Stormy Lunch at The Porch (plus some plans)

Man, quite a stormy day today and it also happens to be my brother's birthday. To mark it, we and other relatives had lunch at The Porch by Casa Verde, located along Anonas street, in Sikatuna, QC. Today's the second time I ate there and last time I did was weeks ago, though back then, I wasn't feeling too well plus I didn't bring my camera (if I brought it though, then I might've blogged about this place already). I'll just be talking about the food and the restaurant and I wont go much into other things that happened. 

Anyways, the place is quite small, located past the grocery there along Anonas ext.. It looks like this small house but you'll know it when you see it. Although it's small and I find it tight, it has a good ambiance to it. One can eat inside or outside, depending on the availability of the seats. Personally, I might've preferred it if we ate inside (last time we did though) but this time, we were outside. Good thing that despite the winds, the weather didn't mess things up. :)

Now, on to the food. The restaurant serves American food such as ribs and the food's within the 150 to mid 300s range, so it isn't too expensive, but not cheap either. I have to say that the ribs here (Brian's Ribs) are tasty, and as one of their bestsellers, it's definitely worth a try. While I can't say if it's the best, since I don't eat ribs a lot, it's certainly good. A single serving's 250 Pesos, and by the way, that's a big serving since it's even good for sharing (that's how big it is). They also serve the ribs by the bucket (888 Php) for people that'll dine in bigger groups (kanina, we ordered 2 buckets, plus ordered 2 single servings! There were 12 of us). In addition to that, we ordered 2 servings of their Best Sampler(s) (one serving is 328 Php) which had potato skins, fried cheese and buffalo wings. By the way the wings here are one of the spiciest I've had. I'd say it is, but it's good though :D. Potato skins and cheese were great too, it's better with the dips that come with them. Other things we ordered today were a salad and spaghetti (dunno how much, I'll not comment on them). For desert we had their Death by Chocolate ice cream cake (188 Php) which had a rich taste, nice. We ordered 3 slices. One thing we didn't have this time unlike the last was the Fisherman's Platter. All in all, it made for a great lunch. :)

The Porch. I'm sure you can't miss it if you go by this place.

Iced tea and the salad

Salad and spaghetti. Both are good, I'd say. There was nothing we ate that I didn't like.

Best Sampler and Spaghetti.

Ribs by the bucket with rice. Wow, it's great. :)

Death by Chocolate cake. Ice cream's melting though... Still good. :)

The menu board. After choosing, you order at the counter. :)

After that I went home with my cousin and tito since the rest had other things to do. The weather's still bad though with all those strong winds and all. I was supposed to attend a retreat tomorrow but it got postponed :( ...

Anyways, it's gonna be some busy days ahead. Though our retreat was postponed, I still have plans for the week. Of course, I have my school work to deal with. In addition to that, I'll be heading to SM Mall of Asia for the Manila International Bookfair (MIBF) and if I go next weekend (which seems likely) I'm gonna drop by The Best of Anime (BOA) convention which was the first cosplay event I've attended (wow, it's almost been exactly a year ago). In addition, my birthday's fast approaching as well. Well, that's that and thanks for checking. :) Ingat! :D

FB page of The Porch

Classes at the Alumni Bldg, UST

I thought of posting this... In the last weeks or so, we've been having classes at UST's newest building, the Buenaventura Garcia Paredes O.P. Building, Thomasian Alumni Center or simply the Alumni Building. It's located at the P. Noval side of the university, where the old gym used to stand and you can't miss it since it's the tallest building in the campus. Though the building isn't totally finished yet, since there's still some work going on, it's already open, of course. As far as I know, AB (which is my college in UST by the way) and CTHM students occupy the building for classes. It's a cool, comfortable place to have classes (though it can get really cold though...) and the our floor (10th floor) provides a nice view of the Metro. :)

Here some pics I took the other day...

Alumni Building, UST.

@ the ground floor

Santissimo Rosario Parish, UST Church

Taken from the 10th floor, facing Espana.

P Noval street

Scene in the street below. P Noval gate

Facing Dapitan side.

Vending machines on the 11th floor

10th floor

Taken at one of the hallways on the 10 floor. Nice how it turned out. :)

From (what I assume) what was once the gym.

Short Trip to Tagaytay

As mentioned in my previous post, last Monday (National Heroes Day), I went to Tagaytay. Dunno the last time I've been there, but for sure it's been a while. It was a really short trip, one of the shortest (if not the shortest) out of town trips that I've had. We only went to the convent of the Pink Sisters and had dinner then we went home. Though short, it was a fun experience. I went there with my dad, ninang (dad's side) and my cousins.

So on the day of the trip, I had an overnight stay in Marikina at my dad's and we would be going to Tagaytay in the afternoon. In the morning, I went biking all over Marikina with dad. Pretty enjoyable ride, though it was tiring and at one point messy because a part near the river was really muddy. Good thing I wore rubber shoes. :)

In the afternoon, we left for Tagaytay. The ride on the way was enjoyable already, but at one point, we got lost in Sta. Rosa, Laguna. When we got to Tagaytay, we went to the Pink Sister's Convent. I wasn't in the right clothes when we went so I didn't go in the chapel out of respect and we wrote our petitions. Me and one of my cousins went all over the gardens for a bit and then we left.

After visiting Pink Sister's we had dinner at this restaurant named Buon Giorno at this place that had more restaurants, overlooking Taal Volcano and the lake. When we came to the viewing deck, we were greeted by the view. Amazing I gotta say. Unfortunately the pics I took weren't clear >_<. Still, it was nice to see the place. Now, on to the food. All of us, except ninang ordered a rib eye steak (at medium rare) and we also ordered this salmon dish and a salad. Ninang paid for the dinner. While waiting, they served bread as an appetizer which was dipped in olive oil and balsamic vinegar. The salmon and the salad were good and after that, the steaks came. Wow, the steak was big and it tasted great along with the sides it came with. I'd say, it was worth it. A steak alone was 600+ pesos, by the way. :D
Just so you know, there's a restaurant next to the one we ate in and my one of my cousins (when they went to the same place in another trip before) told me that the steak there naman was 3000 pesos (yes, as in). Makes our steak's prices look cheap. :P

After that, we went home. When we came to the Metro, we noticed it was raining hard and it flooded at some parts. We went to Marikina first and from there, dad took me home to my place in QC.

Overall, while short, it was an enjoyable trip and it'd be nice to go out of town again for another vacation. ^_^

Some pics:

Pink Sister's Convent

 Buon Giorno @ Cliffhouse Tagaytay

Cliffhouse Tagaytay (found out the name of the place in the 'net)

Taal lake and volcano. Pic's blurred >.<

Dinner at Buon Giorno, Tagaytay.

Rib eye steak. It's bigger in person, plus it tastes great.

Sunset at Tagaytay

Cliffhouse at Tagaytay. Love the lights, it's like Christmas. (which is coming soon)