Last weekend, we joined many shoppers who went shopping at SM Mall of Asia, Pasay City and took advantage of the three-day sale. As mentioned in a number of my previous food reviews in MOA, this huge mall is a haven for food lovers because of the wide selection of restaurants. Come dinnertime, we didn’t have a problem choosing one that we’ve never tried before. Clawdaddy’s Osteria Americana was our choice for dinner. Upon inspection, this place has a variety of pasta and pizza options as well as seafood and meat. We gave it a shot and had a memorable experience, but with an asterisk.
Review of Clawdaddy’s Osteria Americana (SM Mall of Asia, Pasay City)
Ambiance: β ββββ
There was only one active table at the Clawdaddy Restaurant when we came. It was 7PM and it was pretty quiet still as compared to the busy ones beside it. Finding a restaurant with few customers at the usual peak dining time mean two things toΒ me.
It’s either that only those few customers know and realize that the restaurant offers quite amazing food, or that the restaurant does not just seem to appeal to more people heading its way. Maybe for the case of Clawdaddy Osteria Americana, it’s a cross between the two implications.
The atmosphere was dark, with dated decorative pieces related about the sea on the wall. The scene was humble and subdued, in a world of green and red. I felt comfortable sitting on the couchβuntil I felt and saw a spider crawling up on my arm which totally freaked me out. π―
I stood up right away and shooed the spider to the floor. Doing that must have killed it but at that moment, I didn’t care. A spider web must be close by or it’s formed just where exactly I was sitting (by the counter). Oh no! π After that, I began to be concerned about the upkeep of the place. The management must do something to control pests in the restaurant.
Service: β ββββ
Service was VERY slow. See, I ordered two kinds of pizza. One arrived after about 30 minutes; and the other, over an hour. Around 7:45PM, more customers came and filled the dining area. Their orders even came and served first than ours. Mom was irate and began to ask for a follow-up, and the servers expressed their apologies as they have a slow pizza oven.
The lesson learned here is to expect long waiting time when ordering pizza at the Clawdaddy Restaurant; you might end up with an hour to kill. Note though that it wasn’t only the pizza that came later than expected but everything else as well. To compensate for our disappointment, one pizza was not charged to our bill. It was good that they’re kind and considerate to offer that.
Another reason that caused Mom’s anger was that many food items she ordered from the menu were not available, namely: Buffalo Wings, Grilled Tuna Ribs, and Blackened Tuna Tails. The funny thing was that the server recommended the Blackened Tuna Tails after reporting that the two initial orders were out, and it was the same server who went back to us to say that apparently, her suggestion was also unavailable.
I saw that the customer sitting next to ours got a Boston Clam Chowder which had clams, bacon, potatoes, herbs and cream served on a bread bowl. I thought that looked nice and ordered the same, with a smile. Alas, the server told me that they ran out of the bread bowl and asked me if I still wanted the clam chowder soup. I said no because I was primarily just looking on the good presentation of the food.
She might have missed reporting my response back to the kitchen, because the kitchen staff came toward me and served the soup on a soup bowl and some sticks of bread on another plate. I refused to accept and said that I’ve already told the other server to cancel the order. Outrageous!
Food: β β β β β
We’re hard-pressed to find a pizza with crab meat starring on the course, and Clawdaddy’s Crab Meat Pizza (PhP 245) suited our desire for the night. It was great to eat while piping hot, but the pizza needed more crab meat for a more luscious taste. The whole egg, marinated crab meat, bechamel and mozzarella sat atop a charred, puffy and chewy cloud from heaven. So good.
The Godfather’s Meatballs (PhP 285)βspaghetti with meatballsβaccommodated our love for pasta. The sauce didn’t taste sweet like the Filipino-style spaghetti so this one’s up for my liking. A common addition to spaghetti, the meatballs in this entree were the real superstar that tasted great.
The Eggplant Parmigiana (PhP 245) was made with baked eggplant in tomato sauce, mozzarella, and cream. With crispy and crunchy outside and a soft, moist and thick inside, the eggplant was a real hit. Its simplicity was underrated.
Grilled eggplant, tomatoes, bell peppers, onions, asparagus, pomodoro and mozzarella? My favorites. All on this plate of Grilled Veggie Pizza (PhP 285), working together in sweet harmony. The taste was definitely up there, and the crispiness of the pizza’s crust was sublime. A bite would convince meat-eaters that vegetarian pizzas are also okay. (This was the pizza that took sooo long to be served.)
Price for Value: β β βββ
What use is good food when service and ambiance are bad? When dining into a restaurant, we must be considering paying out for the overall dining experience and not only for the quality and taste of food. For the food alone, I could have added two more stars here. However, with all points considered, two stars may be apt for the price for value.
Clawdaddy Osteria Americana at MOA has brought us a memorable dining experience, as mentioned in the intro. However, as how the things turned out, it’s not one that we’d like to repeat anytime soonβor ever again. It will be really great if they can improve on the shortcomings since food are likeable anyway.
About Rochkirstin Santos-Sioco
Health and technology freak. Food and lifestyle blogger with a large appetite for food and travel.
The food looks good to me and I love the quaint, cozy atmosphere.
I noticed other customers seemed to have been enjoying conversations while waiting for the food. So yeah, I agree to a degree that they’ve got nice atmosphere here. But then, it was just a miss for me that night.
The name really grabs your attention first and foremost.. Then the atmosphere looks extremely inviting..
It sure looked inviting from the outside and even for a while once we were seated. Things went awry from the moment we saw the spider and also when we waited far too long a time for our orders to arrive.
The spider was really scary. They do have slow service at Claw Daddys and it’s also pricey.
Yeah, it’s not even the month when we celebrate Halloween yet. The place feels a little spooky with the spider and the darkness enveloping around the room.
It gives you a feel of the dark alley pubs. At least, they have an edge next month.
Haha yup. π
I actually like the place since its cozy – but seriously? They should clean it up – spiders are a sign that maybe, they are not so hygienic – it does makes you wonder about their food preparation hygiene as well right?
Right. My mom even joked not to get too close to me as I may turn into a spiderwoman later that day. Good thing the spider didn’t bite me fast else I’d feel really uncomfortable and disgusted.
Well the food looks amazing and the place looks cute. I love the grilled veggie pizza!
We loved it, too. We just hoped that the management will find a way to make cooking time shorten to half or even more next time.
I’ve never been to this restaurant before. I’m sorry to hear that your experience wasn’t wonderful. That’s always frustrating.
Clawdaddy in MOA has been there for two years now and yet it was our first time to visit the restaurant. Too bad we didn’t have a great experience.
Eggplant Parm looks so so good!
It was really good. I’ll have my mom make it for us one time. π
I look forward to eating out So much that I can not tolerate poor poor service. The decor is cool and the food sounds good though!
Poor service did not make a good dining experience.
I have seen a pizza with egg on it. That is very unique!
It was our first time, too. The egg was delicious and just complemented the taste of crab meat on the pizza.
Shame you had such a bad experience. The menu sounds great but if they don’t have anything available, what’s the point?
Yeah. My mom suggested them to mark those items on the menu that’s not available, to make life easier for both the customers and the order-taker. There won’t be much questioning and frustration then.
The food looks awesome, but yikes. It sounds like everything else was kind of a nightmare.
Right. I wasn’t expecting all those bad things to happen on a day. Whew!
Well, when I saw the pictures, I thought, “that looks great!” Then I read the review. Yeesh!
Oh well, at least food were nice. π
The food and atmosphere looks amazing.
If food is the top reason why you’d want to go here, I suggest stopping by to order way ahead of time and come back about 30 minutes later from shopping to enjoy good food.
The food looks delicious. I love the wall art too!
Yeah, the art decorations on the wall are articulate and they were made well.
Sounds like you really didn’t like this place very much. Thanks for your honest feedback.
Only Mom didn’t like the food and everything here. This restaurant is a miss for her in every aspect.
Sorry this wasn’t your favorite place, but I do like the wall decor and color for a small place π
The interior design no doubt creates a good feel and a cozy vibe.
I don’t like spiders either eek. π The food does look good and the decorative pieces were nice. I like uncrowded places so that is also a plus for me .:)
If only I wasn’t surprised with the spider and if only our orders came earlier, I would have really liked this restaurant.
Food looks great. Atmosphere looks cool. But sorry about your experience! At least the food was good! :p
Thanks for understanding. I’m serious about the food but we also are concerned about the cleanliness of the place as well as the rating for service.
Too bad your experience wasn’t the best there. I would be furious too if my food, especially pizza, would take an hour get to my table. And the bugs are a big no no for me. At least you enjoyed the food, hopefully if you go back, the service will be better π
Thanks for sounding positive. That will be good news. Right now, I am not yet planning to book a second dining experience at Clawdaddy.
Looks like some delicious food. Sorry to hear that you encountered some bad service. Thanks for the review!
You’re welcome. It’s easy to conclude now that food is good enough but the bad service made us not want to go back.
The food looks great and taste good so I guess it wasn’t all a bad experience. Thanks for sharing.
Not super duper bad but bad. π
The food looks amazing. It is to bad you had to wait so long to get your food. The decor of the restaurant is really cozy. I would live to try it.
Just pray that you won’t have to wait forever for your order to come. The best advice is that you don’t order pizza.
I want to try a pizza there, YUM! But I will order ahead and come an hour later lol π
Haha I see that you’re learning. That will be great. π
The pizza doesn’t look like something I would go for but the other food looks really good. Sucks that service was so slow.
Get seafood here especially the crabs. But before doing that, pray that whatever you choose from the menu would be available.
The food looks amazing and I really love the homey atmoshere it gives off π
Hope that the service won’t ruin it, else good food and good ambiance would be worthless all the same. π
Oh man, I would have gone insane watching other tables get their food before me! And the spider? Hell no, I’d be out the door!
I would have considered leaving if only I knew that our orders would take that long. π
The food looked really great! However, over an hour for a pizza seems all kinds of wrong!
They might be using conventional ovens (not the same as professional ovens for restaurants). Given that, they must have considered investing in a better oven as this is an integral part of their operations.
This food outlet in MOA was probably lack supervision, especially for its maintenance and evaluation and check up as to its cleanliness, among others.
Yes, supervision in the restaurant seemed very lacking. Our stay was marred by annoying issues that could have been easily fixed with a certain level and detail given to attention.
Sorry you had such a bad experience. I hate when that happens when you go out to eat. We expect to get our food timely and be up to par and when it is not, it is disappointing. I would be irate if I had to wait that long and no one listen when I say I did not want something. The spider would freak me out too.
Yeah, at least the vegetarian pizza was given out to us for free.
I think they have “cook as you order” system procedure, that’s why you waited that much. And, other customers knew already the ordering time. The food’s yummy, I like it all.
Most restaurants we go are practicing “cook as you order” system and they don’t take this long to prepare and serve food. Hmmm it was already 7PM so the staff must have anticipated that people will be coming over for dinner already–or they’re too used to being relaxed because not many customers go to them? Not sure.
Wow, these dishes look incredible! I’d love to try the crab pizza!
It’s a good and unique-tasting pizza, but do make sure that you eat it at once upon serving because you won’t want to bite into something that’s like a soggy piece of biscuit.
OMG! Spider crawling on your arm on a restaurant??? I am extremely scared of bugs, i would’ve screeched like as banshee if it was me! And the service is.. OMG… I really hate it when servers come to my table repeatedly just to inform this and this and this is sold out LOL! Shouldn’t they stock better on the best selling items? It’s a good thing that the food was good, if it was bad on top of the bad ambience and bad service… It’d be a perfect insult!
There might be also something wrong with their inventory (min/max) system that led to the stockout issue. When this occurs more often, I’m sure it would skew restaurant profits and lead to bigger problems, thereby directly affecting the impression of customers on the restaurant as a whole.
I love the seafood boil at Clawdaddy’s but I haven’t tried dining at their MOA branch.
Oh you can try but just remember to order maybe an hour before you plan to sit down and eat. π
the restaurant looks amazing and so does the food. I would love to try all of it!
Food is great as long as they’re hot and freshly served.
omg. i’ve been to few places to where all the server/waiters are very slow. or didn’t even get any follow up orders and end of the day i need to cancel it. those food looks good to me!
The crew didn’t act slow but their oven did. π The crew just needed to remind the kitchen staff as well for the orders to improve accuracy.
Too bad they have bad service. Any relation with Clawdaddy in BGC? I loved the food there and it was very tasty!
Yeah they’re same. π