I confess to being a bit frustrated at the management of 8065 Bagnet, a little restaurant that operates in San Antonio Village, Makati, with a menu that features an astonishingly wide range of dishes that feature bagnet as a primary ingredient.
It’s an intriguing concept, especially since Z & I think that heart health is overrated. We’d been particularly intrigued by the Binagoongang Bagnet and the Spicy Ginataang Bagnet, and had long made it a goal of ours to drop by soon for one of our legendary gustatory adventures.
And so, last Holy Wednesday, we finally made the trek to Estrella Street in Makati for what we thought would be a nice, leisurely dinner.
But as you can read below, I don’t think we’ll ever go back again.
To make a long story short, my car was broken into, and both Z & I got our stuff stolen. We’ll be the first to admit – it was very stupid of us to leave our valuables inside the car while it was unattended. That’s something we never do. But that one night, we were both so tired and hungry and grumpy for work, and let our usual security-conscientiousness slide.
And so, it was goodbye to Z’s MacBook.
Goodbye to my iPad.
Goodbye shades and perfume and the 1-week old Cambridge Batchel that Z gave me.
Stupidity on our part, but I hoped we could do something to make sure something similar wouldn’t happen to 8065′s patrons in the future.
I dropped one of the owners of 8065 Bagnet a line – not to put blame on management (leaving one’s stuff in a car is a no-no, in any case), but because we were told by the extremely helpful MAPSA and police guys who helped us out that this is a frequent occurrence among diners there. I just wanted him to be fully aware of the security problem in his area, and to see if he’d be willing to get some help from the baranggay or even hire his own bantays in the future.
That was a week ago. And he has yet to acknowledge receipt of my message. So I don’t know if anything has been to done to secure future customers from what happened to us.
How else can I reach them?
This is the message I sent via Facebook:
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Hi Jeff, got your name from _______ – she mentioned you were the owner of 8065 Bagnet in San Antonio Village in Makati.
Anyway – ate there for the first time last Wednesday evening. Extremely good food, great prices. We’d been meaning to eat there for months but never made the time. Loved the binagoongan na bagnet and the ginataan.
There were quite a lot of people that night, so I had to park my new car some distance from your restaurant, at the corner across David’s Salon, since there was no more space in front of 8065.
This led to the unpleasant part of our dinner. When we came out, two MAPSA guys informed us that the window of my car had been smashed in. We lost two bags containing a MacBook and an iPad, plus various other small valuables.
Obviously, it’s our fault for leaving valuables in the car in that neighborhood. It’s not something we normally do, and for sure it’s not something we will do again. Simply put, katangahan lang talaga namin for being so careless.
I’m just dropping a note to you because the MAPSA guys, the guys at the police station, and various residents nearby mentioned that there have been multiple similar incidents that have happened to patrons of your restaurant, as a place that’s growing in popularity. They say they’ve strongly suggested to the owners to at least hire some bantay’s to watch over the cars of your customers, in the same way as other nearby places we love like Central, Pat Pat’s Kansi, Bacolod Chicken BBQ, etc.
Am hoping you are taking that suggestion under serious consideration. We love your food but don’t think we can ever come back until we have peace of mind that our car & belongings will be safe. I’ve also had to warn several of my friends who have heard great things about your place not to eat there, unless they’re willing to risk their valuables as well.
God bless and good luck to 8065 Bagnet. Hope to come back some day.
Thanks.
Mark
