Keep It Clean – A restaurant’s cleanliness and sanitation prove to be important in attracting new customers and retaining old ones.

A few days ago while my precious angel was away for a vacay, the hubby and I have had dinner in Chowking, SM Bacoor Branch. We frequently visit this place, because, of course, we love the food and the customer service, too! But one thing we notice though, they have dirty trays and sometimes, dirty utensils.

My usual routine whenever I visit Chowking is:

Request for disposable utensils and our drinks be placed in disposable cups.

WHY?

Because oil in utensils and drinks only means one thing: they were not cleaned thoroughly.

But what happened the other day was really, really yucky.

I saw a few bits of rice and what-nots on my supposed to be clean plate.

I did not blog about it immediately because, first and foremost, I was too shocked that I didn’t get to take photos of the ‘dirty plate’. I handed it out to the waiter saying “Ay ano ba yan, kuya?”. I just asked for a replacement.

The moment I got home, I posted a status on Facebook explaining a bit of the incident: click here

I should have blogged about it then but since I didn’t have any proof to support my claims, I just channeled my experience in Facebook.

But guess what? An angel saw my post and sent my concern directly to the company president of Chowking himself =) So two days later, a staff from their main office called to inform me that:

• They have two dishwashing processes: manual and automatic, using a dishwashing machine so utensils are thoroughly cleaned.
• The plate rack is placed beside the huge rice cooker so it could have been from there.

I am not familiar with the place, so I don’t know if it’s true. I don’t know how their system works or if they have copper sinks to boot. What I just want to see on my next visit aside from clean food and store are clean plates, utensils, and trays.

They are inviting me to visit their store next week so they could show me that they have actually addressed the issue, should I go?