Disappointment: Lauriat at Gloria Maris, Alabang

Yeah, I couldn't come up with a more creative title because that lauriat dinner at Gloria Maris Alabang was so uninspiring.

I had dinner there a couple weeks ago with family. For days leading up to it, I was really excited because I hadn't had Gloria Maris in years. Family lunches or dinners at Gloria Maris (the Greenhills branch) were a staple of my childhood and growing-up years, when my Chinese grandfather was still with us. With Gloria Maris, I associate a kind of Chinese luxury--the food, the service, the decor and ambiance--and that was more or less what I expected as I walked into the restaurant.

Oh, the gap between expectation and reality.

The decor was ordinary. The tables were covered in these ugly, loud orange tablecloths that turned infinitely uglier once stained with water from the bottom of a moist glass or teacup. The music being played was an album of (fake) bossa nova covers of teenybopper hits, on loop. Torture. Look, I'm not going to get into a discussion of what's real music and what isn't, but this is Gloria Maris! Play something more appropriate and elegant!

Bird's nest soup with quail egg

But all could still be forgiven if the food delivered. We ordered a set menu for 10 (Php 5,650 [~USD 136]), which included soup, cold meats, broccoli with shrimp and scallops, bok choy and mushrooms, fried chicken, spicy ribs, rice, and taho. We also had an additional order of Peking duck, two-way: wrapped and salt-and-pepper. Here's the rundown:

First up, bird's nest soup with quail egg: average. They served the soup and forgot to give us soup spoons. When we asked, they collected soup spoons from other tables and gave them to us, which was a little curious.


The cold appetizer plate (I believe they call it BBQ cold cuts combination) was even more underwhelming: the jellyfish (usually my favorite) and pork asado were average, the pork belly was crisp but had more fat than meat, and the chicken was practically tasteless. (Plus the picture of the platter had century egg, but ours didn't have any.)

BBQ cold cuts combination platter

The sauteed broccoli with shrimp and scallops was flavorful and pretty good, one of the tastier dishes of the night, but it wasn't all that memorable. The bok choy and assorted mushrooms in oyster sauce was pretty good too, but again, unmemorable.

Bok choy and mushrooms with oyster sauce

Sauteed broccoli with shrimp and scallops

The fried chicken was just okay, and I was rather disappointed that it didn't come with kropek, which to me is the only reason to have fried chicken at a Chinese restaurant. (In the ad/picture, the fried chicken came with kropek. Two strikes for false advertising!) The sauce that came with it was your generic sweet-and-sour sauce.

Fried chicken

The fried spicy spareribs were probably the highlight of the meal: well seasoned, nicely crisp on the outside, tender and juicy on the inside. Each vinegar-dipped bite was a pleasure. It's not a dish that I'd go out of my way for, but I wouldn't mind having it again.

Fried spicy spareribs

The fried rice was average. I'm not a big rice eater anyway, and I usually don't expect much other than for it to be properly cooked, which it was.

Fried rice

Peking duck

I'm not sure whether it was a good thing that we went for the additional order of Peking duck. It was good because the lauriat, which was supposed to be good for 10, barely filled us up--and there were only 9 of us, with about half of us not really being big eaters. It wasn't good because, well, it wasn't good. The duck wrapped in Mandarin pancakes might've been the biggest disappointment of the night (tied with the taho, below). I particularly like this dish, and I think it's pretty hard to go wrong with it, but they did. The duck wasn't well seasoned, the piece I had didn't have spring onions inside, and the wrapper was soggy, mushy, and torn! The salt and pepper duck was a little better. It was generously seasoned, but again, not memorable.

Peking duck in Mandarin pancakes

Salt-and-pepper Peking duck

The taho for dessert, I could've done without. The server scooped it into individual bowls without removing the water, so we all ended up with watery taho. The sago was mushy and overcooked, and the syrup was meh. I happen to like taho, and I was excited about it, especially since it came in a cute wooden bucket. Alas, it was an aptly disappointing way to end an overall disappointing meal. I'd take taho from the street vendors or from the supermarket over this any day.

Taho

Why transfer dry chicken and saucy seafood/veggies
onto the same plate?

On the plus side, the service was quick, the staff attentive. Water glasses were refilled without us having to ask. The food came quickly. Individual plates that had too much going on (bones, sauces) were quickly replaced. Serving dishes that were half empty were taken away, the food transferred to smaller plates, to make room on the table. Still, they couldn't get it all right. During one instance, chicken from the appetizer platter was transferred onto the same plate as the broccoli with shrimps and scallops--so now the chicken was coated with the sauce of the broccoli.




Another service-related complaint: they charge for house tea. I am of the opinion that Chinese and Japanese restaurants should serve complimentary house tea, and many do.

I've always seen Gloria Maris as a premiere Chinese lauriat restaurant, and I was so incredibly excited for R, as it was his first lauriat experience. In the past, every single meal at Gloria Maris was excellent. Now the food is just average, and there is no longer that feeling of it being high end and top notch. I don't know whether the quality really has declined, or they were just having an off day, or if the Alabang branch really is just nowhere near as good as the Greenhills branch. I suppose I could give it another chance to find out, but after that disappointing dinner, I'm not particularly inclined to.

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Gloria Maris Alabang
Alabang Town Center, Muntinlupa
+63 2 850 8802

Open Monday to Sunday, 11 am - 10:30 pm