Saturday, December 18, 2010

Manila's Signature Dishes 2010: Quattro Grill Bar Restaurant


When I have visitors from another country, choosing local restaurants is a bit stressful for me.  Don’t get me wrong, we have a lot of good Filipino restaurants out there but a lot of them serves fusion dishes!  Thanks to Unilever Food Solutions for creating Manila's Signature Dishes 2010 and I'm glad to be part of this as one Filipino restaurant, that I haven't tried, is included.


Quattro has been around 1999 but it's embarrassing to admit that I've never dined in this restaurant!   I actually never laid my eyes on this restaurant!  I guess I seldom go to the area or I wasn't looking closely enough!  The restaurant targets the people around Quezon City area who want to unwind in a very relaxed, comfortable place at the end of the day!



I was quite lucky to have a chat with owner Maan De Ocampo, would you believe this lady has been cooking as early as 3 years old?  From the simple hotdogs and fried eggs, she started cooking for home parties up to 200 guests!  She wanted to take up culinary course in college but decided to follow her dad's footsteps on taking up business.  

When her dad decided to come up with a restaurant, Maan was very hands on and opened up the restaurant on the year 1999 expanded twice by the year 2000 and 2006.  Another branch was opened at Dagupan and plans to open up more!


The restaurant has the feel of living in a province with a huge party celebrated for the whole barangay!  The place is packed with a lot of friends coming from schools or work chatting and laughing!  The restaurant is huge with an area for smoking and non-smoking!  Well ventilated with lots of beer and sizzling dishes!  Perfect to unwind!


Here's what we had for the night...

Fried Laing
"Laing" or Taro Leaves is a vegetable dish with coconut milk.  The twist of this appetizer is that it's wrapped and deep fried by Maan.  It was a first for both me and the hubby to give this dish a try.  It was actually 'newly invented' by Maan and I was quite lucky to have a taste of it before it gets to be included on the menu!  The coconut milk is not overwhelming to taste, everything was just right!  The perfect combination of this would be mayonnaise or you can just eat this as it is! 

One serving consists of 4 pieces.  Because of pictorial purposes (a.k.a forming a Christmas Tree), we just used 3 in this photo.



Japanese Chicken Adobo
According to Maan, Teriyaki is a crowd favorite, a lot of customers including herself wanted light meat for dinner that's why she chose Chicken Meat.  The dish has a nice punch to it, very flavorful yet guiltless! 


Looks can be deceiving, seeing a lot of red chili on the Japanese Teriyaki Dish is a bit scary at first glance but once I gave it a try, it's not too spicy at all!  The chicken is very flavorful as it was wrapped with a zing of Teriyaki sauce.  The outer crust has a bit of crunch to it and its best mixed with the fried rice that comes in this dish! 


Various Panna Cotas
Buko Pandan, Ube (Taro) and Langka (Jackfruit)

It is amazing how Panna Cota, an international dessert, can be made local with ingredients proud to be locally made!  With the same Panna Cota ingredients, adding up 3 different ingredients and topped with 3 different toppings gave a very distinct taste to each dessert!

My favorite among the tree is the Buko Pandan flavored Panna Cota.  Mr. AMW's favorite is the Langka (Jackfruit) flavored Panna Cota while our dining friend Arnel's favorite is the Ube (Taro) flavored Panna Cota.  This proves that each people have different taste buds but you can manage to please them all!


If you visit the restaurant, I suggest you try their other dishes like Baked Fish Fillet, Bibingka and Pititsan!  I will blog more about the dishes I've tried in this restaurant on a separate post soon!

More and more people arrive and I think the party starts as late as 10:00pm!  If you want a quiet ambiance, visit the restaurant before 10:00pm!



 

 
Quattro 
96 Timog Avenue,
Quezon City
Opens: 11:00am to 2:00pm/ 5:00pm to 2: 00am
Tel nos.: (632) 928-1681/ (632) 928-1692/ (632) 416-6079


Good service from the waiter and meals are served quite fast!  Well, except if you plan to order their special Bibingka, order as early as you can as most people have bulk orders which takes time for them to make your fresh Bibingka!  No service charge.  Restaurant accepts cash and credit card transactions.

Maan is yet to take up culinary course, but she is a living proof of how passion can take you a long way!  I want to thank Mr. Arnel Mercado, the Over all In-Charge, for accompanying us during dinner with great stories about food and restaurants!

Have you tried Quattro?
What's your favorite Filipino dish?


Keep smilin'
Stay happy!






Unilever Foodsolutions (UFS), being the preferred foodservice business partners among restaurateurs, felt the need to acknowledge notable restaurants who are developing Manila as a culinary city.  They have partnered with select restaurants within the metropolis in coming up with signature dishes.  UFS has synergized with these restaurants, both through dish development and promotion campaign for these signature dishes, in achieving one common goal: coming up with a different culinary experiences that provide value for money and culinary memories for diners.  

If you're a restaurateur (or an aspiring one) and in need of help in coming with your signature dish, call (632) 588-8855 or email at foodsolutions.philippines@unilever.com.

2 comments :

  1. I totally get what you mean about fusion dishes. I'm quite tired of them. We must have more authentic choices too.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Skysenshi, I will take my bro here for an authentic Kare Kare!!! :)

    ReplyDelete

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