pares – Jellybeans in the City

Enjoy delish Filipino hotplate your way at Butter Grill, The Landmark

Who would have thought that dining at a mall food court would give you such a superb dining experience?

Sure, food courts have their own appeal due to a variety of reasons: the variety of cuisines offered at affordable prices, easy accessibility, fast service and liveliness and bustle of the crowd.

However, the entrance of a brand new concept stall at The Landmark’s Supermart Foodcenter presents an exciting possibility for diners: personalization!

Buttergrill, The Landmark Supermart Foodcenter

Butter Grill offers sizzling plates classic Filipino dishes and foodcourt faves but with a fresh twist: the diner can mix and match various items on the menu to craft a hotplate according to their specifications.

Here’s how:

First, choose your meat among Butter Sliced Pork (Php159), Butter Sliced Beef (Php249), Mixed Seafood (Php285), Peppered Bangus (Php298), Angus Burger Steak (Php315) and Beef Tendon (Php345).

Second, choose a free sauce to complement your meat: Pares Sauce, Bicol Express Gravy, Kare-Kare Gravy, Honey Binagoongan Gravy, Steakhouse Gravy, Sinigang Gravy, Kaldereta Gravy and Salted Egg Gravy.

Lastly, choose a free side to complete your meal: Butter Rice, Pancit and Sourdough Pan de Sal.

Combining items from this menu produces tasty hotplates such as:

Butter Sliced Beef in Kare-Kare Sauce with Buttered Rice

Angus Burger Steak in Steak House Gravy with Buttered Rice: my absolute fave!

Sliced Pork in Kaldereta Sauce and Pancit

Beef Tendon in Honey Binagoongan Gravy and Buttered Rice

Beef Tendon in Sinigang Gravy and Buttered Rice

Buttergrill, The Landmark Supermart Foodcourt

With the Lenten Season coming in, you’d be happy to know that Buttergrill’s got your back for Meatless Fridays with a Buy 1 Get 1 Offer on its seafood hotplates for just Php298. Promo is available every Friday from February 24 to April 7, 2023.

Peppered Bangus in Salted Egg Sauce with Buttered Rice

Mixed Seafood in Pares Sauce with Pancit

Mix things up a bit and try some of the dishes with Butter Grill’s Sourdough Pan De Sal!

Cap your meal with something sweet and refreshing: Buttergrill’s Clear Gulaman available in Bulilit (Php49) and Giant (Php99) sizes!

Here are some tips to further enhance your Buttergrill experience:

Unsure of which combination to try? Ask the servers for their recommendations!
Mix the hotplate contents well to distribute the flavors from the sauces evenly.
Allow some of the rice and gravy to caramelize (forming a flavorful tutong I’m you’ll love!)

So if you fancy a fresh take on your favorite Pinoy dishes and more, be sure to drop by Butter Grill!

Butter Grill is located at the Supermart Foodcenter of The Landmark, Makati Avenue, Ayala Center, Makati City.

Stay updated on its promos and offers by following Butter Grill on Facebook and Instagram.

The Jelly List: Yummy national flavors to stoke your Pinoy Pride via GrabFood

With the Philippine Independence Day just around the corner, it’s definitely time to look back on some of the things that we can be proud of as a nation.

Being a foodie, I consider the sheer wondrous variety and flavor of Filipino cuisine as a definite achievement. Using our local ingredients and culinary traditions from our forbears as well as influences from foreigners and we produced a highly diverse, down-home yet flavorful array of dishes that are close to our hearts and appeal to our tastebuds.

Despite enjoying Filipino food in our hapag-kainan at home, we also go out and dine at Filipino restaurants because we simply can’t get enough of these flavors and we appreciate the unique spins that local chefs apply to our classic dishes.

And with the restrictions on dining out still in effect because of the pandemic, we are lucky that we can still have our Pinoy food cravings satisfied by our suking Filipino restaurants by having our favorite dishes delivered via GrabFood.

Check out latest #JellyList of Filipino dishes that you can enjoy at home:

Bulalong Lugaw by Soleras

The hearty rice porridge which serves as our go-to comfort food during rainy days just got a decadent makeover with the addition of hefty pieces of beef shanks (complete with bone marrow!).

Classic Pinoy streetfood at Casa Calle, SM Megamall

Do you remember your first taste of streetfood?

The varied shapes, colors and textures, the interplay of sweet, salty, sour and spicy, plus a hint of the forbidden (because didn’t our moms warn us to keep away from these back then?) and that feeling of comfort when you bite into them, these are part and parcel of our early street food experience.

While those good sensations associated with street food remain to this day, that feeling of prohibition hardly applies now, especially when street food is elevated to the level that Casa Calle brings them to.

This stall located at Eatogether Food Hall in SM Megamall serves up, not just Pinoy comfort food faves, but also welcome tweaks on our favorite street food, such as:

Inihaw Platter (Php380). Various meat and sundry parts marinated in barbecue sauce and charcoal grilled to smoky perfection such as two sticks each of Pork BBQ, Isaw Manok (chicken intestine), Bulaklak (ruffled pork fat), Tenga (pork ear) and Betamax (coagulated pig’s blood). This promo bundle is available only during Wednesdays and Saturdays.

Lugaw Special (Php95 for small | Php115 for large). Savory rice porridge with bits of meat and tripe, a hard-boiled egg and garnished with toasted garlic and choppef green onions.

Tokwa’t Baboy (Php90). Crispy bits of pork belly tossed with fried tofu and chopped chilis and onions in a vinaigrette made with vinegar and soy sauce.

Tokneneng (Php35). Hard-boiled duck egg covered in orange batter, best enjoyed when dipped in spiced vinegar.

Sizzling Beef Pares (Php188). Cubed beef brisket sauteed and stewed with garlic, onion and ginger, and seasoned with star anise. This viand is paired with garlic fried rice (hence the name “pares”) and served on a sizzling plate.

Turones ala Mode (Php155). Banana and langka slices encased in lumpia wrapper, them deep-fried, and served with a big scoop of vanilla ice cream and garnished with sesame seeds and chocolate sauce.

Get ready to rediscover your love of Pinoy street food here.

This Casa Calle branch is located at Eatogether Food Hall, Second Floor, SM Megamall Building A, Ortigas Center, Mandaluyong City.

Another branch is set to have its grand opening soon at 163 Aguirre Street, BF Homes, Paranaque City.

Disclosure: I attended a food-tasting here together with fellow foodies. All food items mentioned here were served for us to sample the fare and elicit our honest feedback.

Check out my posts on other stalls at Eatogether Food Hall:

Bold takes on Pinoy dishes at Soleras, Banawe

Banawe is known as the go-to place for car parts and Chinese food. This newly opened Filipino restaurant is setting out to change all that.

If you ever thought that Pinoy food lack imagination and pizzaz, you are in for quite an eye-opener at Soleras.

Situated at the ground floor of hardware and construction store BuildPlus in Banawe, Soleras provides shoppers and walk-in diners another welcome dining option within the premises (the other one is the steak and pizza restaurant Megawatt). Similar to its sister restaurant, it takes its name from the solar panels that serve as its tables and provides a casual vibe among its diners as well as a convenient location within the store.

In line with the New Normal, Soleras operates with safety protocols already in place, such as:

Requirement for face masks and face shields for all customers
Mandatory temperature check
Contact tracing (either via paper forms or via a QR code for an online form for greater convenience and less contact)
Positioning of diners one seat apart for physical distancing

What really sets Soleras apart from other Filipino restos is its fresh and bold take on classic Pinoy dishes, tweaking ingredients or presentation in ways that produce “awesome-thentic” and “gastronomically exotic-citing” viands that will excite discriminating tastebuds and sate hungry tummies, all while not breaking the bank.

The stars aligned and my luck held because I was able to sample them together with my fellow food bloggers – Anj of AnjColumna.com, Jen of SandUnderMyFeet.com, Nix of IEatAndIWander.com and Chryz of Chryzpontaneous.

Together, this intrepid group of titas feasted on Soleras’ signature dishes such as:

Espesyal na Bulalong Lugaw (Php280). Lugaw (glutinous rice porridge) has long been a Filipino comfort food, especially during chilly or rainy days. Flavored with garlic and ginger and accompanied by bits of meat, hardboiled quail eggs and chopped scallions, this offshoot of the Chinese congee is best served hot, all the better to warm our tummies during cold days. Soleras kicks the awesomeness level of this dish up a notch with the addition of bulalo (beef shanks with bone marrow), making the dish extra special indeed.

Keso Dinakdakan (Php290). Dinakdakan is an Ilocano delicacy similar to the Kapampangan sisig. Our ancestors up north are not wont to waste any food item so they grilled and finely chopped “unwanted” pig parts such as cheeks, ears, liver and tongue, then tossed them in a tangy dressing together with minced ginger, onions and chili peppers. Soleras added tiny cheese cubes to the mix which lends more richness to the dish.

Angus Pares (Php145). I was late in joining the Beef Pares Appreciation Society, having only developed a liking for this dish last year, but I sure am making up for lost time. Beef Pares is so named due to the pairing of slow-braised beef stew with sinangag (garlic fried rice). I go crazy over spoonfuls tender bits of beef and melt-in-your-mouth tendon and garlic rice. The people behind Soleras – bless them! – improved on perfection by using Angus beef in their version of this dish, including a decadent roasted bone marrow, and made the dish available to pares lovers like me for only Php145! Woah!

Pancit Sampler (Php185 for small | Php499 for medium | Php699 for large). The pancit is another example of how we Pinoys took a Chinese influence (noodles in this instance) and made it our own. Soleras updates the usual sauteed noodles with meat bits and veggies by adding the distinct flavors of known Filipino dishes such as Sisig, Bicol Express and Pares.

Pritong Itik (Php225 for small | Php345 for medium | Php450 for large). Instead of the usual fried chicken, Soleras instead serves crispy fried itik (native duck). The bird is first simmered in water with salt, ginger and other aromatics, then properly dried before deep-frying until golden brown.

Ginumis (Php185). For dessert, we had an Ilonggo version of the halo-halo (shaved ice dessert) made with sago pearls, gulaman (cubed gelatin), pinipig (toasted pounded rice), coconut milk and sugar syrup.

Gulaman (Php85). Our drinks were the classic samalamig (sweet chilled coolers) made with sago pearls and gulaman topped with shaved ice and flavored with muscovado sugar and pandan leaves.

Thanks to our Soleras sojourn, my friends and I were able to rediscover our appreciation for Pinoy food. Thanks to Midz of GastronomidaPH.com for extending the invitation!

Why don’t you take a break from your usual ulam, head on to Soleras and get a fresh perspective on Filipino cuisine?

Soleras is located at 686 Banawe Street, Barangay Siena, Quezon City (beside Megawatt Pizza & Steak), open daily from 10am to 10pm. For reservations and inquiries, call +63 917 1827583 or send a message on Facebook. Soleras also delivers via Grabfood (together with Megawatt).

Disclosure: Together with fellow food bloggers, I was invited to sample Solera’s offerings. All the food items mentioned here were served for us to taste the fare to facilitate our honest reviews and were not paid for by the attendees, including myself.

Check out my reviews of other Filipino restaurants:

Sarap ka-pares from Pares Retiro

What can I say?

After I realized I could just have my fam’s faves from Pares Retiro delivered to my home, I just can’t get enough of it.

Truth be told: I haven’t eaten at a Pares Retiro outlet yet. All my encounters with its much-vaunted pares offerings were all through delivery: the first one was at work when my officemate and I ordered from the Pares Retiro branch in Tomas Morato via LalaFood, and the succeeding ones after the pandemic hit when its offerings became available in our neck of the woods via GrabFood’s Long Distance Delivery.

In fact, our orders don’t really stray from our tried and tested favorites:

Classic Pares Meal (Php223). Pairing slow-braised, tender beef pares with garlic fried rice is surely a stroke of genius. The result is a delicious dynamic between sweet and savory that we Pinoys go crazy over.

Pares Tendon Meal (Php217). What will make the classic pares dish made even more irresistible? Well, the addition of melt-in-your-mouth pieces of litid, that’s what! Those chunks of imported US beef tendon just adds flavor and texture to the dish.

It’s a rare occasion when my entire family all wholeheartedly agree on the merits of a particular dish or restaurant, but Pares Retiro’s Classic Pares and Pares Tendon Meals have more than earned that distinction.

Now, if only they will open a branch nearer to our home so I won’t have to pay as much for delivery!

This Pares Retiro branch is located at SM Hypermarket, EDSA Corner Main Avenue, Cubao, Quezon City, open daily from 9am to 6pm. Pares Retiro delivers via GrabFood, LalaFood and via Pares Retiro’s website.

Download the Grab App and get a discount on your first food order when you use my code: GRABJELLYBEANS.

Use this link to download the FoodPanda app and get Php100 off your first order.

Check out my reviews of other Filipino restaurants:

Liloan’s Pride, California Garden Square

Every once in a while, we all get a craving for food that’s hefty and fatty, the kind that will make a cardiologist’s heart skip a beat (ironically so).

And when that craving comes, there’s no better (or tastier) way to assuage it than to indulge in a juicy and succulent piece of lechon.

Well, if you can’t buy the whole roasted pig, why not indulge yourself in some lechon liempo?

Liloan’s Pride Liempo combines the use of traditional culinary methods and ingredients and modern cooking processes to produce a perfectly roasted pork belly. Each serving is meticulously marinated to infuse the meat with flavor and roasted exactingly to give the skin a satisfying crunch to the bite.

I got another taste of this famous lechon together with my fellow foodies when I joined a foodie meetup at the Liloan’s Pride Liempo store at Calfornia Garden Square in Mandaluyong.

There, our feast included:

Cebu Liempo (Php360). A huge slab or pork belly marinated and roasted Cebu lechon style. A spicy version is available for Php380 if you’re craving for additional heat.

Roasted Chicken (Php360). The chicken version of the Cebu liempo which makes for tender and juicy meat and flavorful skin.

Liempo Manok Rice Meal (Php190). The best of both worlds, really: the lechon liempo and the roasted chicken plus a cup of steamed rice in one plate.

Classic Sisig (Php160). Pampanga’s famous dish made with pig cheeks flavored with calamansi, onions and chili peppers. For me, it could use a bit more crunch and saltiness (from crushed Cebu liempo skin maybe?).

Garlic Bangus (Php220). A whole medium-sized bangus (milkfish) butterfly-filleted, marinated in garlic and vinegar then fried to a golden brown and topped with toasted garlic. It’s very fragrant from all the garlic but it could use more of the vinegar taste so keep some of the store’s sawsawan handy when you order this. A rice meal with a quarter of the garlic bangus is also available for Php99.

Pochero Meal (Php149). Pork belly slices stewed together with chickpeas, sliced bananas, potatoes, green beans and cabbage in rich tomato sauce. I find it ok but would prefer the beef version of pochero.

Beef Pares Meal (Php99). The power combo of beef asado, garlic rice and broth.

So the next time that craving comes, you know what to do! Hie yourself over to Liloan’s Pride Liempo.

Many thanks to Ms Ani Conanan and the staff of Liloan’s Pride Liempo for the meal and to Harvard of AlwaysHungryPH for extending the invitation.

This Liloan’s Pride Liempo branch is located at San Juan California Garden Square, Domingo M. Guevarra Street, Highway Hills, Mandaluyong City.

Other branches may be found at

SM Hypermarket, Upper Ground Floor, Building B, SM Megamall, Ortigas Center, Mandaluyong City
Ground Floor, Connecticut Arcade, Greenhills Shopping Center, Greenhills, San Juan
Lower Ground Floor, SM Cubao, Araneta Center, Cubao, Quezon City
Third Floor, RCBC Plaza, Ayala Avenue, Salcedo Village, Makati City
The Block, SM City North EDSA, Bago Bantay, Quezon City
SM Hypermarket, North Wing, SM Mall of Asia, MOA Complex, Pasay City
Food Court, Second Floor, Alabang Town Center, Alabang, Muntinlupa

Disclosure: Together with other foodies, I attended a foodie meetup held here wherein food and drink items were served to allow us to sample the fare. These were not paid for by the attendees, including myself.

Check out my reviews of other Filipino restaurants:

Pinoy comfort food at Goto Tendon, Tomas Morato

Would you believe that Tomas Morato’s newest gotohan and paresan came about partly out of boredom?

As the story goes, Jenny Penaloza was feeling bored having given up her career to become a full-time mom. Her husband John then suggested making a business out of her culinary specialty: the goto.

Goto is a type of gruel dish popular in the country made with glutinous rice and beef tripe, simmered in a ginger-based broth.

The recipe was taught to Jenny by John’s grandmother, Lola Nena Penaloza. Since then, she has been tweaking the recipe until she decided to launch the goto restaurant her husband suggested.

Having heard good things from my officemates about this gotohan nearby, I decided to join my friends at Goto Tendon for lunch.

Our meal consisted of:

Goto Tendon (Php158 for small | Php198 for large). Based on this dish, among the tweaks that Jenny applied to traditional goto recipe is the addition of imported US tendon and quail eggs, making the porridge even heartier.

Beef Tendon Pares (Php158) and Sizzling Beef Tendon Pares (Php178). The traditional pares (beef stew paired with soup and garlic rice) is further enhanced with imported US tendon. It can be served as is or on a sizzling plate.

Tokwa’t Baboy (Php118). Fried tofu with pork bits served in a mixture of soy sauce, vinegar, chopped onions and chili peppers. This went so well with the goto tendon.

Considering that this was my first taste of beef pares (I had taste of lamb pares later in the week at ALTA by Relik), I’d say the experience was not bad at all. I wouldn’t mind returning for another taste of beef pares, especially with those chewy and flavorful bits of tendon!

This Goto Tendon branch is located at 49 Scout Tobias Street, Laging Handa, Quezon City, open Sundays to Thursdays from 11am to 3am and Fridays to Saturdays from 11am to 5am. For inquiries or reservations, call +63 2 518 5527.

Other branches are located at:

Maysilo Circle, Plainview, Mandaluyong City
Food Court, Ground Floor, Promenade, Greenhills Shopping Center, Greenhills, San Juan City
Bayani Road corner T. Arguelles Street, Galas, Quezon City

Check out my reviews of other Filipino restaurants:

Comfort food elevated at ALTA by Relik, San Juan

Weekend brunches have grown popular lately, with many establishments offering hearty comfort dishes that can be leisurely enjoyed by diners.

At ALTA by Relik at Santolan Town Plaza, families can enjoy the flavorful comfort food amidst vibrant and colorful surroundings.

The restaurant is an offshoot of the popular BGC restaurant Relik. Restaurant owner Gen Mortel and Chef Jam Laboriente collaborated on a Filipino-Spanish menu to provide an elevated dining experience to San Juan’s foodies.

Last weekend I had brunch together with my fellow foodies from #WeLoveToEatPH and #SaanSaPH at ALTA by Relik where we had a taste of its comfort food elevated with fresh twists such as:

Relik’s Nachos (Php350). Homemade tortilla chips topped with meat sauce, crisp lettuce, tomato and cucumber relish, cheddar cheese and sour cream.

Chilean Mussels Croquettes (Php495). Chilean mussels topped with thick bechamel sauce and bread crumbs and served a with a lemon slice.

Pulled Pork Quesadilla (Php235). Tender pulled pork, cheddar, mozzarella, corn kernels, lettuce and source cream encased in homemade flour tortillas.

Watermelon and Kesong Puti Salad (Php265). Mixed greens, arugula, watermelon cubes, bits of kesong puti and candied walnuts tossed with balsamic reduction.

Longanisa Flatbread with Salted Egg Cream (Php375). Crisp flatbread topped with sweet pork longganisa, tomato salsa and salted egg dressing.

Seafood Chowder (Php295). Shrimp, squid and herbs incorporated in a flavorful cream soup and garnished with croutons and parsley.

Bagnet Sinigang (Php395). The classic sinigang dish deconstructed into pieces of bagnet and vegetables served with a broth made of fresh sampaloc dialed up to its asim-est level.

Lamb Pares (Php355). Slow-cooked shoulders of grass-fed New Zealand lambs in garlic soy sauce served with garlic rice.

Sizzling Bulalo Steak (Php489). Tender beef shank with its decadent bone marrow served sizzling in a garlic bulalo gravy together with fried potatoes, green beans and garlic bits.

Seafood Paella (Php995). Rich saffron-infused medium-grain rice with white shrimp, squid, Chilean mussels and roasted bell peppers served in a special paellera pan that helps it develop a nice toasty crust at the bottom. (Fun fact: that flavorful toasty crust is called socarrat in Catalan. Paella connoisseurs consider this the key to paella’s fabulous flavor).

Mango Tapioca Trifle (Php215). Fresh sliced mangoes, caramel,sauce and tapioca pearls top a layer of lady fingers.

Milo Dinosaur Cheesecake (Php195). A chocolatey frozen cheesecake flavored with Milo and garnished with sprinkled with Milo powder.

So if you feel like enjoying an elevated brunch experience or dine on an excellent selection of Filipino-Spanish fusion dishes, drop by at Santolan Town Plaza to experience ALTA by Relik!

Many thanks to Gen, Jam and the staff of ALTA by Relik for the warm welcome and the fabulous food!

ALTA by Relik is located at Santolan Town Plaza, Col. Bonny Serrano Avenue, Little Baguio, San Juan City, open Sundays to Thursdays from 8am to 12 midnight and Fridays to Saturdays from 8am to 2am. For reservations and inquiries, call +63 917 3172582.

Here are more reasons to head to ALTA by Relik:

DJ Nights every Thursday night at 8pm.
Live music every Friday and Saturday at 8pm.
All-You-Can-Eat buffet breakfast every Sunday from 8am to 11.30am.

Disclosure: Together with my fellow foodies, I attended a foodie meetup held here. Food items mentioned here were served to allow us to sample the fare and were not paid for by the attendees, including myself.

Check out my blog posts on breakfast joints around the metro: