June 10, 2012

Wil’s Steaktown

verabear Family, Food Trip 33 Comments

Tuesday was payday and I asked the boyfriend out to lunch. I told him I’d pay for anything but he couldn’t decide where to go. We settled on an old favorite: Steaktown.

My family has gone to Steaktown for family dinners since I was a kid. It used to be located along West Avenue, then it moved. Next we knew, it was along Quezon Avenue side by side another local restaurant. They served the same meals we had known and loved. I took the boyfriend there a few times and we celebrated some of our anniversaries in that restaurant. They moved again, this time to a more secluded spot, at Sgt. Esguerra. In that last location the restaurant upgraded its look. But the menu still carried the same old familiar fare. They still had the salad bar too.

We were looking forward to a nice Steaktown lunch to kick off Alfred’s birthday week.

Imagine our surprise when upon entering, we found the place to be different. Everything was changed. The biggest surprise of all?

 

It is now known as Wil’s Steaktown.

Willie Revillame bought the business. And the entire building it was on apparently. The place was being renovated into Wil’s Events Place. It’s also now a resto/bar where a band plays at night. They don’t just serve steaks now. Imagine my surprise when I saw Kare-kare on the menu. Good thing for Alfred though because that’s what he actually wanted for lunch that day.

Now Wil isn’t on my list of favorite people, and the last thing I wanted to do was to make him richer by patronizing his products. But we were there already and the serving staff were nice enough. So we stayed. It was also very hot outside and I’d rather not go out right away.

They served this very soft bread for starters. I actually wanted more. They offered more but didn’t get to actually serve it. I guess that was okay because I got stuffed with all the food we ordered anyway.

We don’t normally order appetizers, but I’m happy we ordered these potatoes. They’re baked and stuffed with sour cream, cheese and bacon. I think it was called Boston Potatoes or something. Hah!

The big bowl of Kare-Kare was supposed to have Ox tail. I’m not sure that’s what was in it. It also wasn’t very special, but it tasted okay.

 

It took me a long time to decide what to order because I wanted something to complement the Kare-Kare. But since I couldn’t choose any, I settled on Jesse James steak. That used to be Alfred’s usual order. Actually he was looking forward to ordering the 1 pound steak, but it is no longer on the menu.

My steak was well done and was served with garlic mushrooms and buttered vegetables. I had rice too.

We had refillable Tanglad Iced Tea that we actually regret ordering. It costs 150 pesos a glass and the boyfriend didn’t like it so much. It was too spicy for him, for a drink. I liked it, but couldn’t drink too much of it. A glass would have been enough.

Though we were quite aware of our running bill already, we decided to have dessert.

Alfred ordered the frozen Leche (I did not write down the actual names, sorry), which is a lot like Brazo de Mercedes, but frozen.

 

I got the Mango Torte, which is very similar to Contis’ Mango Bravo minus the layers.

 

We ended up with a very hefty bill. The food was okay, but the cost is a big consideration. Because of it, we’d already decided that this would be our last visit to Steaktown. Don’t get me wrong, we’re all for paying good money for good food, we just didn’t feel like this was worth it. Add to that, it’s Wil’s restaurant now and no longer the good old familiar place that my family enjoyed.