With typhoon season on the horizon, it'll get harder to go out to a nice restaurant to enjoy a good meal. First, there's the traffic you need to reckon with, plus the flooding in certain areas, and most of the time the rainy weather just makes you want to spend the day underneath the covers and order in. I was feeling particularly lazy one Wednesday and wanted to try Foodie.ph - a new online ordering system for getting takeout at my favorite restaurants.
Foodie.ph has a very friendly system of ordering - you can pick your favorite restaurants, order by location, and even by cuisine. I ended up craving for paella while working at Jericho's, and the closest restaurant that had that was Crisostomo at the Alabang Town Center.
The online system for ordering at Foodie.ph was pretty easy - I just went though Crisostomo's menu, clicking on the dishes I wanted and choosing how many of it I wanted, or left comments on how it was to be served. The best part is, they have a minimum delivery fee of only P300, that's pretty low compared to the P500 the others charge. It even allows you to add a tip for the driver. Neat-o.
I had a bit of a problem with the menu Crisostomo's, as most of the dishes lacked descriptions and pictures, especially the dessert, so I skipped those and just stuck with ordering the familiar mains. You can opt to pay in cash or credit card, which is just perfect if you live abroad and you want to treat your fambam in the Philippines to a nice meal.
I put in Jericho's address information, since I was working out of there for most of the day, leaving very specific landmarks for the delivery guy. You pay a little extra for the delivery fee, and the driver's tip is included on there as well. The total bill was P1,139 for my two entrees, plus a 10% delivery fee (P99) and a driver's tip that you can set to your preference (I put down P50).
I ordered the day before and had set the arrival time of my food for 12 o'clock, which was just around lunch time. The driver arrived with our food at 12 on the dot, so I was quite happy with the prompt service.
I ordered a Don Filipo (P414), which was a mix of pork and squid adobo. A beautiful, glistening black, I was initially apprehensive that the squid ink would overpower the rest of the dish, but it just left everything with an onyx-colored coat, the big chunks of pork and rings of squid still evident in the little black pool, the only color being the bright green chili on top of the dish.
Slicing through a generous serving of pork adobo, I was surprised to find it was very tender, and still a light shade of pink inside - a stark contrast from its ink black exterior. The squid was cooked perfectly, and surprisingly complimented the pork quite well. If there would be a Filipino version of Surf & Turf, this would probably be it.
The Pinoy Paella (P462) was squashed into a soup container, so the presentation was quite disappointing. It was a mess to plate, and eventually we just gave up. If only the guys at Crisostomo used a bigger container, it would've been easier to just serve it as is instead of trying to get through layers of shrimp, eggs, chorizo, shredded pork, and chicken to get to the rice. And it would've looked a lot better, too.
Flavor-wise, we really enjoyed the Pinoy Paella. The rice was rich and slightly creamy, and the assortment of toppings were well seasoned and looked beautiful on the plate - the yellow of the rice, the bright orange shrimp, the pinkish red chorizo, and the whiteness of the egg were a mish-mash of colors - everything was visually appealing. This dish was the highlight of our night.
For a foodie like me who lives on the interwebs, I'm pretty stoked about Foodie.ph. Ordering my favorite dishes is now super easy, and I don't have to waste minutes on my phone having someone repeat my order to me thrice before the person on the other end sends it to the said restaurant.
When you're mucking around Manila and wanting to order in, skip the fast food joints and try ordering your favorite restaurant fare at Foodie.ph instead! With a mix of different places to choose from, something is bound to tickle your fancy. And with a minimum delivery of P300, getting delicious take-out needn't be so expensive. You can order a whole day in advance, or if you're living abroad, order for your loved ones in the Philippines. And yes, they accept credit cards!
Just mucking around Manila,
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Images taken by Jericho San Miguel of The Pixel Project Manila
