Romulo Café — Restaurant in Quezon City

One of our company directors treated us lunch at this place. As with the other restaurants in the area, the place used to be one of the big houses in the place. As such, it has a very relaxing and homey vibe.

Street parking is available.

We ordered sweet potato chips with nacho cheese as appetizer and it did a good job in preparing our appetites for the main course.

For main course, we ordered the following: Boneless Crispy Pata, Chicken and Pork Adobo, Ginataang kalabasa with crablets, baby squid, ginataang manok, toasted noodles, and plain rice.

The boneless crispy pata is served with fried eggplant and bagoong sauce, so it is supposed to be eaten "pork binagoongan" style, and it is very good as such. For those who want a traditional way of eating crispy pata, you can ask for vinegar from the service crew. Whatever way you eat it, their boneless crispy pata is good.

The chicken and pork adobo is served with the sauce separated from the meat. For me this is good because it prevents the sauce from mixing with other food items on the plate. The diner can also adjust the strength of the adobo flavor by the amount of sauce placed on the meat. As with the crispy pata, this dish is also well prepared and very good.

The ginataang kalabasa and sitaw with crablets is also very good. The veggies are fresh and crunchy (the sitaw) and the crablets are placed on top so that it will maintain its crunch. Also very good.

The baby squid is fresh, and also very good.

Their ginataang manok consist of boneless pieces of chicken with coconut creme sauce. It's my first time to try chicken cooked that way and I am surprised about how good it is.

The toasted noodles is also very good. Considering the other items we ordered, I ate the viands with rice first, and then ate the noodles so that I can appreciate it on its own. The sauce of the noodle is perfect for the noodles and the toppings placed on it (Shitake mushroom, cauliflower).

The plain rice we ordered is perfect for the viands we ordered, since some viands have sauce. The rice is cooked properly.

After lunch, i had sansrival for dessert and it perfectly complemented the brewed coffee I ordered with it.

Eating at Romulo Cafe is a very good experience and i am glad to have tried lunch at the place. I will definitely go back to the place but since I live in Mandaluyong, I might try its branch its Makati branch together...

First time trying this restaurant. On our previous attempt to come here, the place was booked for a wedding. This time, we made a reservation for lunch. They open from 11am-3pm; and then again for dinner.

The restaurant is owned by a progeny of Carlos P. Romulo, the Philippines' best diplomat, ever. This fact is evident in the decors as each room is spruced with beautifully mounted pictures of Mr. Romulus and significant events in his life as a diplomat. A lovely tribute to him.

Now the food --- there are heirloom recipes (handed down from relatives) among the offerings. We only ordered the Kare-kare, the sauce of which was on the watery-side. While I preferred a more peanut-y sauce, the bagoong that went with this is just right. Also, I loved that they were generous with the ingredients. So many kare-kare servings these days skip on the "fat" but this kare-kare had plenty of that, plus "tuwalya", and then the beef meat for those who don't eat either the "fat" or the "tuwalya".

We loved the baby pusit which was cooked properly (meaning pusit was tender) and sauce was good; sigarilyas sa gata was again generous with the gata and sigarilyas - I loved this dish. We also ordered pancit sotanghon, pancit sa puti, chicken inasal (another delicious dish); beef salpicao (surprised me because I was expecting it to be garlicky, instead it had a rich sauce with button mushrooms. Beef was done medium well); tortang talong; lengua (sauce again on the watery side). We took out lechon kawali. For dessert, we had the Mango tango and the turn with ube.

Overall, ambiance is really nice. It has a classy vibe with a classy price. Staff was attentive and tried their best. I think the place with different parts sectioned off could be rented privately and separately. There are 2...

Horrible! The grandiose of the interior does not compensate for the waiters obviously lack of training. I will make an effort to make this review as detailed as possible because I don't want anyone to experience what we've gone through! Me and my fiance went for a dinner as we were looking for a place to hold our civil wedding. 1) We weren't given a chance to choose where we would like to sit. We were directed to a table for 4 (when we are 2) because they said all the tables were reserved. Our table was near the AC which was on a high temperature, it was not comfortable! I saw the other diners (ok mostly old people) in their jackets! I dined in a french restaurant on winter and didn't even feel a single discomfort with the temperature! 2) the supposedly 'starters' were served together with the 'main' courses. 3) Another obvious detail was no one from the management tried to sit and dine in all the tables they placed in their resto. Our table had some steel bars underneath so its impossible to move your knees (for the ladies its impossible to sit with your legs crossed esp when you're in your heels). Minor detail but dining is supposedly a holistic experience! If not, we would've just opt for a take out!! And remember that statement where all of the tables were reserved? The whole time we dined, the table for 2 where we would like to sit was not occupied -until we left!!! Such a...