I've been here twice. I really want to love it, but I just can't. There are a lot of other ethnic restaurants doing great work with their food, especially here in Madison, but I just don't see this place doing the same thing.
The service and location is just not good. No one greeted us at the door, we sat ourselves down, and we just started eating. The placement of the buffet was a little awkward, but not as awkward as figuring out what the food was. I'm Filipino, so I could recognize most of everything, but my friend had a real hard time. The biggest thing that caught me off guard is that it just seems lazy or sloppy. And how attractive is that for a restaurant?
I could mostly forgive this stuff if the food was great (see Melly Mel's). But the rice was off, and the dishes were overcooking in the steam trays. That left maybe three items overall that were edible. I was able to eat some of the veggies and the sinigang (a sour soup) with the rice, but none of it was very balanced.
Ugh. This review is making me sad. I have to review something good next.