Sis Dang

Seaside in Macapagal Avenue has been a favorite spot for friend and family dine-outs because of its 'dampa' style of food service. One gets to buy his own set of fish, seafood, veggies, and meat and the restaurant of choice would cook these for you whatever kind of dish you wish to have prepared. From the many restaurants to choose from, Sisdang has been a family favorite. This restaurant used to be called Sis but rumor has it that the owners had a misunderstanding causing a rift between parties. This led to the birth of Sisdang. Since I was in college, my family frequented this place a lot. And up to now, despite the change of name, they still serve the best baked mussels and calamares I know of!

It's only now when I got into medschool that I was able to document and take pictures of my raved about dishes in this place. This is definitey highly-recommended. Six-stars for ambience, for service, and for the food and cost.

My boyfriend treated his friends to this place and I was the one who decided on what to order. Definitely, all his friends would agree that everything was delicious!

For appetizers, a dose of "ensaladang mangga" with onions and tomatoes matched with "bagoong"  gave us a lot more to anticipate about the dinner! The mangoes we bought were fresh and crunchy which tickled our palates in prep for the main dishes.

Ensaladang Mangga

I suggested our family favorite dishes for shrimp: the one cooked in spicy sauce and the other cooked in garlic and butter. Both had their own twist and character that eating one is not an excuse to not taste the other! I especially love how the garlic and butter dulcified the shrimp shells and how the spicy sauce incited bursting flavors in my mouth. 

Shrimps in Spicy Sauce

Of course, for the veggie servings, we bought 2 huge eggplants and had them grilled. This went perfectly well with soy sauce and tomatoes!

Inihaw na Talong

There was this once when I went out with friends and tried out a different Paluto restaurant in Seaside and they served this tasty and juicy Pinaputok na Tilapia. So I ordered one from Sisdang that night. However, to compare the two versions, I think I like that one from the other restaurant. This lacked the lush the tilapia of the other resto had.

Pinaputok na Tilapia

A five-star favorite for all seasons would be baked mussels! These have been my Pringles during the dinner! Once i tasted it, it was really difficult to stop ^^. The cheese was liberally spread on the oysters and this really blended well with the "seafood-y" taste of the shellfish!

Baked Tahong

And last but not the least, the cream of the crop, calamari in light batter deep-fried to golden perfection! NO sticky wet portions, crisp, and uber piquant! This is why I love coming back to this place. I hate how other calamares are too breaded that they lose the squid-y taste and all you could taste is the breading. Definitely one of the best calamares ever! 

Calamares

Definitely, I'd still be going back to this place because of it's affordability and delicious house specialties!

Cafe Adriatico vis a vis Abe

My family loves to eat out a lot since it has been a form of bonding for us. One MOA lunchtime, my family and I decided to try out Cafe Adriatico. It looked posh and the ambience was a mixture of classic Filipino and Spanish. The menu in Cafe Adriatico did not appeal to my dad because my dad is a rice person and most of the meals were pastas and noodles or plain-sounding home-cooked dishes. It was then that the waiter offered us a new set of menu from Abe, which was at the other side of the restaurant. This is how we found out that Abe and Cafe Adriatico were owned by the same group of companies! Surprisingly, the Kapampangan-based Abe menu delighted my mom and dad who selected a set of Filipino specialties.

My baby brother, being carnivorous and "Western-influenced", got Cafe Adriatico's Classic Burger served with fries and pickled vegetables. My brother has an appreciation for real beefy goodness and based from his reaction, this piece of burger was for the win!

Classic Burger at P186

For the adults, generous servings of the main course included the following:

Binukadkad na Plapla at P365

Binukadkad na Pla-pla, which was basically a bigger version of tilapia. It was crispy but fleshy portions were still adequate. If not for the special sauce, this dish, in my opinion is nothing remarkable.

Abe's Chicken Supreme at P840

Mom also ordered Abe's Chicken Supreme (house specialty) which is simply roasted chicken with special sauce. Again, for me, there was nothing supreme about it. The sauce, however, helped in making the chicken bearable for me. Although my dad and my other brother seemed to delight in it.

Since we are a family of meat-lovers, a pork dish would never be missed out. Their version of the Filipino crispy pata was called Crispy Tadyang. This indeed lived up to my expectation of it being crispy while still being edible. The serving was good enough for a family of 8 people.

Crispy Tadyang at P476

But for me, the real star of them all would be their version of Pastel de Lengua. The ox tongue was cooked to a tender perfection and creamy sauce was flavorful. Although for this family dine-out, this was my favorite, I must say that still, I have tasted a better version of lengua from Kalye Juan.

Pastel Lengua at P330

Thankfully, i still got to enjoy my lunch because of my Strawberry Daiquiri 

and i got to share the dulcet Chocolate Decadence with my baby brother.

In general, the foodtrip experience my family had was satisfactory. The food here was a bit too pricey to think that some dishes are not that remarkable. Yet, we have to admit that this definitely is not the best Kapampangan restaurant there is. Despite this, the mere fact that we were happily dining together was delectable enough that no meal can be considered to be only ordinary.