OUR AWESOME PLANET: Restaurant of Choice (ROC) in UP

ROC is finally giving Chocolate Kiss some competition in the battle for the "Restaurant of Choice" in Bahay ng Alumni (found in the UP campus). It reminded us of the feel-good home-cooking of Henry's near La Salle, which we miss dearly since it closed down. The restaurant is divided into three sections, which can be easily curtained off for private meetings. It has a classy ambiance with lots of accent paintings and friendlier staff than Chocolate Kiss.

I like it better than Chocolate Kiss, but the overall food taste seems to be "diluted" -- either because of the cost-savings effort to cater to the school crowd or it was just poor execution of the recipes on a Saturday afternoon. We'd still go to Chocolate Kiss for our dessert, though, especially for their cookies.

ROC's Menu:

Salads, Soup, Appetizers, Filipino Fare, Entrees |

Sidings, Pasta, Paninis/Sandwiches, Dessert, Beverages, Coffee

Soup of the Day (P105). Served with pesto crostini.

The pumpkin soup was just OK. It wasn't as flavorful as I would have wanted it. It was probably due to a lot of water disproportionately added to it.

Strawberry and Cream Cheese Panini (P130).

This should be named "Strawberry Jam and Cream Cheese Panini". We usually hate it when we order something that even I can do at home at half the price. The potato salad was a nice compliment to this panini, though.

Queso Bianca (P148). Deep-fried kesong puti, tomato sauce and pesto drizzle.

This was highly recommended but the fried coating of the kesong puti was already hard and tasteless. It overpowered the kesong puti filling. You'll end up scooping a lot of the tomato sauce to add flavor.

Grilled Chicken Alfredo (P190). Grilled chicken strips, garlic cream sauce and linguine.

We liked the linguine, which was cooked al dente with just the right amount of cream sticking to it. We enjoyed every last strand and drop of sauce of this pasta. Yummy.

Kalbi Stew (P218). Original Yorisa Koreana recipe. Short ribs, kochu garu spice, sesame seeds, beansprouts, steamed white rice.

In Henry's near La Salle, they used to serve this super delicious beef stew (which we miss a lot) -- and this Kalbi Stew is the closest thing to it. Consistent with the soup of the day, the stew is a bit subdued in taste.

Dessert Menu

We did not order dessert because every time we asked the waiters for their recommendation, they would always say, "Masarap po lahat yan." Some would mention the name of a cake and then enumerate all the cakes in the display. I dislike it when the owners don't train the waiters on what to recommend (or maybe the waiters have not tried the desserts themselves).

If there's one cake we should try in ROC that is a winner versus what Chocolate Kiss offers, what would it be?