A few weekends ago, I attended a birthday get-together at Romulo Cafe in Quezon City. We’d heard that they served good Filipino food, so I was excited to finally try their food.
We arrived at 6pm and stayed in one of the private rooms. There’s a P5,000 minimum spend to use the rooms. The restaurant is a house that was converted into a restaurant, so the “private rooms” most likely used to be bedrooms.
I wasn’t able to take a photo of the restaurant because we were busy googling where to go after leaving Romulo Cafe. For the food, I also only took quick photos whenever I could, since our companions weren’t fellow food bloggers and they quickly dug in before I could take any photos, LOL.
Romulo Cafe Food Review
Our table was a big square table, and we had a difficult time reaching the food / passing the food around.
The Pomelo Salad (P498) was a wonderful start to our meal. It’s a simple lettuce, pomelo chunks and salted egg wedges salad, with a sweet strawberry dressing.
Cheese and Vigan Longganisa Dumplings (P388) – it’s a triangle lumpia with crumbled longganisa filling. It’s just longganisa filling, and I couldn’t tell if they added anything else to contrast the flavors. A little bit salty and boring, and it’s the order we liked the least.
Lechon Kawali Sisig Dumplings (P488) – this looks exactly like the Cheese and Vigan Longganisa, but tastes better. Not as salty and the filling was porkier and tasted creamier.
Baby Pusit in Garlic (P528) – tender baby squid. It’s good, medium garlicky, just the right amount of saltiness, the squid were cleaned well. 2 orders wiped out, no leftovers.
Ginataang Sigarilyas with Tinapa (P388) – it’s like their version of gising-gising, but using tinapa. Just the right saltiness from the tinapa, balanced by the creamy coconut milk-based sauce. The sigarilyas (winged beans) were fresh and crunchy. Very good.
Crispy Pata Binagoongan (P1,128) – sliced rounds of crispy pata – very crunchy skin, tender pata meat. It’s the crispy skin that sells this for me. The sauce on the side is tomatoes with bagoong.
Sinigang na Tadyang sa Bayabas (P718) – everyone’s favorite!!! Beef ribs are tender, and the broth is flavorful from all the vegetables (radish, green chili, tomatoes, etc) and pleasantly sour from the guava. Must-order!
Lola Virginia’s Chicken Relleno (half, P1,398) – another crowd favorite. The filling was well-seasoned and cooked, and doesn’t have the sometimes “raw” taste that most other chicken rellenos tend to have. Best eaten with the accompanying sauce. Otherwise, it tasted a bit dry. It could have been juicier.
Beef Kaldereta (P598) – since this was touted as an heirloom recipe, I expected it to be better, but the beef wasn’t as tender as I expected, there’s not enough sauce. There’s plenty of better kaldereta elsewhere.
Ube Turon (P228) – another dish I would order again if we come back. Crispy mini turons. Instead of the usual ube halaya, they used thick ube champorado as the filling! Very strong ube flavor, but I loooove it! The filling also had strips of langka (jackfruit). Served with mantecado ice cream.
We also ordered ice cream for dessert. Their ice cream tasted like Arce Dairy.
They close at 9pm!!!!
So very bitin, LOL.
Like, literally, we were ushered out at 9pm, leftovers packed, bill paid.
Our companions said “pang grandparents” daw ang closing time, LOL. Tita palang kami, hindi pa kami lola hahaha. We had to move to nearby Honey Bakes Cafe to finish catching up.
Romulo Cafe – https://www.facebook.com/romulocafeph/
Quezon City Branch
32 Scout Dr. Lazcano St corner Scout Tuazon, Brgy. Laging Handa Tomas Morato, Quezon City
Phone: 8332-7273/8332-7275
Mobile: 09171522755
Honey Bakes Cafe
Literally just one minute’s walk from Romulo Cafe is Honey Bakes Cafe. At least they’re open until 12am on the weekends!
You can just walk there from Romulo Cafe, or you can also choose to move your parking spot nearer, in case your parking spot is alanganin. If your parking spot is dark and farther away, better move it to a better spot.
We initially wanted to try Aegyo Cafe but they were also already closed.
Honey Bakes Cafe is a nice place to stay for dessert, coffee and more catching up. The interiors were very “aesthetic” and minimalist. Very white and light, but inviting.
Almost all of us ordered their Honey’s Signature Latte (P165, with sea salt). It was so-so – a little bit salty, just enough to bring out the taste of the milk/cream), very mild coffee flavor, I expected a better drink since it was supposed to be their signature item.
Honey Bakes Cafe – https://www.facebook.com/HoneyBakesCafe
100 Sct. Dr. Lazcano St., Quezon City
Open Daily – Monday to Thursday (10AM-10PM) and Friday to Sunday (10AM-12AM)
