Turo Turo Tuesday: Manila Resto

I was in National City recently looking for a specific ingredient...had no luck at Seafood City, but I noticed this new "turo-turo" (point-point) place had opened up.

So I decided to stop and grab some breakfast. Man, this restaurant is huge......

The woman working the counter was very friendly and the food looked decent....so I went with the Longanisa and Chicken Tocino....I had to stop her from piling on the garlic rice and still ended up with a load of carbs.

And the egg of course, which had been sitting in a steam tray. The garlic in the rice was burnt, thus making the whole deal quite bitter. The longanisa was as expected, a meaty-juicy pouch of loveliness. The chicken tocino was really tough, it had been cooked down too long. It was also more salty than sweet.

It was quite obvious, this was one of those quantity over quality places.

No big deal......I made a note to revisit one day...no rush.

Funny thing happened the following week. I saw an old coworker of mine. She dropped off lunch from this "new place" to try.....it was from Manila Resto.

She got me the Bicol Express and the Beef Kaldereta, two dishes I love. She even told me they went easy on the rice....it was still way to much for me.

Bicol Express combines wonderful savory (from the fermented shrimp paste- bagoong alamang), with spicy (from chili peppers). This one kind of weak.

This was really tough, lacked spice....I mean it was really whimpy, and though it was salty, it could have used more bagoong.

The Kaldereta was slightly better; though it was still on the bland side. I enjoy mine a bit tangy from the tomato with a beefy edge. The pieces of beef were huge and had to be cut into pieces before eating. It was also a bit too greasy for my taste.

You won't go hungry after this.....but it's obviously more about quantity than quality here.

Manila Resto
1420 E Plaza Blvd Suite D2
National City, CA 91950

 

Comments

[kat]

too bad it is quantity over quality

[caninecologne]

Sux

[Kirk]

So true Kat.

LOL CC....