The Unlawyer

At the northeast corner of Scout Tuason and Doctor Lazcano streets in Quezon City is a restaurant that serves very good, and very reasonably-priced, Filipino comfort food served in a tasteful atmosphere that honors the man for whom it is named after: the Romulo Cafe.

This is not the first restaurant to operate at this particular street corner but it is the latest in a number of eating houses that have decided to set up shop within the interior streets of the Scout area, as barangays Laging Handa and Sacred Heart are colloquially called, as an alternative location to an already-crowded Tomas Morato Avenue.

Romulo Cafe is divided into several distinct zones: an outdoor lounge and dining area, two indoor dining rooms, and several private rooms at the second floor. As you can see from the picture above, the larger of the two dining rooms is decorated with pictures of Mr. Romulo during his long diplomatic career in the service of the Philippines.

Now, let’s turn to the food. My family and I took our regular Sunday lunch not too long ago at this restaurant and I was able to survey quite a number of dishes off its menu.

Probably the best-selling dish in this establishment is its Boneless Crispy Pata Binagoongan (PHP 595.00) and no wonder: their take on this classic Filipino dish imparts plenty of flavor on a viand that usually relies onn a dipping sauce for most of its flavor. Plus, the lack of any bones make this dish particularly easy to eat.

The Tito Greg’s Karekare (PHP 340.00) is not to be missed as well. I was easily impressed at how smooth its sauce was, and how tender the stewed ox tail was, but then again I don’t get to partake of this dish very often.

Unlike karekare, roast chicken finds its way into our household menu quite often. Thus I compared it with what this eatery calls The General’s Chicken (PHP 470.00), or what the menu describes as a chicken baked whole and “rubbed with special herbs & smothered w/ garlic.” I was deeply impressed: it was very moist and flavorful indeed. It was at par with the roast chicken Mrs. Unlawyer prepares from a recipe she found in Roast Chicken and Other Stories by Simon Hopkinson.

Another notable roast chicken dish that Romulo Cafe serves is Chicken with Tamarind Sauce (PHP 220.00). It’s a one-half of a chicken prepared in the same way as the General’s Chicken except it is rubbed with tamarind sauce instead.

Here is another of my Romulo Cafe favorites: Callos (PHP 240.00).

This was my brother’s favorite: Baby pusit in garlic (PHP 200.00).

Probably the only dish I disliked was the bagnet (PHP 340.00) whose meat I found too dry for my taste, but then again I suppose this characteristic goes into the very essence of this dish itself. Market Manila describes how this Ilocano favorite is prepared:

“Now if you want Bagnet instead, you take the same pork and have it warm up on the kitchen counter, then you fry it completely submerged in hot fat but at a low heat, with the fat just barely gurgling around the meat. You fry this mass for a good 45-60 minutes until it is a gorageous deep caramel color (but not burned), and oddly, the splattering has gone down to a minimum. I take this latter characteristic to mean there is little moisture left and essentially what you have is a big fat meaty chicharon of sorts.”

Romulo Cafe is open for lunch from 11:00 AM to 3:00 PM, and for dinner from 6:00 PM to 11:00 PM. Reservations strongly recommended; call (02) 332-7273. Major credit cards accepted.

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I might as well add that the pictures accompanying this entry were taken with a Samsung ST550 digicam, yes the one with two LCD screens.