant here in the U.S. to get some noodles which is an Asian requirement when someone in your family is celebrating a birthday. I had placed my order to go and when paying, the cashier spun her device around so I could leave a tip. The minimum "recommended tip" option was a whopping 25% and the other two options went up to 30%! I was floored and took the time to enter a custom tip of a few bucks (10%) which I still felt was a rip off since I was picking up my food and walking out, no service needed.
I agree with you on the tipping, 10% is more than generous on a "to go" order.
ReplyDeleteIt used to be 10% was one of the automatic options but that has disappeared these days.
DeleteWhat an amazing place.
ReplyDeleteWe tip too in Canada because restaurant servers have a lesser minimum wage that other workers. However, it is still more that US minimum wages form what I understand.
I have read that in the US they don’t bring the pay machines to the table. Is that correct? With some exceptions, the norm here is to bring the machine to the customer.
One of the more "liberal" beliefs of mine is that we should pay servers a living wage and get rid of tips altogether. It will likely make dining out be more expensive but I'm okay with that, especially if I know the person serving me is making a decent living that way.
DeleteIt isn't rare here in the U.S. for the machine to be brought to the table but it isn't the most common form. I would say it ranks slightly less than going to a counter by the door to pay and both are way less than just handing your card over and the server walks it back to a machine and then brings a receipt to you where you add the tip. The caveat to those thoughts is that I mostly eat at sit down dining places when I eat out. There are a lot of fast casual places around that I never eat at that might do things differently.
Sounds like a fun experience! Tipping is similar in Europe, and we have been told it's because servers are paid a standard living wage, not dependent on gratuity. They are happy to accept a cash tip, of course, but it's generally not expected.
ReplyDeleteI strongly wish our country could set minimum wages that people could live on and abolish tipping completely. Of course it would mean living with the consequences of more expensive food when dining out but I think it would be a worthy trade.
DeleteI seldom tip on take out orders unless they were really helpful and on time with the order. I have waited up to 30 minutes for a Pizza all the while listening to the person in charge hollering and throwing down pans and ingredients. I could have made it faster myself. I think the robots may get things correct the first time and be more pleasant than some wait staff!
ReplyDeleteI usually don't tip on take out orders when getting it from establishments I don't visit hardly at all or never again. But this place is one of three go to places if we go out to eat in town and we know the staff fairly well. I feel a little more obligated to tip in those situations.
DeleteI would be fascinated to try out a place like that although I'm fond of human beings as my servers. I like to chat a little with them and I don't imagine a robot would make much conversation. :) I dislike that our servers in the U.S. are at the mercy of tips to make any sort of living wage.
ReplyDeleteI am in complete agreement about the tips. As for the robot servers, I am not a picky person when it comes to ordering food, i.e. I just order directly off the menu without alteration, and I am not one to make idle chit chat, so I'm perfectly acceptable non-humans bringing out my food.
DeleteSo far, your adventure to "Good Taste" is just about the only place I would like to try. I assume it was air conditioned? I need clean and non humid at my age. No climbing, crowds, etc.
ReplyDeleteI don't tip at all for take out orders. There is no service except to take my orders and money, imo. 25% is ridiculous!
I don't know if it was air conditioned or not because it was in Baguio which is like living in a air conditioned room most of the year, not counting the humidity.
DeleteI don't normally tip for take out orders unless it is at one of three establishments that we more frequently eat at and know the staff on a first name basis. Then I feel more of an obligation to help support their livelihood since I know they depend on them for a living.
This sounds like an interesting and fun place to eat! A bonus that it lived up to its name, too!
ReplyDeleteIt was certainly different than anything I had experienced before and a model of efficiency, something I rarely see when it comes to the Philippines.
DeleteI'd be expecting food like the Jetson's cartoon. That place is close to Jetson style. Linda in Kansas
ReplyDeleteAlthough I don't know what style the Jetson's ate, I would assume it was individual meals served on trays where as this was family style, i.e. we ordered four different dishes that we all then shared. But the staff was definitely Jetson's style!
DeleteWhat an interesting eatery. I have to say this seems a useful use of robots (which generally seem not to live up to expectations.) Now that wait staff is required to share their tips with the rest of the table staff, it's no wonder recommendations are going up.
ReplyDeleteThe tipping concept is getting problematic in the U.S. Having worked as a waitress once upon a time, I understand that it's an excuse for restaurants to pay help less than minimum wage. The tips are supposed to average the salary to at least minimum wage.
I eat at a nice restaurant once a year and insist on paying cash. That way I can pay the exact amount and use the tip as it should be used - a reward for good service. When tipping becomes mandatory, the incentive to do a good job is gone. So far they let me pay cash, but I wonder if a time will come when they will refuse it.
I mostly pay with credit card since I get an automatic 2% of all dollars spent back. But if they were to leave out customizing a tip, I would definitely go back to paying with cash.
DeleteInteresting, Ed. I have not been to a restaurant with robots but I have heard there are a few around here.
ReplyDeleteTipping culture in the U.S. is wildly out of control.
I have never seen or heard of them, at least not here in America. But I suppose they exist somewhere. Saying that, I have been to plenty of restaurants where the wait staff may have indeed been android as they acted very robotic.
DeleteAt a restaurant near me T
ReplyDeleteAt a restaurant near here they have a delivery robot. It’s a lot of fun to watch. Kids think its so cool..
Well that confirms that they exist on the North American continent anyway!
DeleteFive floors, dedicated food elevators, and robot runners—that’s next-level efficiency.
ReplyDeleteAnd hear, hear on the tipping culture. Being prompted for 25–30% on basic takeout counter orders is exhausting. Experiencing a simple, honest transaction abroad really highlights how broken our system has become. Great recap, Ed!
I have been to many different countries and so far, ours is the only one where tipping is so prevalent and nearly out of control.
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