High Grounds Cafe, Tomas Morato

One of the things I miss about my pre-pandemic workplace is its proximity to many interesting places to grab a bite.

Tomas Morato is home to many restaurants that offer distinct dining experiences to diners with various interests.

High Grounds Cafe along Rallos Street, for example, offers high end PC gaming services and high speed internet connection catering mainly to gamers. It offers coffee-based drinks and desserts as well as comfort food to nourish its customers as they play PC games, browse online or do their remote work.

My experience here, however, was strictly for dining. As a despedida for my previous boss, practically the entire team came together unexpectedly for one of our famous happy lunches.

It’s fortunate that High Grounds Cafe boasts of spacious and sprawling premises and a well-trained kitchen staff as it was able to accommodate our sizable group.

Our orders included:

Starters.

Pulled Chicken Nachos (Php280). Tortilla chips tossed with pulled grilled chicken, tomatoes, pickled jalapeno, cornichons, onions, topped with melted mozzarella and silantro oil.

Crispy Catfish Mango Salad (Php250). Catfish flakes mixed with green mango, lettuce, nuts, tomatoes, carrots, shallots, cucumber, cilantro and authentic Nuoc Cham dressing.

Pastas.

Salted Egg Carbonara (Php320). Pasta tossed in bacon carbonara sauce flavored with salted egg.

Beef Stroganoff (Php380). Made with seared beef strips and button mushrooms in a creamy stroganoff sauce.

Mains.

Grilled Salmon (Php520). Herb-seasoned salmon pieces, grilled then served with succotash potato puree.

Ponzu Salmon (Php520). Fresh salmon served with yuzu kasha aoili, kobacha puree, ponzu shallots and shimeji.

Fish and Chips (Php320). Cobbler fish pieces battered and deep-fried then served with fries and tartar sauce.

US Pork Ribs (Php380). Marinated and barbecued US riblets served with Java Rice.

Cajun Pork Belly (Php420). Pork belly marinated in Cajun seasoning and cooked sous vide.

Peri Peri Chicken (Php395). Boneless half chicken marinated in Portuguese style peri-peri sauce served with Cajun jalapeno aioli, mango salsa and dirty rice.

Country Style Fried Chicken (Php360). Boneless half chicken battered, breaded then deep-fried to a crispy golden brown served with steamed rice.

Grilled Chicken BBQ (Php395). Boneless half chicken marinated in homemade barbecue sauce served with Java Rice.

I found High Grounds’ fresh takes on well-known dishes interesting and well worth some repeat visits.

However, the pandemic struck and it had to halt its operations for a few months.

It recently reopened for dine in with protocols in place for the New Normal.

While I’m not looking forward to going back to work in the office (I’m loving my work-from-home setup too much!), I am looking forward to dining safely with my coworkers here for another happy lunch.

High Grounds Cafe is located at 67 Scout Rallos Street, Sacred Heart, Quezon City, open daily from 8am to 12 midnight. For reservations and inquiries, call +63 2 8880 2037.

Check out my posts on other gaming restaurants:

• Ground Zero eSports Lounge, Antipolo
• Versus Barcade, BGC
• iDarts Dash, BGC
• GridXGriddle, Greenfield District