Miele Guide: Café Marco is fifth best resto in Phl

CEBU, Philippines - Cebu’s potential to become a “truly” world-class destination is currently re-affirmed through the announcement of Miele Guide survey placing the Cafe Marco at Marco Polo Plaza Hotel as the fifth Best Restaurant in the Philippines.

Miele Guide, one of Asia’s first independent guide to the region’s finest eateries, covers the best dining spots in 18 Asian countries.

Marco Polo Plaza Hotel communications manager Kyra Cabaero said that this recognition will not only promote the Cafe Marco as the anchor restaurant of the five-star hotel, but will also reinforce Cebu’s move of becoming a world-class tourism destination.

“The judges go around the nominated properties and do four rounds of judging, We will not be informed when they’ll be coming. There’s really no specific criteria but they look at everything from the food, the ambiance and the staff,” said Cabaero.

Aside from Marco Cafe, another Cebu restaurants that made it to the list, include; Anzani, Abaca and Gustavian.

“This the first time that Cafe Marco was included in The 2013 Miele Guide and for us it’s a very big honor to be in that list and we are the only property from Cebu that made it to the Top 5 list,” said F&B director Stephen Wieprich.

Wieprich was in Singapore early this year, to personally receive the award.

“The rest in the top five are mostly from Manila. We are the only one from Cebu and I think the first one from Cebu to make it to the list,” said Wieprich.

Wieprich said that they planned to maintain the level of standard they had in Cafe Marco so that they could still make it to the top in the next listing and perhaps also win more awards from other international award-giving bodies.

Hotel record showed that the food and beverage contributed half of the hotel’s total revenue. It is very important, he said to sustain and even improve Cafe Marco’s reputation, in the restaurant category

“Most of our diners are walk-in customers and we get a lot of diners during special dates like New Year in January, Valentine’s Day, Chinese New Year, and Mother’s Day. To also encourage more diners to keep coming back, we always make our spread and layout as well as the decorations more relevant,” said Wieprich.

Aside from Cafe Marco some resorts, hotels and restaurants in Cebu have recently been recognized by the international and regional award giving bodies, in their exemplary performance in quality and customer service.

According to tourism prime movers and leaders here, the recognition of the third party award-giving bodies to the tourism related facilities in Cebu re-enforces the positioning of the province becoming a world class destination.  (FREEMAN)