Wednesday, October 26, 2016

First Bite: Tower Restaurant

I always get so excited whenever I go to Quezon City for a food trip as I’d always discover a gem waiting to be found. One of which is this Filipino restaurant with a name far from being thought of as an establishment that offers Pinoy favorites

Hello, Tower Restaurant
This fancy looking restaurant that exudes a vibe of offering French dishes is actually named as such because it is located on the ground floor of UAP (United Architects of the Philippines) building which happens to have a radio tower on top. 
The first thing I noticed as soon as I stepped in was the predominant use of white and red for the interiors which confused me even more as it gave an impression of being a Chinese restaurant. But we were quickly corrected by the friendly owner, Architect Jojo, who also conceptualized some of the dishes offered to us during our visit. 
They initially offered various cuisines when they first started but eventually stuck with Filipino dishes when they noticed that these sell more than the rest. They have also designed the restaurant to be an events venue to cater to life milestones as well as corporate events and even fans’ day, being near the two giant networks, ABS-CBN and GMA Network. 
While waiting for our food to arrive, the servers asked us for our drinks. Seeing that most went with Kamias Shake (PHP126), I went with that tangy chilled beverage as well. 
R, on the other hand, was intrigued by Sapphire Twist (PHP126) which uses lychee as one of its base fruits. I liked R’s drink more as it had a more refreshing taste. 
For appetizers, we sampled Tinapa Roll (PHP180) and Sipa (PHP126). The Tinapa Roll was your usual smoked fish, shredded and stuffed inside a lumpia wrapper. It had a slight dry texture so make sure that you dip it in its sauce. 
Sipa on the other hand reminded me of fried siomai. I wasn’t too fond of this one though as the meat was sweet and it weirded me out. 
I next sampled this seafood soup with thick white broth which warmed me up on a gloomy Saturday afternoon. 
The seafood used were fresh and added a lovely slight sweet taste. 
The Seafood Kare-Kare (PHP450) was pretty good too. I loved its thick sauce and abundant mussels and prawns. 
We later found out that Tower Restaurant used salted egg instead of fish sauce in cooking its kare-kare and that explains the thickness and richness of the sauce. 
I wasn’t able to try the Binukadkad na Tilapia (PHP270) but I got a forkful of Pinaputok na Pampano (PHP450). I’m not really a fan of pampano but this one’s pretty good. It had a slight crunch which I liked.
R and I shared a piece of Deep Fried Liempo (PHP360) and it was just your usual sinful liempo
I paired it with some Pinakbet (PHP180) which was good but nothing extraordinary as well. 
One of my favorite dishes here was Kaldereta (PHP360). I was a bit iffy in getting a huge chunk of meat as I was worried that it’ll be tough to chew. I was pleasantly surprised though that it was very tender. The dish was also rich in flavor and I liked its cheesy taste.
We also feasted on some of Tower Restaurant’s Bagoong Rice and Crab Rice (both at PHP270). 
The bagoong rice had nice flavor and would go well with fried dishes but I was swept by the crab rice with its generous serving of crab meat. 
To cap our meal, we were given some Suman Latik (PHP126) which was again, your usual suman with coconut jam. 

Overall, this restaurant offers usual Filipino dishes with some having a bit of twist to it. This place is a good option when you have foreign business partners around. You get to let them taste something local in a fancy looking place for that much needed good impression. 

Tower Restaurant is located at Ground Floor, UAP Building, 53 Scout Rallos Street, Laging Handa, Tomas Morato, Quezon City.

Tower Restaurant Menu, Reviews, Photos, Location and Info - Zomato

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