How to Be a Smart Waiter

Based on my knowledge I have gained during F&B service class, I’ll tell you what a good waiter has to do and what he/she should keep in mind.
Before you go to work, you have to make yourself ready. Make sure you have rested well and have eaten well so that you will have enough energy to take this harsh job. Less energy will likely cause less performance because you will get easily tired and lose concentration soon. Also make sure you are well groomed before you leave your house. Take a bath and brush teeth. Hair should be neatly done. Man’s hair should not touch the tip of the collar of his uniform and woman’s hair should be tied up. If it’s allowed, you may want to use hair gel to arrange disheveled hair. Hair shouldn’t be tumultuous that it might distract guest’s attention from you. Proper attire is the uniform designated by the establishment. Wear nothing but the specified uniform. You are going to face your guests therefore your appearance is just as important as your actual performance.
You’d better be at your work place 30 minutes earlier than the actual reporting time. Actually the earlier you are the better satisfaction your boss has on you. Your boss will mark you as a diligent worker. You will get promoted much faster than those who are late for work all the time.
Before you start preparing for the day’s operation, there is a time when workers will gather to have a briefing. That’s an important time because that time, boss or supervisor will give you a direction or tell you an important fact such as VIP guests coming, or availability of some of the food and drink in the menu. Always pay attention and listen well. You won’t have any misunderstanding later on.
Once you finished the briefing, move around the restaurant, take a quick look and think. How table settings should be done, how many seats are in each table? And then move quickly. Tables should be set according to the number of guests at the table and the number of courses they will have. Evaluate the numbers and get right number of cutleries, napkins, glasses, etc. Also the restaurant area should be kept clean, pick up any trash you can find. When it’s clean and prepared, make yourself ready to welcome guests.
When guests are coming in, approach them, smiling, and welcome them. Make them feel warm and comfortable as you greet them deeply from your heart. You will lead them to the table and drag out chairs for them and let them seat. Pick up the napkins and spread them on each guests’ laps. Before taking orders, you will pour water in their glasses. Give them a moment to relax and cool down. Then present the menu. Menu should be open as it is handed over to a guest, and never show your back to the guest; it is called closed body language and it really doesn’t look good. Always remember to practice open body language when treating the guest.
Write on your order slips neatly and legibly and fast at the same time. You shouldn’t take too much time to take the orders; you have other guests to serve too. It is better to give suggestions to the guest than just listing down the orders passively as guests talk. Communicate with them! Offer them matching side dish to the main dish. Let them try house specialties. If you offered more and they accepted, that is an up-sell already.
When serving dishes, it is good to announce the name of the dish. Some of them might not know what their dish looks like so they would be delightful for your little care announcing the name. Once everyone’s been served in the table, you may leave the table for a while and focus more on serving other tables. But still keep your eyes upon this table, by any chance guests might have additional request. Check guests’ satisfaction once in a while.

When finally the guest asks for a bill, go to the casher and get him the bill right away. It is not advisable that you stand there and watch the guest taking money out of his wallet. But just simply give him the bill, go away for other works for a while, then come back. Thank guests as you deliver the change. If guests are likely to live, drag out the chairs for them again, walk first to the door and open the door for them. As they go out, thank them again and hope for their good day or good night, and for their revisit. Go back into the restaurant and clean the table. Probably you will have to receive new guests walking in.

Blended with Joy and Taste

If you are sick of going to the same old Starbucks all the time, you should try going to another coffee shop. There are many coffee shops along the Emerald Avenue and I chose to go to Mocha Blends, in Raffles Corporate Center, just opposite of Wynsum building. It is near school so that you can easily stop by and try some of their nice drinks if you are in break and bored to do nothing. Or if you are hungry, you could also visit the place because they also serve something to bite.
If you enter the shop, you would feel the room rather to be dark and gloomy but it makes you calm down at the same time. The room is o so cold and not so hot. With brownish walls surrounding the room and the brownish tables and chairs matching the color that of the walls, the entire room seems to be united.
I ordered two drinks, hot one and cold one, to compare the tastes and also to make this review longer by writing about two drinks. When I looked at their menu, I found “Flat White” interesting because white creamy portion on top of the cup made it look different from other brown colored coffee. Flat White was one of the cappuccinos. I usually don’t drink coffee but I felt like this wouldn’t be so bitter because of its cream. Once I drank it, it was actually bitter because the bottom of the cream laid coffee. I added 2 packs of sugar and it tasted better. As I expected, it was creamy coffee, probably a lot of milk was added. Color was milder than other regular coffee. By milder I mean, it was brighter in color; it was like light brown. Taste would be little bit heavier than brewed coffee as if something was added, apparently, milk is added. Tasted was satisfying over all, though I really don’t enjoy coffee.
Next drink I would have was “Strawberry Smoothie”. Tastes like strawberry, as it is called. When I tasted, I thought it was to be rather strawberry juice. It should have been more smoothie-like, like more creamy taste, not so clear strawberry drink taste. But after I drank the creamy Flat White, it was good enough to shower mouth by its sour and fresh strawberry taste. So I can say that I also enjoyed drinking the juice-like smoothie. I just want them to make sure next time they won’t grind ice in the mixer for too long time, then it will taste better.
Flat White was around 70 pesos and Strawberry Smoothie was around 120 pesos. So I assume that is a regular price for an usual coffee shop. I liked to go there after all. Why don’t you stop by Mocha Blends one day and try other drinks aside from Flat White and Strawberry Smoothie I tasted? There’s a lot, I can’t recall them all. And you will find out joy and taste blended together.

Korean, yet Filipino’s Favorite

One day, one of my friends offered me to eat lunch at Robinsons Galleria. He is Chinese and it is interesting to know that he enjoys Korean food very much. So when we went out, it wasn’t a surprise for me that he wanted to have Korean food, particularly Galbi—which is grilled meat with sweet and salty sauce. I didn’t know there was a Korean restaurant that sold Galbi in Robinsons. I thought it would be like an original Korean Galbi restaurant where you can find grills on each table and you grill Galbi right in front of you because that’s originally how Koreans eat Galbi. So maybe I would be little bit disappointed when I finally found out that the Korean restaurant my friend was talking about was Filipino styled Korean restaurant—of course, there were no grills found on tables and Galbi would be cooked in the kitchen and served in individual plates. But the tastes were not bad. It will surely attract not only Filipino but also Koreans who have just arrived Philippines, despite of the fact that they serve Filipino styled Korean food. There was a little bit of exaggeration but all I want to say is that the food there was really good. That’s how I knew this restaurant at first.
It is located at 2nd level along East Lane in Robinsons. If you go to East Lane, there are some casual dining restaurants and you will find a sign that says “Duri”. I don’t know where this name came from. According to my knowledge, Duri is the name of famous soccer player who plays in the Korean national soccer team but unless the owner was a great fan of him, he would have just picked this name because it sounded Korean, I think. Restaurant’s walls are decorated with the frames of Korean traditional masks or antique crowns that might have been some kings or queens’ belongings of old Korean kingdom. It is so Korean so you will never misunderstand that it is Japanese of something else. Restaurant’s atmosphere is bright and comfortable. The place is clean and well-lighted, seems to be little bit small though. Customers who were there when we visited last time were rather Filipino or foreigners. This restaurant is not really well-known to Koreans, after all, I didn’t know it was there until my friend told me.
My friend ordered Galbi and I ordered Dolsot Arbab. Galbi, as I mentioned above, is grilled meat like pork or beef ribs. I tried some and the taste was good. Not so sweet, not so salty. The sauce was well balanced. And this time I tried mine, Dolsot Arbab. In a hot stone bowl, there is rice, vegetables, chopped beef, hot pepper paste (it is sauce made from hot chili for those who don’t know), and most remarkably, some orange figure on top. I thought that was carrot at first glance. As I studied carefully the object, I recognized that it was actually a scoop of some fish’s egg, maybe salmon’s. Taste was even greater than Galbi. As you chew the food, you could feel that the eggs are popping in your mouth and it is really good. I only tasted these two foods, Galbi and Dolsot Arbab, but there is a lot more food there to be tasted. After all, my experience in Duri was satisfying; clean and nice looking restaurant and reasonable price & good food. The usual Korean restaurant charges you more than 200 pesos for one Galbi order. But the price in Duri was less than that, around 150 pesos. They didn’t even add a service charge so I had to leave them a tip! I want to suggest you that one day you go to Robinsons to shop and once you get hungry, you go to the 2nd floor East Lane and find out for yourself, wonderfully tasty Korean food that’s, not only Korean’s, but Filipino’s favorite as well.

Visit Baguio and Refresh

Baguio is the city located on the top of mountains, in the northern part of the Luzon. Many tourists find the place fascinating, indeed, it is one of the famous tourist spots in the Philippines. It could be just a small and silent town surrounded by mountains in the deep valley. What made the city so special and draw in lots of people? Surely, there is something special about Baguio.
The biggest difference that sets Baguio apart from other cities in the Philippines is its cold atmosphere. The Philippines is a tropical country and the temperature is very hot. Most of people wouldn’t pack long sleeves and jackets if they are going to travel the Philippines since they think they won’t wear them. But it’s different in Baguio. Baguio is the only city where people don’t use air conditioners in their houses. Of course you will wear long clothes and thick jackets there otherwise the air will make you shiver. Because of the high altitude, average temperature is lower by 10-15℃ than Manila. For me, a winter lover, it was great to wear those thick clothes I kept in closets for so long. To feel that chilling air on face or to watch the steam of breath was also something to feel longing for. One thing I regret is there is still no snow in Baguio. The air in Manila is hot, even feeling heavy and sticky. In Baguio, it is just so cold and fresh that the air seems to chill even deep inside your lungs. That’s the most remarkable feature of the city.
The freshness and green of the city makes it even more beautiful. Baguio is surrounded by mountains. Everywhere, there are trees and plants. You are in forests for sure, the scent of the trees and plants is in the air. It smells better than any other artificial scents; smells very healthy. The city considers itself the greenest and freshest city in the Philippines. Maybe that’s why citizens there try to keep streets very clean. I couldn’t find any trash when I walked down the street of Baguio.
It is interesting that the city has the president’s official summer house and constantly receives the president during special functions. The Mansion, the president residence, is a favorite tourist spot. People come to see its beautiful gardens and take photos of the nice sight. Aside from the Mansion, there are also other sightseeing spots on top of the mountain. Looking down the panoramic view of the valleys is such a captivating experience. You can also ride horses or ponies on the way to the peak of mountain which will give you another pleasure.
That’s not it that all you see in Baguio is quiet mountains and forests and greens. It is an urbanized city. You could go out to malls or downtowns to enjoy shopping or drinking with your friends. Along Session Road, city’s main avenue, there are numerous shops, restaurants, billiard places, or bowling alleys. Surely you can hang out with your friends such a way you did in Manila.
There are hotels, resorts and spas you can also visit and relax. With lots of amenities like golf course, casino or sports center you will absolutely be satisfied staying in hotels or resorts in Baguio.
Baguio is an interesting city to visit. Its cool and fresh weather fascinates a lot of tourists. The city’s environment is highly well maintained while the city is also urbanized and developed to have shopping malls, resorts and hotels that give you convenience. It is really worthwhile to visit and have a vacation in Baguio. You will spend great time for sure. By the time you are going home, you will already find yourself refreshed.

Hospitality Industry Trends — Condo Hotel

On the airplane going home, you might have found yourself making a wish, after you spent great days in the perfect beach hotel you went to for a vacation, that this would be your home. This is no longer a mere wish. You can now own a sweet hotel room of the wonderful hotel which is located at the hot tourist attracting spot. New trend is called Condo Hotel, allowing the investor to buy units as if they were condo units, the sold units could be rented like hotel rooms whenever their owner is not using.
The concept of the Condo Hotel helps the developer reduce hotel development costs by sharing the costs with unit owners who bought units and this seems attractive to the developer as the development costs increase nowadays. The owners of the units can also have a return as their units are rented and bring revenues. Professional Hotel Management Company handles and manages hotel units, service of the properties, and amenities as well as provides guest services. The unit owners can decide whether they would participate in the property’s rental program and sharing in the revenue. If they decided to do so, their units will be managed by experts, will give the owner higher level of rental income than owning and operating a traditional vacation home because Management Company will surely use their capital to advertise the hotel and to make reservation systems and centralized management systems, chances are, more guests will visit.
Condo hotel is different from the typical seaside villa or vacation home or summer cottage. Its fascinating condominium suites in some of the most famous hotels, with access to all luxury amenities and numbers of hotel properties, ranging from full-service spa and fitness centers to fine dining restaurant, are something that we cannot find in ordinary seaside villas.
Unit owners can pick up any time when they want to stay their units in a year. Unlike timeshare, where the owners are allotted time when they will use the units and the schedule hardly changes, Condo Hotel unit owners can adjust quiet freely since they are the owners of the units. While timeshare is difficult to resell, Condo Hotel unit is often considered as valuable commodity because of hotel’s fine location, upscale service and quality, thus readily resold.
Condo Hotel prices vary based on location, size, features and amenities. They typically range from $300,000 to over $1 million for prime properties. It is more expensive than usual condominium units but the merit of owning the Condo Hotel makes its prices worthy.
Condo Hotel is a new form of vacation ownership where people can buy a hotel room like a condominium unit. The hotel room they bought can be rented when the owner is not using, with the owner’s permission. Professional Hotel Management Company will handle the units with expert management system and will make a profit which is to be shared with the owners. With assess to a lot of amenities and leisure facilities, they can spend valuable time in their Condo Hotel whenever they want to. It is a new trend of hospitality industry.

Restaurant Research "Minato" and Interview with Mr. Jang, the owner

You might have an experience that you hesitate before you go out for dinner because you cannot make a decision whether you will have Korean food or Japanese food on that night. If you knew a restaurant that will satisfy both your Korean and Japanese taste, will you go there? I will gladly introduce to you a wonderful restaurant that bounds both nations together with its tasty food made by its best cook, Mr. Jang.
Mr. Jang Bae Jang is an owner of the Korean & Japanese restaurant, “Minato” and he is a head cook in the kitchen at the same time. We had got a chance to visit his restaurant and interview him. Minato is located along Astoria street, behind University of Asia and the Pacific in Ortigas. If you walk a little along the street, you can find out Korean signs hanging everywhere down to the street. Yes, this is the area where Korean stores are crowded and Minato is situated in halfway of the street. When we entered the restaurant and explained that we were researching about a restaurant, he warmly welcomed us and willingly accepted our favor whether we could have interviewed him. So as soon as we got there, we were able to interview him.
Mr. Jang has been in the Philippines for 5 years. He opened his restaurant last November 2004 after he had a careful study on the market for 6 months. He used to run a restaurant in Korea for 15 years already so he felt confident that he would run a successful restaurant in the Philippines also and his anticipation came true. Now a lot of customers are visiting his restaurant.
Actually this isn’t the first restaurant he had in the Philippines but the second. At first time, he used to run a Japanese restaurant in front of the SM megamall. It was Korean styled Japanese food restaurant but it wasn’t really successful. Learning from his failure, this time, he remodeled his restaurant into Korean & Japanese restaurant, offered not only Japanese food but also Korean food, the restaurant went successful. While he runs the restaurant, several communication errors as well as cultural differences and different behaviors happened between him and his employees that hindered him time to time from managing the restaurant well. One day, one of employees kept having an advanced salary. He felt displeasure about this until he finally found out that the employee’s family’s living was depending on the small amount of money he gave the employee in advance. The other day, he let the workers do some chores. He didn’t tell them detail how exactly they should work because he taught them last time and he expected them to do the work in such a way he taught. Later when he came back, he found out that there’s nothing done in a way he expected. He asked the workers and they said it was because they were not told of how exactly they should execute the work. So these were the traits that Filipino employees stacked to and it was interesting for him to know.
Since he has been running a restaurant for more than 15 years, the experience helped him a lot; it facilitated the restaurant’s growth. He gave us an advice at this point when he was talking; that one should choose the job that fits his/her major course. Since you already have a lot of experiences, you will have less chance to fail in what you are doing.
But his major, amazingly, was not the restaurant management when he went to college. He has been through architecture engineering course and, in fact, had worked in construction industry for 10 years. But he got injured—he hurt his back—and he couldn’t do a hard job anymore. Taking one of his friends’ persuasions, he finally came to work in restaurant industry.
Their target market is “International”, he says. People who visit his restaurant are not only Korean but Chinese, Filipino, or Westerners, everyone. He aims for every nationality. Wherever you came from, your taste won’t be so different from the others. He emphasizes, “Your guests recognize good food. If you provide tasty food, the guests will come.” He put the taste of food in the first place among the other elements to be a good restaurant. And then there comes the mood of the restaurant and then the service because these will make the restaurant a want-to-visit-again restaurant. But after all, taste plays significant role in restaurant’s reputation.
Pretty broad range of age level of visitor the restaurant has got. Actually you can say, all age without skipping a certain age group, from young people such as kids to old people like elderly can go to the restaurant and eat anytime. The restaurant opens until 10PM.
They are providing a table service. Guests enter and they will be assigned a table. They order from their table where they are sitting beside and servers will bring food to the table.
Now, training an employee is as important as you manage the restaurant well. Actually managing people well is the key to manage a successful restaurant. He teaches his employees that a sanitation & hygiene is the number one concern of them. He cannot emphasize it anymore. Keeping the restaurant clean and hygienic is just like you wash your face every morning when you wake up. Next, he wants the entire employee to smile to the guests all the time. It is important to look friendly and welcoming. And lastly he wants his employees to think always that everything should be done for guests. Whatever they want, you provide them immediately what they want. In addition, he requests everyone to be on time and less tardy. There are 18 employees at all, 12 working in the kitchen while 6 serving food.
Guests’ most favorite menu is Minato Jumuluk. It is like a beef barbeque and it is called Minato Jumuluk because it is their specialty. Moreover guests are also delighted with Sashimi that Mr. Jang cooks directly.
I like Bibimbab from their menu. It is rice mingled with vegetables, meat, and hot pepper paste. It tastes so nice because of fresh vegetables and hot pepper paste just makes it right for me who is nearly addicted to spicy food.
I enjoyed time with Mr. Jang, visiting his restaurant and having a talk with him. Aside from the fact that I now know about their food and their restaurant, the experience and the real time lesson that he could tell us made this research even more worthy. I thank him for his time with us, and I hope his best in his future restaurant operation.

Hangeul (Korean Alphabet)

A long time ago, in the period of Chosun Dynasty, the old kingdom of Korea, we used our language. However we didn’t have our own system of writings. So we should have borrowed Chinese characters to write something. But the Chinese writing system was very different from Korean. In many cases, Chinese characters were incomplete and inefficient to fully express our own language, and not everyone had got a chance to learn these Chinese characters. In fact, only persons belonging to the ruling class were allowed to learn Chinese writing. So most of population didn’t even know how to read and write.
Then, there came a king who felt pity on his people for their illiteracy. His name was King Sejong. He had decided to make Korea’s own system of writings, so that everyone would use these new, easy characters thus they will be literate—that was his desire. With a few years of study, he finally came to give his people very joyful news. He proclaimed Hangeul—which means “the characters of Korea”—in 1446. He starts his statement as follows—translation quoted from Hunmin Jeongeum from Wikipedia—“Because the national language is different from that of China, it doesn’t match letters. Therefore, when the ignorant want to communicate, many of them cannot achieve their intentions. Because I am saddened by this, I have newly made 28 letters. It is my intention that everybody learns the letters easily so that they can conveniently use them everyday.”
Hangeul used to have 28 letters when first invented. But after 500 years, it was revised and now 24 letters are in active use including 10 vowels and 14 consonants. Each letter represents a specific sound just like what English alphabet does. This is called a phonogram. But Hangeul’s unique characteristic made it different from other characters. It is designed to combine consonant letters and vowel letters into syllabic units. Because of this, we can say that it has something in common with syllabic writing systems. For example, a word 엔더런(Enderun) is written in 3 syllabic units like 엔더런, not set forth side by side like ㅇㅔㄴㄷㅓㄹㅓㄴ. That’s the definite difference from other characters. English or Japanese letters are arranged side by side. Sometimes it confuses a reader because he/she may not know how a word is divided into syllables. A reader will easily read Hangeul for it is already divided into syllabic units. One syllabic unit has three positions: the initial sound, the medial sound, and the final consonant. When the symbol ‘ㅇ’ comes to the initial sound, it functions as place holder, doesn’t have any sound. We just pronounce the medial sound and the final consonant. Almost all letters are pronounced as they appear with only a few exceptions, so it makes people read them even more easily. Indeed, Hangeul was created to let even illiterate commoner learn how to read and write. In the records say, “A wise man can introduce him with the letters before the morning is over, a stupid man can learn them in ten days.” —quoted from Hangeul from Wikipedia
We are quite proud to have such unique and scientific letters as our national characters. In terms of user’s population, the Korean language is in the 13th place among several thousand languages in the world, despite of the fact that Korea is a very small country in terms of the territorial size. We can be proud of this. Several reports say minor languages have disappeared in this world so that only few languages are expected to remain in the future. However, language is not only a communication method but also a cultural heritage containing the nation’s history and spirit. A nation makes a feature of its own language. The nation that once looses its original language cannot be called a nation any more. We should maintain our nation’s identity by keeping our original language and writings.
So here goes my little advice to Filipino friends. You are Filipino. Speak out your own Filipino language (I know there’s a lot of other languages in the Philippines aside from Tagalog such as Cebuano, Ilocano, Waray etc. so I would just say Filipino). It is your language that makes you a Filipino. If you want to keep your culture in this foreign-culture-overflowing society, I want you to learn Filipino after you are already good at speaking English. I felt little bit awkward when I met some Filipino friends who really can’t speak Filipino. I’m happy all of my Filipino classmates in Enderun can speak Tagalog. But I would also appreciate if you speak English to me. A language makes the culture of a nation. Like I said, the nation once looses its original language cannot be called a nation any more. We all have to keep that in mind.



By the way, they celebrated the 561st Hangeul Proclamation Day yesterday. On every October 9 is held a commemoration of the proclamation of Hangeul. It is such an honorable day for us. They held many ceremonies, they even had the reproducing ceremony of Hangeul Proclamation, I'm sure that was a great event, though I couldn't see it because I'm in the Philippines. Everyone was like so glad. ^_^