The newly erected Resorts World Manila has been getting rave reviews all throughout the web-iverse. Last night, we decided it was time to check what the hype was all about. We wanted something Chinese for a change so we headed to Passion.
As you enter, you'll see circular lanterns hanging from the ceiling and their main motiff colors were gold & red, the lucky colors in Chinese. It was spacious and can seat up to 200-300 guests. After being seated for awhile, the dim yellow lights made me kinda sleepy.
Passion has lots of servers & waiters on the floor, and I do mean a lot. There was even a time when 5-6 of them were just standing idly by the long table where they pack the food for take out. This is where the problems started. It takes a long time for them to take our orders and to coordinate with the kitchen. We had to repeat and re-repeat our orders to 3 different servers. Having a dish changed from the set menu took almost 30 mins for them to confirm if it can be done. With stomachs growling, we were hoping that the food would at least compensate us for the wait.
It didn't.
With its mouth-watering description on the menu and seeing this dish flying out the kitchen, we ordered Shrimp in Orange Sauce. Cute presentation. The 14 pcs of breaded shrimps were placed on a loooong rectangular plate and were sitting delicately on orange slices. The shrimps were a little bit crunchy. Recommendation? You should definitely eat this with the sauce.
We tried one of their set menu with a minor change on one dish.
Like in any other restaurants, first up was the soup. The staff here really needed training. Only half the table had their soup bowls, another server had to bring the other half. Tsk tsk.
We tried one of their set menu with a minor change on one dish.
Like in any other restaurants, first up was the soup. The staff here really needed training. Only half the table had their soup bowls, another server had to bring the other half. Tsk tsk.
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| Golden Mushroom with Dried Seafood Bean Curd Soup |
Whew! What a mouthful. With a name like that, I was expecting.... more. What came was this brownish-yellow colored soup with white stuff, not as appetizing as its name. As for the taste, it's actually indescribable. I couldn't taste any golden mushroom and I guess the bean curd got all smashed up when they were ladling it into the bowl.
As traditional Chinese dinners go, we had to have Cold Cuts. In their version, this consisted of sliced crab rolls, lots of jellyfish, bean curd and pork asado slices. Another poor quality dish, and this was just a simple entree. This was beginning to feel like a trend.
The next on the menu was the Peking Duck served in 2 ways.
The 1st way was the Peking Duck slices in lumpia wrappers. In other restaurants, they let you wrap them yourself. But in here, they serve this already in their wrappers. This was unconventional but sadly, it didn't really work for me. Instead of getting to choose which parts of the Peking Duck you wanted to wrap (either the skin or the meat part) here you had to contend with what they placed inside. The hoisin sauce was also pre-placed. The worst part? The Peking Duck was overcooked and tough to chew.
The next on the menu was the Peking Duck served in 2 ways.
The 1st way was the Peking Duck slices in lumpia wrappers. In other restaurants, they let you wrap them yourself. But in here, they serve this already in their wrappers. This was unconventional but sadly, it didn't really work for me. Instead of getting to choose which parts of the Peking Duck you wanted to wrap (either the skin or the meat part) here you had to contend with what they placed inside. The hoisin sauce was also pre-placed. The worst part? The Peking Duck was overcooked and tough to chew.
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| Sauteed Shrimps with Slice Chinese Sausage in XO Sauce |
With it's colorful presentation, I couldn't wait to taste all those flavors. The shrimps and veggies were tender but lacked flavor. The only thing that was memorable with this dish was the Chinese sausages. There was no hint of any XO sauce. A definite thumbs down.
Upon recommendation, we had the Muy Choi Steam Fish Lapu Lapu changed to Pomelo. This was a familiar dish served at other restaurants but they use mangoes instead. Hmmm.. an innovation of some sort, okay I'm game with that. The fish was not deboned, you'll have to do that yourself. Honestly? This was just an ordinary fish dish with pomelo slices, that's it. No burst of flavor, even the sauce did not help in any way. I just contented myself in eating the fruit.
This was made up of broccoli, cabbages, mushrooms and carrots drizzled with garlic bits on top. At least the vegetables were cooked okay, crunchy but easy enough to chew. Taste? Too ordinary. Nothing special about it.
Upon recommendation, we had the Muy Choi Steam Fish Lapu Lapu changed to Pomelo. This was a familiar dish served at other restaurants but they use mangoes instead. Hmmm.. an innovation of some sort, okay I'm game with that. The fish was not deboned, you'll have to do that yourself. Honestly? This was just an ordinary fish dish with pomelo slices, that's it. No burst of flavor, even the sauce did not help in any way. I just contented myself in eating the fruit.
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| Garlic Wok Fried Mix Vegetables |
With almost all dishes disappointing us, I was anxious to how they can redeem themselves in the 2nd way of the Peking Duck. Wok Fried Shredded Duck with chopped carrots, celery and bell peppers. The duck pieces were soggy but amazingly, the white crunchy bits underneath was still not able to absorb the duck flavor. Also, the serving was too small, definitely not for 10 people as described.
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| Fried Rice Yeung Chow Style |
It tasted as bland as it looks. The shrimps were tiny and the meat were too few. Totally forgettable. We improvised and ate this with the Chinese sausages just so we could enjoy this dish. Sigh.
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| Chilled Almond jelly with Fruit Cocktail |
Lastly, I was hoping to at least enjoy the dessert. For the price, I thought they would at least use real fruits, but they didn't. It was straight from a can. At least the almond jelly tasted like almond jelly.
For a total bill of 12,000+ and to be served mediocre, low quality food, Passion unfortunately was not able to excite any of my taste buds.
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