Romulo Cafe

Last weekend, the family had a visitor from China.  We wanted to let her try Filipino dishes, but wanted something not so casual either.  My mom remembered having a good meal at Romulo Cafe some years before, so we decided to have our lunch there.  It's been quite some time (read: years) since we ate in Romulo Cafe, hence, we forgot about all the dishes that were good there.  So whatever we read or saw that looked appetizing, we ordered it!  LOL.  

Here's what we had:

Boneless Crispy Pata

The skin was crispy but the meat was a bit tough.

Prawns in Aligue Sauce

No aligue taste at all.  And the prawns tasted like the frozen kind.

Flying Tilapia with 3 sauces

Quite tender, and I loved the presentation!

Seafood Kare-Kare

Not bad, but nothing special either.  It could use a bit more peanut.

Bagoong Rice

Again, could use a bit more bagoong.

Stuffed Crab Shell with Coconut Meat

The dish itself was interesting enough, but it was salty. Really salty.

Tinolang Manok

Also on the salty side.

Pancit Puti

Didn't like this one at all.  It was dry and although I know it's meant to have no sauce at all, it feels like something is lacking. (yes, the sauce!)

Suman Latik

Quite good; crunchy outer layer with soft, chewy insides.  Mixing it with the coco jam is pure genius.

Pineapple Turon

The pineapple was juicy, but since I'm old school, I prefer banana turon over the pineapple ones.

Buko Pandan

Meh.  This was bad.  My friend could make better buko pandan than Romulo's version, and free too!  So why pay for bad ones?  Do NOT try it.  

Again, it's been some years since we ate in Romulo Cafe and we didn't expect that things have gone downhill since then.  There was not one memorable dish.  Everything is just so-so or really salty.  1 out of 5 stars.  One more thing, I remembered them having an awesome chocolate dessert before, but when I asked for it, the server said that they already took it off the list.  Why oh why?!

Romulo Cafe is at 32 Sct. Tuason St. (cor. Sct. Lazcano St.) Quezon City

Abe

Living in the Philippines, there's Filipino restaurants right and left.  It's hard to find one which is not your typical cookie cutter Filipino restaurant.  Enter Abe.  When this restaurant first opened in Serendra some years ago, it was next to impossible to get a table.  Fast forward to now, it's still hard to secure a table.  That's how you know if a restaurant is good.  You know it's not just hype because it's newly opened and everybody wanted to try it.

It was quite sometime (ok, maybe yearsss) when we last ate in Abe.  Not because it's not good, but because  we seldom find ourselves in Serendra because of all the newly opened restaurants in Bonifacio High Street Central.  On a random Saturday, Mom and I had a date.  And when asked where to eat, Abe suddenly popped into my mind.

What we had:

Squid Tactics

This is one of my old favorites.  I like how the batter is just light and remains white, unlike other calamares that turn brown after a round of frying.  The slightly sweet-spicy sauce also complements it very well.

Pork Hamonado

This is one of the new dishes which came highly recommended by our server.  She didn't fail us.  It was good.  But be warned:  eating more than one can be dizzying because of the fat.

Lengua

The non-traditional lengua, which came in a serving dish with a baked crust.  Would have preferred my lengua to be whole and not chopped into pieces, but it was pretty tender so I guess it cancels out the negative points.

Bamboo Rice

One of the house specials (or at least i think) is their bamboo rice.  The rice was soft but not overly done.

Pinakbet

This is more of Mom's dish.  Not much of a pinakbet person myself, but she gave her nod of approval, so I guess it's good!

Overall Abe gets a 4 out of 5 stars.  Perfect for those occasions which require you to bring a balikbayan friend/relative out to eat, but you want to avoid the usual Filipino fare. 

Abe is at Serendra, Fort Bonifacio, Taguig