Waiters
in leading restaurants and at big hotels in Manila have received
formal train-ing. The service in these restaurants does not vary
much from that in first class res-taurants anywhere in the world.
But in na-tive restaurants waiters are untrained and the server
may be a family member. Then, service is not exactly proper but
rather with little formality.
To call the
waiter in a simple restaurant, it is usual to hiss in typical
Filipino style. Asking for the bill can be done by drawing a square
in the air with thumb and index finger, or by calling Check
please!
Because of
the local custom of social sharing, separate bills are an incomprehen-sible
attitude for the locals, and Filipinos never ask for it. In a
purely local res-taurant, a pair or group of foreigners will get
just one bill even if separate bills have been requested. The
easiest way for those who want to pay separately, is to divide
the costs later.
Waiters'
salaries are low, 1 peso per hour in small places and about 7
in big hotels. A larger source of income is often the tips. There
is a silent agreement when a waiter gets hired that the salary
is only part of his income, the other being the tips.
Tips are
generally expected and a matter of good manners even if there
is already a 10% service charge on the bill which is the case
in all luxury and five star hotels. Suf-ficient tips are around
5% of the bill. To give a tip, one just leaves the change on the
table. The Western habit of saying "keep the change" when paying
in restaurants is not common here and will just create confu-sion.
Generally, tips are pooled and shared by all employees.
Table setting
in first class restaurants are the same as in Europe or North
America. The most native way of eating on the con-trary is with
the hands. A step toward a more formal manner is eating with a
spoon and fork. In that case, the actual eating is done with the
spoon, and the fork serves as a pusher. In small restaurants those
requiring a knife will have to ask for one as they are not normally
provided. Knives are not needed in native places as meats are
usually chopped into bite size.
In native
places or homes one may notice diners polishing their table service
with tissue. It is a custom in the Philippines and sometimes needed
- but of course not only unnecessary but explicitly impolite in
first class restaurants.
In first
class restaurants, common condi-ments on the table are salt and
pepper. In native places, however, it's instead soy sauce and
patis (a fermented fish oil, lighter in color than soy sauce).
Water is always served; in native places the tendency is to bring
it at the end of the meal. Except in first class restaurants,
bread and butter does not come with the meal and is generally
not available. Breads are often too sweet for Western taste. Tomato
ketchup or mustard are not common in native places.
First class
restaurants observe the interna-tional sequence in serving dishes,
or the sequence typical for the particular cuisine of a country.
In native places, however, Those who prefer food served in a certain
sequence (e.g. first soup, then salad, then meat, then coffee)
should order step by step, because sequence is generally not observed
but all kinds of food are brought at the same time. Except in
better restaurants, foods are of-ten precooked and served at room
tempera-ture.
First class
establishments require guests to wear shoes (not neckties) and
ban persons wearing shorts and/or sleeveless T-shirts.
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