PINO Restobar

Before I begin, let me just say that some of photos in this particular blog are a bit crappy. We were seated at the non-airconditioned area of the restaurant and the lights there were quite inadequate for no-flash photography. I experimented on using both flash and no-flash. The results ....... well you can see it in the photos. (I had to make use of photshop to brighten and enhance most of the pics). Next time, remind me to call in for reservations. hehehehehe.

Our foodtrip for that particular night was supposed to be in some korean restaurant just along Kalayaan Avenue, Quezon City (near Trellis) but for some unknown reason, one of my best friend decided that she doesn't want to dine there. Given that I'm not in the mood to turn back and go to timog or tomas morato, I then suggested that we try this restaurant near the Maginhawa street area. (I read about PINO when I saw their poster in Burger Project many weeks back).

• For directions, there are actually a couple of ways to get there (depending on where you're coming from) but I will use the one coming from EDSA....... 
• From Edsa take East Avenue going into the direction of the Quezon City Memorial Circle. When you come to a stoplight (with a Jollibee joint to your right) turn right. 
• You are now on V. Luna...... continue further until you see a traffic light at an intersection with another Jollibee to your left (this is Kalayaan avenue). Keep going straight until you reach another intersection with another stoplight, you should see a SaveMore Supermarket to your left. (this is Anonas St.). 
• As you pass this stoplight, a little further down and the road should start to curve to the left. Keep following the road and eventually you should see a Bayantel Building to your left. 
• Turn Left, go a little further and you should see the signage of PINO to your right.

Pardon me as I forgot to take a photo of the facade.....

For appetizers we ordered TEMPURA OYSTER N PEARL.

 Basically, its oysters fried tempura style with a touch of wasabi paste in each oyster. And don't forget to use your spoon to scoop out some of the sweet sauce left behind in the shell.

It was a smart move with the wasabi as it brought out a subtle spicy kick which complemented well with the sweetness of the sauce. Unfortunately, the batter for the tempura was a bit overwhelming that it muddled the taste of the oysters. (too bad as the oysters were quite big). Overall, I still think its a great starter or beermate.

Speaking of beers, this resto offers Beers in Different Fruit Flavors. Some of the available flavors were lychee, strawberry, green apple, honey-Kalamansi and peach. I then decided to try out 3 of their flavors.

STRAWBERRY

The first of my three beers and this one turned out to be my favorite. You can actually taste the sweetness of the subtle strawberry flavor and yet it still has the bitterness of a regular beer.

HONEY KALAMANSI

 For all the purist beer drinkers out there, you will probably be howling in protest at the way I sometimes drink my beer ..... but YES, that is a straw you're seeing in the pic. As for the beer, there isn't much taste of Kalamansi nor Honey ..... its just beer with a sweet-bitter aftertaste.

GREEN APPLE

I also forgot to take a pic of this particular flavor. Nonetheless, I really didn't like it that much. The green apple flavor had a bitter aftertaste then match that with the usual bitterness of a regular beer and you got yourself an overly bitter brew.

 We also ordered a picher of their Special House Blend Iced tea which pretty much tastes like fruit juices.

SISIG CARBONARA

 Just some pork sisig on top of a plate of Linguini Carbonara....... the pork weren't overly salty, but the cream of the carbonara was a little too rich for my taste. (how do you say it in tagalog? "Nakaka umay" ??)

BACON N CHEESED STUFFED CHICKEN BREAST

At this point, we were still busy eating some of the other foodstuffs so this dish was resting in our table for a considerable amount of time. So when we took a bite of it, the cheese was not as creamy anymore as what we would have expected because it had slightly cooled down and hardened which gave it a somewhat flakey texture.

In fairness, even after resting, the chicken is still moist and quite tender to the bite and the stuffed bacon was not overly salty. They also did not put too much batter which might have made the dish too heavy on the stomach.

RED WINE ADOBONG TADYANG (Stewed Ribs)

Tasted very similar to those korean beef stews ...... the meat is fork tender but just a little bit on the oily side. This would go great with a serving of plain rice except we didn't order any. (or did we???)

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Ok, four dishes, 3 glasses of beer and a pitcher of iced tea later, the three of us were still not quite that satisfied. So we decided to order another dish "for the road"

MINI SISIG TACOS

Another smart move on PINO's part to present us with a diffrent twist in eating Sisig ......each mini taco shell serving is two perfect bites of pork sisig, shredded lettuce and cheese. I like it in that the lettuce and cheese (as well as the taco shell) acted as a counterbalance to the oiliness of the pork dish. (not that it was overly oily to begin with)

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There are still a lot of other dishes and drinks that we would have loved to try but since it was just the three of us, we can only console ourselves that there will be another time for us to try them out.

Next on my list is this huge Margarita cocktail served in a glass container that almost looked like a fishbowl.