Bistro Miyake

I saw Bistro Miyake while I was on my way to Jo Avila‘s class.  I said to myself that I would try it.  When I saw the promo at Ensogo, I immediately bought 2 coupons without hesitation.  One tuesday afternoon, I brought my mom there for a late brunch.

It was pretty hard to find parking as they only have 3 parking spaces (w/c was filled already).  We drove around Annapolis street until we found one parking slot.  We walked till we reached the restaurant.  Bistro Miyake have an ongoing promo wherein you can order as much as you can for Php 495++.  The catch is you have to finish all that you have ordered.

I immediately was in awe when I entered the restaurant.  It was big!!  You can definitely use the venue for any parties or events.  The lighting and decorations were super nice too!

My admiration was cut short as soon as I talked to one of Bistro Miyake’s servers.  I had a reservation and I asked to be seated.  She was obviously thinking about something else that you can really feel that her mind was floating.  She just let us sit anywhere and didn’t even clean the table for us.  Other than that, it was really so hard catching her attention.  It is also important to note that she was the only server around except for the manager.

I told her that we would like to get the eat-all-you-can promo using the vouchers I bought.  She told me that it wasn’t possible as it was stated in the voucher.  I immediately read the guidelines word per word and didn’t find any provision that it wasn’t allowed.  I showed it to her and she insisted that it wasn’t possible pointing me to the guideline “cannot be used with discount card”.  I was like “Is ‘discount card’ the same as ‘ala carte promo’?  Those are 2 different things!”
** to Ensogo & Bistro Miyake, I hope you clear up your guidelines.  If there’s an anniversary promo, then it should be clearly stated if the promo can be used for it or not.

I then asked for the restaurant’s manager.  After waiting for more than 10 minutes, she totally ignored us and didn’t call for the manager.  I motioned another guy and luckily, he was the manager.  He told us it was okay to get the all you can eat ala carte promo.  He became our server for the rest of the meal.  I was a bit furious already but can’t walk out as I already paid for the Ensogo vouchers a few weeks back.

Anyway, Bistro Miyake’s all you can eat promo was ala-carte style.  They give you a checklist and you can just choose whatever you want to eat.  Once you give it to the server, they’ll cook and serve it to you.  Each person will need to pay Php495++ if you want to avail of their anniversary promo.  I think it was reasonably priced especially if you eat a lot.  Just make sure you have enough appetite or else, you need to pay double for leftovers.

I was hungry and I believe I can really eat a lot if I want to.  My mom can’t eat a lot though so we can only order so much.  Here’s the list of what we have tried and finished.  I hope we ordered more but we were too full to have any more food haha!

• Tofu Miso Soup

• California Maki

• Mixed Fried Rice

I initially thought that the beef teppan was part of mixed fried rice.  Apparently not.  The fried rice was just fried rice.  Nothing special.  I think I appreciate garlic or plain rice better than this.  It wasn’t good.

• Salmon Belly Teriyaki

This was good and tasty.  Belly is definitely the best part of salmon.  Tasted so delicious especially when newly cooked.

• Ebi Tempura

They could have improved the presentation by putting it in a basket.  I love shrimps but I just didn’t feel any excitement upon seeing the dish.  We didn’t order more of ebi tempura.  Enough said.

• Tofu Steak

I love tofu steak and I don’t remember not liking any other restaurant’s version of this.  I don’t know with Bistro Miyake but my experience was just too bad with this restaurant.

See the black thingy in the dish?  Yes tofu was burnt!  I didn’t bother complaining anymore.  It was too stressful just to call out their attention.  We just ate the tofu inside and separated the skin.  Too disappointing.

• Beef Teppan

We ordered 2 servings of this.  We loved this dish as it was newly cooked.  The best time to eat a newly fried dish is simply fresh from the pan.  You can still taste all the flavors plus the meat was still hot.  Yummy!

• Yakitori

A definite winner from all the dishes we orderd at Bistro Miyake.  I hope we ordered more but we were too full already.  The sauce was perfect and it was cooked just right.  Delish indeed!

• Kani Bacon

Kani Bacon which is actually crab stick wrapped in bacon has always been my favorite thing to order in Japanese restaurants.  I had to order this too just to be able to have my share of Bistro Miyake’s version.

• Beef Asparagus

I hated this dish.  The beef was hard to chew, it felt like I was having a chewing gum.  The asparagus were a bit overcooked too.  What a way to leave a last impression.

I think it’s very obvious that I won’t be going to back to Bistro Miyake.  I wish they train their server (she was the only one thus singular).  I’m not sure if I’m the only one who had bad experience there but I really hope we were the only ones.  You usually go to a restaurant to find good food and experience (of course, at least) decent service.   I didn’t get both in Bistro Miyake.  I wish them luck and super hope they’ll improve in the future.

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Bistro Miyake
33 Annapolis St., Greenhills, Unit 101, Intrawest Building, San Juan, Metro Manila, Philippines
(02) 721-9793