Z, a friend from work, had headed home to CDO last Sunday.  We’ve only worked together for a handful of months but I guess because we were all (C, Z and myself) were sort of under the same boat back then, we bonded pretty quickly.  Over food, mostly, because apparently we all shared the same love of eating that around this time last year we were burning our hard earned money over super expensive lunches at McKinley Hill restaurants.

Last Friday was to be her last in Manila so true to form, we set up a dinner somewhere in Kapitolyo because 1) it’s a food haven and 2) she lives near the area.

Upon Z’s husband’s recommendation, we had dinner at the Three Sisters.  Apparently this is one of the oldest food joints there, having been established since the 40’s and being in Kapitolyo area since the 70’s.  It obviously has garnered a steady clientele throughout the years but Z tells me that it’s been recently re-introduced to the social media scene when Kris Aquino did a feature on her show Kris TV.

The place totally embraced the ‘aged’ look, with the old-school metal chairs and plastic-covered tables.  The dark wood panels and the yellow-y color of the walls definitely gave off the vibe that the restaurant knew that it was old and they did not give a lick.  The menu mostly offered typical Pinoy food, but Z tells me that the Three Sisters restaurant was famous for their barbeque.  Probably true, because most of the things listed on their Best Sellers list were BBQs.

I had the Pork Liempo Combo Meal (195PHP) while Z and C both had the Chicken BBQ combo meal (165PHP).  With Pancit Canton and java rice on the side, the plate was huge.  While the pancit wasn’t the best I’ve ever had, the Pork Liempo was extremely tasty and it was obvious that the meat had been marinated for hours.  People weren’t kidding when they said that the Three Sisters knew their way around the barbecue grill.

We also shared an order of Kalderetang Baka which was good, but not as good as the one in Milky Way of Malate.  Service was quick and the waiters were more than willing to take our photos despite the Friday night dinner craze.

Afterwards, we walked around for a bit, trying to decide where to have our desert and just chill.  We finally ended up in Breakfast @ Juanita’s (our first choice was Café Juanita but the place was booked for a baptism or something), which l could fully describe in the word ‘quirky’.  There were so many knick-knacks inside that the place sort of looked like a scene from hoarders.  Only you know, more organized because all the knick-knacks were all sorted by type.  There were an obscene number of chandeliers up, there was a cabinet dedicated to radios, one for cameras, one for porcelain animals, one for old pates, and a number of luggages sat above us all.  They even managed to stuff full sized piano inside, which was just wow.

I had the Churros with Chocolate dip. The dough for the churros was good, but I wish they didn’t smother the thing with sugar.  The chocolate dip was also was just average in my opinion.

C had the Pistachio Sansrival, which was extremely good, actually, because the taste of the butter didn’t overpower the taste of the nuts.

Z had the Moist Chocolate cake, which was also good and would go insanely well with a glass of milk.

Breakfast @ Juanita’s is a place that was definitely made for taking photos and selfies; you probably wouldn’t run out of interesting angles and backgrounds, with everything that they have in there.  My only beef was that the place closed at ten even on Fridays, which I thought was ridiculous, considering the weekend crowd.  Also because we were seated at the corner table, C said that she was bitten by a couple of mosquitoes.

I would definitely go back to both restaurants to try their other dishes – preferably with both C and Z again, because good food goes best with good conversation with good friends.  For the mean time though, I think I’ll research on CDO restaurants.