This is a The Food Club review. It’s gonna be a quick one because I will only feel worse if I take long in writing this.
Me and my friends are not coming back to The Food Club again because of bad experiences.
We had buffet at The Food Club on a Monday, and 5 out of 6 people in our group had diarrhea. Our symptoms began 1 to 2 days after eating at The Food Club.
I talked to people about our sickness after dining at The Food Club, and they say that the oysters that The Food Club served us were most likely the culprit. My friends and I recall that the oysters we ate were either cold or not warm when served. It was too late when I was warned that oysters should be eaten right away once cooked, otherwise, there’s chance of food poisoning.
Quoting the review that I posten on TripAdvisor:
On December 29, 2014, I went to The Food Club with friends. We were six people who just wanted to try a new buffet place. Please take the time to read this review up to the end, but please be advised that the topic might be a bit sensitive – so excuse me, especially you people who might be eating right now. 🙂
I was so excited to begin my meal with bread and butter, but it was a horrible start because the butter did not taste fresh. Being a frequent consumer of butter, I know the smell of butter that’s going bad. Their butter was just placed in a jar, without any means to keep it chilled.
It was a bit frustrating to find many foods and sauces without labels too. It’s very inconvenient to ask their staff about every item that lacked label because there were so many of them.
Getting a glass under the table for drinks was a hassle because the people lining up for coffee were blocking the container of glasses. I hope they realize this and make the glasses more easily accessible.
There was roast beef that was rubbery. One of my friends said it tasted like it had been sitting there for a long time.
It took them so long to refill empty platters too.
Some of the things we ate were shrimps, crabs, oysters (attention here), pork adobo, beef bulgogi, nacho salad, pancit, Italian chicken, fish fillet in orange sauce, red sauce spaghetti, dimsum, etc…
I would not say there was not a single food I enjoyed at The Food Club. The pizza tasted good because of the cheese. And there was also a dish with shrimps and soft squids with creamy pesto sauce – I really liked that. I enjoyed the desserts, even though I can be picky about my desserts. There were churros, ice cream, red velvet cake slices, some sort of milk/caramel bars, chocolate cake bars. A small amount of wine were served per person in our party who requested.
But all those enjoyable little things are forgettable because there’s a high possibility that The Food Club gave me and my friends diarrhea. We are thinking that the oyster was the culprit.
We ate lunch at The Food Club on a Monday. The next day, Tuesday, I woke up around 8:30 in the morning with a painful stomach. Please excuse me — I ran to the bathroom and passed watery stool. I knew I had an upset stomach. I decided to just have toasted bread and chamomile tea for breakfast to take it easy, but the pain in my stomach just got worse and worse. Around 10 am, please excuse me again — I vomitted everything I ate for breakfast. I was literally wailing in pain for several hours, with cold sweat, and with watery stool every now and then. I think that must have been the worst diarrhea I’ve had in my life so far. Thank goodness, my mother was at home and helped me. I told her about everything I ate the day before at The Food Club. Then she said it’s most likely the oyster. A lot of people told me that time that oyster should be eaten right after cooking, and goes bad very fast when left uneaten. I remember that the oyster I ate was not even warm. I took diatabs and buscopan, and lots of warm water throughout the day. And by late afternoon, the pain subsided.
On Wednesday, I got in touch with friends and told them about it. I found out that I wasn’t the only one who had diarrhea!
This was the content of a friend’s text message sent to me on Wednesday:
“Pumipilipit ako sa sakit ng tiyan then nag-CR ako, watery yung lumabas na may solids. Then akala ko okay na, [pero] nung gabi sumakit ulit tiyan ko, then suka nang suka at LBM up to now. Kaya nagpa-confine na ako.”
She had the same symptoms as mine.
On Wednesday the other three people in our party felt the symptoms too. So all in all, 3 of us had diarrhea and were vomitting, and 2 had diarrhea.
I don’t know if there’s a way to confirm that our sickness was from The Food Club, but 5 out of 6 people in my party got sick 1 to 2 days after dining there. Very likely, right?
—Foods weren’t fresh. 5 of 6 people in my party had diarrhea 1 to 2 days after eating at Food Club
After posting a review about The Food Club on TripAdvisor, I decided to send The Food Club an email. They need to know that their food made us sick. Their response sounded so generic that we were wondering if it was only a copy-pasted email that they send as response to unhappy feedback:
Greetings from The Food Club!
We would like to sincerely apologize for your experience. We do apologize for the confusion and the inconvenience it has cost you. Nevertheless, we will be using all your concerns and observation as instruments in improving our service.
Thank you and with high regards,
The Food Club
Note: The “confusion” they were referring to was about the food labels. I also stated in my email that the lack of labels of many of their food items was inconvenient.
To me, there was not even a hint of concern for their customers’ wellness in that response. They couldn’t even offer consolation such as refund, nor did they plan to investigate the issue with their food that day.
The Food Club is very disappointing, in terms of freshness of food and customer relation. I suggest that you guys avoid The Food Club.
