The Filipino Restaurant in Paquis
Someone told me about the Filipino restaurant in Paquis. So, yesterday, I took my French roommate there for dinner to celebrate our moving to a new, more permanent apartment. She was very excited since she never had Filipino food before, apart from the Lucky Me Pancit Canton Mami I imposed upon her one day.
The owner of the restaurant is a Cebuana woman and I immediately introduced myself as a fellow Bisdak. She was not very friendly. We were the only customers in the restaurant, but she did not pay too much attention to us. She was busy chatting with another woman and they were gossiping about the other Pinoys in Geneva. She was telling the other woman about how some Pinoys borrow money from her and forget to pay. I somehow got the idea that she was also running a 5-6 business.
Elodie and I headed for the buffet and I explained to her the four available dishes there. There was a shrimp dish which we excitedly heaped on our plates. When we started eating the shrimp, we realized that it was soooo terrible. It was too hot and I sincerely think some of the shrimp were bad. We were polite, so we did not say anything. We did ask for lots of water, which the owner grudgingly served us.
After eating, we asked the owner for the bill. She checked our plates and remarked with annoyance that we still had some shrimp left uneaten. We told her that the dish was too hot for us. And then, she berated us that we should just have tasted a little first before putting a lot on our plate.
We paid hastily (17 francs! The Chinese restaurant across the street charges only 10 francs for a better buffet!) and then left.
We are not going back to that restaurant anymore.
