Guevarra's

Earlier last month, one of the mooncake moms, the youngest among us, celebrated her birthday and so we all met at Chef Laudico Guevarra's to celebrate it with her. 

Happy Birthday to you!

It is always a fun meet-up when I see this group of friends because other than being moms, our life choices are so varied that the table conversation always springs up interesting topics. There we are all moms to our kids; and while a few of us choose to be dedicated full-time homemakers, there are a few who are working a 9-5 job, and yet another who have found her passion in zumba that she is now good enough to be a zumba instructor.

The structure is reminiscent of the settings of old Sampaguita movies I used to watch as I spend lazy summer afternoons with my maternal grandmother.   The old mansion's stucture undisturbed, each room interconnected and filled with tables and chairs.

The buffet spread is concentrated in one long hallyway, which I assume used to be a sunroom. There is a lengthy singular column of chafing dishes which holds rice, noodles, and other assorted ulam found on a typical Filipino fiesta table. The grilling station offered chicken, pork, squid, shrimp, and ginadara. The carving station offered angus beef belly, lechon and chicken. Typical of any Filipino offering, a variety of sauces are on hand, as well.

 

There are several dishes made with angus beef, and I found the angus beef kare-kare very tasty.

There is a soda and iced-tea refill station on one end of the hallway.

The husband and wife team of the Laudicos have always presented Filipino food with a twist. So I was looking forward to their dessert offerings. They have this latik fountain where you can dip suman balls and other native kakanin.

They also have frozen brazo and halo halo served in shooters. For most of the ladies I had lunch with, the star of the dessert table was the self-service soft ice cream. It is a carabao-milk-based frozen treat which tasted like pastillas de leche.

At the time of my visit, the place was packed-solid with patrons.  The sizable variety of food choices and the buffet price is a good deal..  Although service was far from perfect; chafing dishes were left empty and wanting for refills on more than one occasion; they ran out of salad greens in the middle of lunch-time rush.  But given more time (as they just opened a few months ago), the place should be able to handle the sizable crowd it finds itself with during meal-times.  For the price and the food offering, it is worth another visit.

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