October 18, 2011

Tomato Kick

verabear Food Trip 5 Comments

We had an interesting lunch. Drove all the way to Maginhawa Street at the UP Village for this. On the way, we passed the old ECPAT Philippines Office, where I had spent so much of my younger days. The place looks so different! The gate and the fence are no longer there. And it looks like it’s now a Café or a specialty store (I did a quick search and it IS a restaurant, Gayuma ni Maria).

Today, we had Shanti dining with us. She was kind enough to agree to take my wallet to the office so I wouldn’t have to drive home without a license (and penniless). The least I could do was treat her out to lunch. I hope she enjoyed it as much as we did.

Shanti ordered Salsa Pork:

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          

It’s grilled liempo, with Salsa on the side. We all liked it. The fat and skin on the pork was crispy. There’s enough to share.

Here’s a closer look at the salsa:

Alfred had Sisig, with three cups of rice!

This dish was spicy, it had a lot of sili, but also maybe because Alfred put a lot more chili sauce on it. It’s also good to share, but the boyfriend had all of it.

I chose a healthier plate, Tuna with Egg Sauce topped with Asparagus:

I don’t know why, but I was somehow imagining tuna flakes ala Century Tuna. So I was pleasantly surprised to see two huge chunks of tuna on my plate. The sauce was tasty, I really liked it! Even this was good enough to share as well.

Close up:

The tuna tended to be a little dry near the center, but it was still good.

My order came last, and this was the last to be served, Stuffed Tomatoes:

One plate has four of these. Stuffed with seasoned ground beef and topped with mozzarella cheese. It also has vinaigrette dressing. I absolutely love this dish. I will go back for more.

For drinks we had two glasses of home brew iced tea, and water. The bill was Php 765, and it was worth it. If I wanted to save, I’d skip the iced tea and just have water. Sharing would be a good idea too.

Tomato Kick has an artsy vibe, the whole place does, actually. The tables on the balcony is a nice spot to just hangout, specially with this afternoon’s weather (cloudy w/ rain showers). There’s a used bookshop next door (Bookay Ukay) and took a lot of willpower to stay away from it. A tattoo place was also next door, and a spa, among others. If I remember correctly, that whole space (old house) used to be the offices of World Vision in the Philippines, before they moved to their own building in Quezon Avenue.

The only downside? The ladies room. Tomato Kick doesn’t have its own CR, but there’s a common one shared by the tenants of the establishment. It’s clean, in the way that CRs in gas stations could be clean (no, don’t imagine the worst). There’s tissue, and there’s water. You will have to use a dipper to flush the toilet though. Even at its present state though, I wouldn’t be discouraged to go back.

**All photos are mine. Copy and use but always credit back to this blog.

Tomato Kick

55 Maginhawa Street, UP Village

Quezon City

02-4895503