Gian is doing a home run to the country so he invited everyone for a quick staycation during the weekend, and while we had a very fun time making memories, it wasn’t exactly as exciting due to our accommodating venue.
I’m not all for the idea of negative thoughts on my blog, but it was an experience that makes me wonder what 5-star hotel feels like.
It was a great start for everyone when all of us arrived on the agreed time. Benok and I were already prepared for waiting as it became a habit for everyone.
From EDSA LRT station, Selah Garden is a 10-minute walk, and you won’t miss it as it’s in front of an orange residential building, Park Avenue Mansions. We arrived around 1:53 for our 2pm check-in.
They had welcome drinks (iced tea) given to everyone on arrival. Unfortunately, it took at least 20 mins to finish checking-in as all 11 of us waited in their lobby with all our bags. Not sure what the hold-up was with their reception when there was barely even a lot of people, though a wedding reception was to be held that evening.
Our room was their Stellar Suite, costing P13k on their site and P11.7k from Agoda (good for 10pax with breakfast buffet included for 8 pax). The room has 3 queen-sized beds, an extra bed and 2 sofas in addition to your usual necessities like toilet and bath. What I appreciated the most was the thermos and disposable indoor slippers.
Some of us didn’t have lunch yet, so after settling in and resting for a while, we decided to get light lunch at 3:15pm at the hotel’s restaurant so we can still have room for dinner. Good thing Gian already gave us a prior heads up in terms of their food. Apparently, there are multiple reviews on their page that says their food isn’t delicious, so at least we got our hopes a little down already.
We only ordered 2 of their Pancit Canton Guisado costing P255 per order excluding VAT and service charge, good for 3-4 persons.
Their service is reallyyyyyyyyyyyyyy slow. Carla and Gian already initiated getting water for all of us some 1- minutes in, with the thought that it was self-service. While doing that, they served us water. After a few minutes, place mats, after a few minutes, individual plates, after a few minutes, the fork. It was hilarious and honestly kind of pitiful at the same time. Our 2 orders of Pancit arrived around 4:18pm. 1 freakin’ hour after we ordered. And guess what? Wen the waiter served it, he said, and I’m quoting, “Sorry po natagalan, nakasabay kasi kayo sa buffet.”
Just thinking of it makes me roll my eyes to the back of my head. Go on and tell me it was our fault for checking-in at the same time as a wedding reception.
And as you can see on the photo, I didn’t think it was exactly how hotels should serve their food. It looked rushed, and while the serving size was decent, it was overloaded on a flat plate.
Upon serving, Carla asked for calamansi to go with the pancit. We already finished the food but the calamansi was still nowhere to be found.
Did I already mentioned that it was soup-y and tastes below average? It was a good thing we only ordered this.
While eating did we also find out that they will be closing the pool area from 5:30 onwards in consideration of the wedding happening at 6pm. So sinong mag-aadjust?
I just couldn’t put my head around the idea that they compromise their other clients for some other clients. It was already awkward to have people wearing gowns and those wearing swimwear and casual in the same venue (the place was so packed and compact), but for everyone else to adjust to give priority to some others is not any client’s fault.
When we came back to our room, we got a call from the reception that the pool will open from 8pm to 11pm. (We’re assuming they heard us complain and there were some other clients who did) It was part of the plan that we have dinner out and go back to the hotel for some night swimming. So we played some rounds of Exploding Kittens and left around 6pm to Uber ourselves to MOA and get a proper meal. We ended up in IHOP, as we also met up with Jaysel and her boyfriend Lorenz who had work earlier.
It was also a late celebration by the circle for Carla’s XXth birthday with some cake and bouquet. Lol
We dropped by the supermarket for some quick chips shopping for the night then went back to the hotel to find the pool filled with people and hazy waters. Obviously, we didn’t push through with taking a dip and ended up taking turns in the bath while playing Exploding Kittens and sharing random stories with each other. I was still consistently bugging Armen to join in and was kind of annoyed that he said he wouldn’t go. Apparently, him sending photos of him on the bed half-asleep was part of the plan to annoy me. LOL. He arrived around 9pm.
Around 10:30pm, we put up some movie on the flat screen TV while we binge ate the cake and the chips we bought. At 11:30, Armen became hungry so we went out to grab food from the 24/7 grocery in front of the hotel. Thank God for the thermos because we were able to have cup noodles. The whole staycation thing was actually a great experience. It was filled with cringe worthy stories from college, to exploding kittens and whatnots.
Gian called for additional blankets to the reception, and it took 4 followups and 1 hour to friggin arrive. The frontdesk people even told Gian on followup, “ay akala ko nandyan na.” Like what, man?
By 12, people were starting to disperse to the beds and it was lights off for me by 12:30. Blankets arrived later than that. Mid-sleep, our room became hot. I knew it wasn’t just me because even my friends had their blankets off. A lot of us were sweating already. Not sure if it was really just the weather or our aircon units turned off for a while.
The breakfast food made me sad. Other than the fact that it was an expensive P250 additional for people not covered by the rooms, they all tasted very average and I would even dare say sucked at some point. Plain and garlic rice, ground beef and mixed veggies, fruits, chicken bbq, cucumber with corn, bread, omelette and coffee. My excitement with the omelette dropped down when I saw it glistening with oil. Oil brooo. Sobrang nakakaumay. I love omelettes but eating mine was an effin’ trial 😦
Armen and I stayed by the swing after breakfast while Aicel joined us later on. No one was able to take a swim since people were also early and they didn’t want to feel so restricted given the pool was so tiny. Most of what we did was play with the Snow app Aicel had.
Time flew. People were taking turns to the bath and we were playing more Exploding Kittens till we had to leave. We were going our separate ways as Pem, Carla and I were going home via LRT-1 while the others via MRT.
I got home around 1pm after getting lunch, then dozed off.
TLDR;
Selah’s service is extremely slow and their food sucks but we all had fun. ❤
Life and Lemons 