Dining | Shrimp Shack - Robinson Place Manila

Shrimp.  Since I was a kid, I love shrimps.  Even when I had the allergies, I still ate shrimp.  Even if I had those rashes, I ate shrimp.  So when I saw this in Robinson Place Manila, immediately I dove right in.

Shrimp Shack to best describe it is.... hmmmm... is.... like a squatter restaurant beside another bigger and larger spaced restaurant (Old Spaghetti House - OSH). Shrimp Shack is so small an cramped like it had maybe 6 or 7 tables.  You can feel it being cramped but still I had high hopes for shrimp.  

Although as my first impression - this is just a test case for a new brand of restaurant so they limited the space, used some space from OSH, used the same utensils, plates, and even the waiters and servers.  Thank god they printed Shrimp Shack napkins.

This sharing thing was a little bit off for me as the crew, the waitress was standing in a small gap in the wall between the two restaurants.  So if she was attending to OSH customers, then you're out of luck.  No service.

Now after scanning their menu, prices are typical of OSH price ranges.  Its not that expensive nor they are cheap like the other fast food chains.  So its fine.  Especially having shrimp, its not cheap either, so the price range is just fine.

Since I was hungry, and would like to try a lot of their dishes on one plate, I ordered the Surf and Turf.  It had shrimps, beef and macaroni salad in it.  For the price of P330 it was fine.  Thats without any drinks.  Serving time took a while also, I can't clock them.  It might have been a while since I glanced at the place many times, check my facebook many times before it finally arrived. I bet they cooked it using the same OSH kitchen in the other side of the wall.

Now first glance on my plate.  I glanced at the pictures on the menu.  Then back to my plate. hmmmmm somethings off.  Serving size was a bit off.  In the menu it had a full plate, then in the actual dish, it was sadly smaller.  Maybe they used a smaller plate in the pictures. Maybe yes, they served my order on a bigger plate in real life.  But they said 2 cups of rice. Yes there were two lumps of rice, but these were so small.  It was as if they used small cup measures which in reality is just one cup of rice if compared to other restaurants.  I felt I fell for a marketing ploy of sorts.

Now to continue, I was hoping the shrimps would account for all the misgivings I've written prior to this.  I started to eat the shrimp.  I don't know if it was just me or, not, the shrimps still had shells on them.  I have eaten shrimps with their shell on, but these were the crispy ones.  For their dish I don't know if they should have been crispy in the first place or simply devoid of their shell.  The taste was shrimp yes, but simply thats it.  Maybe I was just expecting too much but it was as if I personally cooked it in my inadequate kitchen.  Since it was still shrimp I ate them all (after I de shelled them).

Now to the Angus Beef BBQ.  Im not a connoisseur  on beef so I don't know how to spot an angus, a kobe, wagyu or the typical bought from the palengke type of beef.  As long as it was soft, tasty, great flavor, thats fine for me.  Some beef were a bit rubbery, not all, but some.  BBQ sauce should be salty so it is salty.  If you don't like it salty, tell the server your preference.  I like salty foods but the salt content here is borderline almost too much for me already.

Rice was small so I ate all of it with lots of beef left over.  Now on to the macaroni salad.  It was like how my mom would prepare it. Simple with no frills. Boil some pasta, slap some mayo, add some chicken meat from last night's fried chicken dinner, maybe a bit of salt, pepper, sugar, then you have a macaroni salad.  Maybe went luxurious and they had carrots or celery in it but I wouldn't know, I missed the taste somehow.  Thanks to them I remembered my late mother again.

I feel bad writing a lot of negatives on a review, but maybe I had just high hopes for them.  Knowing OSH is a great brand, I was kinda expecting the same quality taste  like especially for the price tags they had.  I hope they rethink the dishes and how to prepare them.  It felt like they were scrimping on the ingredients and just getting big profits in return without giving a better dining experience to yours truly.  I may not be a chef, I may not be a food and restaurant critic, not a celebrity.  They may not bother reading this review, but I am a customer and I do eat food, and I love food.  All I can say for myself is, I won't be dining here or any branch in the near future.  You as a reader, I am not saying don't go here, however still I would suggest you still go here.  You might have a better dining experience than I have.  I maybe was just unlucky that time.  As I always say when I have an average dining experience, maybe the chef had a fight with his spouse and still is angry.  Woe is me.  Maybe I'll ask the server this question next time.