Pilipino Lunch along Maginhawa Street

Another meeting with a lawyer friend brought me and my brother to another restaurant located along Maginhawa Street in Diliman, Quezon City. Our last visit to this street brought us to Black Soup Cafe where I tasted the black pasta. This time, our group decided to have a Filipino style lunch at Pino Resto Bar.
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This post is long overdue because Pino Resto Bar already relocated from its old place along Maginhawa Street to Malingap Street.

Pino Resto Bar was aptly named because it offers FiliPINO foods that are common to the Flipino tongue but innovated to make them more delicious.  The resto bar is currently managed by Chef Bugia, Star Jose and PJ Lanot.

The distinctive feature that the old Pino Resto Bar along Maginhawa Street had is its doodle on the wall.
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I am not sure if the new Pino Resto Bar along Malingap Street has a new doodle on its walls.

We asked for Pino Resto Bar's specialty and the waiter told us to order the Kare-kareng Bagnet, which we did except for my brother.

I noticed that Pino Resto Bar is quite popular in the area because of the crowd. Our group luckily found a large table beside the doodled wall before other patrons could reach it. We waited for the main course while we nibbled little tacos filled with mangos, cheese and other veggies.
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The tacos are perfect distraction while we wait for our kare-kareng bagnet. Soon enough, our orders came to our table one by one. I was awed when I saw my kare-kareng bagnet. The pork meat is BIG.
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The size is awesome but the taste of the kare-kareng bagnet didn't fail. I understood; on my first bite, why Pino Resto Bar's kare-kareng bagnet is praised by many. The kare-kareng bagnet combined two Filipino dishes into one and the fusion is perfect. Kare-kare is a stew made of peanut sauce and various vegetables partnered with bagoong alamang. Bagnet, on the other hand, is deep fried pork meat.

Pino Resto Bar's kare-kareng bagnet is deep fried pork meat that still has the taste of peanut sauce of kare-kare, which is new but familiar to my tounge. My kare-kareng bagnet had three pieces of big pork meat, which I almost failed to finish.

My brother ordered Pino Chicken Inasal that has one piece of inasal meat and fried kangkong leaves.
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He said that the chicken inasal was fine but he didn't like the taste of fried kangkong leaves because it tasted like saliva.

We finished our lunch with desserts. I ordered the Mango Banana Peanut Butter Roll.
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The roll is not too sweet and peanut butter taste mixed well with the taste of banana and mango.

We enjoyed our lunch/meeting with Pino Resto Bar's delicious food and tasty kwento. We left the resto bar with big bellies because of the gigantic pork of kare-kareng bagnet.

I wonder what restaurant along Maginhawa Street we're going to drop by next meeting.

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Visit Ahab Reviews and Tips and read some tips on renewing PRC license.
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Going Black at Black Soup Café

The image that usually comes to my mind when I hear the word “pasta” is a plateful of noodles soaked in tomato sauce. That is why it is an unusual event when I met a different kind of pasta at a restaurant along Maginhawa Street of Quezon City.

It was a drizzly day when an attorney friend brought my brother and me to Blacksoup Café + Artspace.

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The restaurant occupies a small space, the size of a classroom, of the Maginhawa Building. What caught my attention, when I entered the restaurant, are the artworks that cover its walls. Well, the artworks at Blacksoup Café + Artspace are indeed eye catching.

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It seems like the theme of Blacksoup Café + Artspace that day was provocative nude art.

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I believe that artworks inside Blacksoup Café + Artspace changes. I saw different artworks posted in another blog from what we saw during our visit. This is good because regular patrons of this restaurant will have something new to look at when the artworks are changed.

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Our attorney friend told us that the restaurant has a lot of activities like film screening, poetry and live music.  I experienced none of those activities because we went to Blacksoup Café + Artspace during daytime.

For our lunch, we ordered spicy balut (85 pesos) as appetizer and grilled saging na saba (50 pesos) for dessert. We ordered blacksoup pasta (175 pesos) for our main course because we want to know what black soup is.

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Spicy balut

The first to reach our table is the spicy balut. It tastes good and a little bit spicy. Bicolanos might get disappointed but those who have low tolerance on spicy foods will like it. My only comment for this is that the chick embryo is missing. It is not true balut if the chick is not present.

Grilled saging na saba also tastes good. The banana was perfectly grilled. It should be eaten while it is hot. Let butter melt and seep in the grilled bananas.

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Grilled saging na saba

Blacksoup Pasta is as black night when it reached our table. The black color came from squid’s ink that was used as sauce. It was my first time to taste this kind of pasta and I like it. But, I still prefer normal pasta in tomato than this pasta of Blacksoup Café + Artspace. 

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Blacksoup pasta

We enjoyed our lunch at Blacksoup Café + Artspace. The place is good for friends to meet and have a long chit chat. If you are looking a good place to eat at Maginhawa Street or at Philcoa Area, I suggest that you drop by Black Soup Café + Artspace.

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Visit Ahab Reviews and Tips and read about my tips for PUPCET.

Visit the Blacksoup Café + Artspace Facebook page for more info on menu, contact details and address.