Big D's Smokehouse

Big D's Smokehouse just recently opened in Eastwood. If you pass by Katipunan regularly you might have noticed or even dined in their original location, which was in the rundown two story building made famous by Countryside. Their new location in Eastwood is in the 2nd floor of Citywalk 2, just almost in between Razon's and the 7-Eleven.

Big D's serves mostly American comfort food. And their interiors are a well thought out ode to their American theme. There's just a whole lot of Americana in here! There's a bar, old diecasts, old books, old toys, old posters and a cool smoker fashioned out of an oil drum! They even had this cool alfresco dining area that looked like a homey porch. It just looks like a cool place to hang out with friends and family to spend time over food.

It was dinner time and there were a handful of guests already dining when we got there. But the service was still fast and efficient. We ordered the following:

I had the Ribs Duo (390php).

My order was half slab of their ribs, with garlic rice and choice of 1 side. I had corn and carrots as my side dish. The ribs was really really tender and flavorful, too! Just the right mix of spiciness, smokiness and sweetness. I found the garlic rice kind of weird to pair with it though since I mostly associate it with silog meals.

Kim had the Open-Faced Roastbeef (280php).

This looked really appetizing in the menu and even when it was served. The roastbeef was served on top of a couple of pieces of bread, and was topped with mushroom sauce with sides of veggies and mashed potatoes. The beef was soft and easy to cut through, but the sauce was quite salty. You had to take a big chunk of the mashed potatoes or bread just to counterbalance it's saltiness.

We feel that the location of Big D's might not be the best in Eastwood since people rarely walk across that area. But good food coupled with good service and nice ambiance, people are bout to get word of it. And when that happens, then Big D's will surely be a hit.

Big D's Smokehouse

https://www.facebook.com/bigdsmokehouse/
Eastwood Citywalk 2,

Eastwood City, Quezon City

(0915) 487-8153

Outback Steakhouse: Valentine's Date

February 14, 2013. Thursday.

Note: Sorry for the crappy phonecam pics. Kim forgot to bring the batteries of her camera, and we were left to use my phone.

A week prior to Valentine's Day, I was calling up different restaurants to reserve a table for us. It was our first time celebrating the day since we didn't celebrate last year, so I had restaurants that had sure- fire good meals on my list. Since it was already close to the day itself, I must have gone through half a dozen places before finally getting a table at Outback Steakhouse. It wasn't what we originally had in mind since we wanted to try new places, but good food is still good food. And we know Outback serves great food!

We were a little early for our reservation time, but luckily they already had a table ready. The waitress at the door ushered as to our seats. The places was packed inside! And the line outside door was about a dozen people deep. Once seated, we took our time in ordering since we wanted to order differently from last time.

After ordering, the manager came to our table and gave us some free stuff! It was for those who reserved a table at least 2 days in advance. We got a gift certificate for Lunch Specials for two, a gift card for a full order of Kookaburra Wings, and a framed photo of ourselves. After she left, someone took our picture which they gave to us in an Outback - Valentine's themed frame after about half an hour. All in all, that was about 1,500php worth of freebies.

An Outback Steakhouse meal starts off with the complimentary Dark Honey Wheat Bread.

As we have mentioned before, this is the best complimentary bread we have ever tasted. It was really great as it was already, but Kim found out that you can actually ask for a chocolate dip for it. Kim dipped the bread in butter and enjoyed it that way, while I spread some churned butter on mine before dipping it. The sweetness of the chocolate provided a contrast to the slight saltiness of the churned butter.

For starters, we got half an order of Kookaburra Wings.

We already ordered this before, but we really love wings and we couldn't decide on what appetizer to order. Even though we asked the server that we wanted our wings to be spicy, it still pales comparison compared to other wings joints when it comes to that spice factor. But other than that, this is a great starter to any meal. The wings were crispy and had that right sourness to it.

Kim ordered the Angus Prime Rib with a side of Rice Pilaf and Loaded Baked Potato.

The Angus Prime Rib is a 10 oz. cut of USDA Angus Beef. It is served with au jus, which is the beef's own juice from cooking. So don't mistake it for BBQ sauce as it is far from it. It is watery and tastes just like the beef you are served. It enhances the flavor of the steak, and keeps it moist when it takes you awhile to eat. As with any steak from Outback, you get to choose 2 sides for it. Kim chose Rice Pilaf and a Loaded Baked Potato.

I ordered the Chicken and Ribs Combo.

Since I always order steak when I'm in Outback, I decided to deviate from the usual and order the Chicken and Ribs Combo. In hindsight I probably shouldn't have, because what's wrong in ordering steak when you're in a steakhouse? Tsktsk. The plate I was served wasn't bad, in fact it was good. And it was a really hefty meal for it's price. There was about half a rack of ribs, and 3 pieces of grilled chicken breasts all covered in that great BBQ sauce. But that was the problem, they tasted too much alike because they were cooked in the same suace! The ribs were really tender, and readily fell off the bone, and the chicken breast was juicy and flavorful. But the same taste really got to me, that I only managed to finish half of the ribs and half the chicken breasts. Plus I was really envious of the smell of Kim's steak from across me. This combo came with mashed potatoes and vegetables.

Outback has never failed to provide us with great food and great service. The wait staff are always attentive to details, and the food is always of good quality. We waited a little more than usual for our food on this date, but that's okay since it was really packed and you could see that ordered were really going table after table. The ambiance in Outback doesn't really change even when it's packed or not, it's a place where you can have good conversation even when there's audible background music playing. All in all, a great Valentine's date for us thanks to Outback.

Outback Steakhouse
35 E. Rodriguez JR Ave.,
Libis, Quezon City
(02) 634 - 3801

Other Outback entries:
Back in Outback! Claiming Our Valentine's Freebies  
Outback Steakhouse 

Uncle Cheffy

November 2, 2012. Friday.

If you love slow cooked, tender, slide off the bones goodness.. then you're in for a treat with this post. Be forewarned though, the amount of food in this post is much more than what a normal couple orders. But then again, we don't order conventionally. Ever.

Kim has been bugging me to eat in Uncle Cheffy for a while now. It has never really caught my fancy because my initial image of it is panizza, and I don't like panizza. But last Friday, I finally gave in and we took in late dinner at the Eastwood Mall branch.

I quickly browsed through the menu if there were food items other than panizza that we could order. I spotted the Grill and Specialties section, and saw that they had steak, ribs and chicken. Almost everything was slow cooked inside a brick oven which guaranteed tender and juicy meats with all the flavor locked in. My sense of relief quickly turned into dilemma, as we couldn't decide which one to order. Then I saw the All Meat Barbecue Platter. It didn't matter that it was for 4- 5 people, we just had to order that.

All Meat Barbecue Platter. 1,600 php.

That's it. That was our only order for the night. ONLY here is just a huge understatement. This platter contains chicken leg, lamb breast, pork and beef ribs. It also comes with baby potatoes, rice and house salad. And for the meats, you can dip it in your choice of either bbq sauce, chimichurri sauce or tomato salsa.

Everything was really good! Well, except for the beef ribs which really tasted weird despite it being tender. Even quoting it with the bbq sauce didn't help. Other than that, everything was really comparable to Cue's A Lil Feast platter. One caveat about ordering a spread this big with only 2 persons to go through it, is that the meat grows cold on you and the juices and oil start to crust on it. But since we were really hungry, we managed to go through a little more than half (finished the lamb, and most of the chicken and pork ribs) of the board before it really got cold.

We really enjoyed the lamb and chicken. I loved how the chimichurri sauce went well with the lamb breast which was really fatty, so it really had a lot of flavor in it. The sourness of the chimichurri provided a nice contrast to the richness of the lamb. The chicken tasted like good old deep fried chicken but without all the excess oil that came with it since this one was brick oven cooked.  The pork ribs was okay, but it was nothing different from all the baby back ribs we have tasted all over the city.

We're definitely coming back here to have lamb and chicken. We probably won't order that big platter again, just the half that we liked. And I just might finally give in to ordering panizza.

Uncle Cheffy
2nd Floor (al fresco area), Eastwood Mall,
Eastwood City, E. Rodriguez Jr. Avenue,
Bagumbayan, Quezon City
(02) 470 2750 and (02) 3837215
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Uncle-Cheffy/195383127315

Cue Modern Barbecue

September 21, 2012. Friday.

Kim was sick for the most part of last week, so we mostly just ate in. Now that she feels better, we decided again to try our luck at getting a table in Cue during dinner time. We first ate at Cue about 2 months ago when it was still relatively new. We loved the food and we have wanted to come back since then. We have tried twice to get a table to no avail. Luckily, there were a couple of unoccupied ones last Friday.

Cue Modern Barbecue is located in Bonifacio High Street Central. As the name suggests, it specializes in different barbecued meats. During our first visit here, we really didn't know what to order from the menu. We played it safe and just got the Baby Back Ribs, since we thought no self respecting barbecue restaurant could mess up something as common as ribs. And we weren't wrong. It was that good! But then we want to try the other meats on the menu, so we just had to come back.

The wait staff serves you complementary popcorn while you wait for your order.

Wanting to try the other barbecued meats on the menu, we got the A Lil' Feast. Which is sort of a sampler.

A Lil' Feast. 1785php.

The chicken is a part of the board, but it came in late so it was served on a plate.

A Lil' Feast consists of beef belly slices, lamb ribs, roasted chicken (half), and half slab of baby back ribs. It also comes with your choice of a couple of sides. We chose whipped potato and fries.

Lamb Ribs.

The lamb ribs was tender and juicy.. but it was different. We really can't put it into words, but there was something different with how it tasted. It was a little gamey. It was our first time to taste lamb ribs so we weren't sure if it is really supposed to taste that way.

Baby Back Ribs.

Just like our first time here, the ribs were perfect. The meat was tender enough to come of the bone, and the charred glaze was the perfect balance of sweetness and peppery. It can do on it's own, but it's even better when you pair it with the red wine bbq sauce.

Beef Belly Slices.

The beef belly is served hot in this cute little pan, that holds all its juices and half of a roasted onion. Of all the meats we tried that day, this was the most tender. The meat breaks apart easily. It also had a generous amount of fat on it, which really adds to the flavor. Kim said it tasted like it had alcohol, and true enough it had alcohol in it. It is braised in ale before being charred to perfection.

Roasted Chicken.

And last of the platter is the roasted chicken. I was really surprised to see how oily the chicken was considering it was roasted. The skin was crispy and the meat was juicy, but it was too oily. It wasn't that bad, but we have had better chicken than this.

For drinks, we ordered their Freshly Brewed Iced Tea and a can of coke. Both were served in these cute little jars.

Iced Tea. 90php.

Soda. 90php.

Cue might be a little pricey compared to other restaurants that serve the same fare, but I think it is well worth the price. The food is great and the service is excellent. We're definitely coming back again, since there are still items on the menu we want to try.

Cue Modern Barbecue

Space NELG 105, LGF BHS Central,

Global City, 1630, Taguig

Monday - Sunday

11:30AM -3PM
6:00PM - 11:00PM

https://www.facebook.com/CueModernBBQ