Bagoong Club

Cuisine:	Filipino
Location:	122 Scout Dr. Lazcano St, Quezon City

It is weird that the best thing about a restaurant called Bagoong Club is the dessert - the Pastillas de Leche cheesecake is eyes-closed, fork-wagging, i-don't-want-to-share-with-anyone-get-your-fork-out-of-my-cake delicious.

We loved the singkamas with bagoong appetizer. The fact that it is on the house adds much to the enjoyment. Testing Again

As for the meals, hmmm, I think if we were less than bowled over by the food as I expected after hearing two raving recos from two separate connections, it would be our fault for not ordering well or not ordering enough.

We ordered the Club Binagoongan Special, which is worthy of carrying the restaurant name. It is a right blend of spicy, salty, and sweet. It is actually quite good.

Now, ordering the vegetable kare-kare for me was a little short of seizing the day. We should have gone for the seafood kare kare since that would have vegetables anyway. The sauce is just okay, but maybe that's because my mother-in-law's kare kare is such a high bar to meet.

Normally, saucy, tasty viands such as above would require plain steamed rice. But we couldn't resist the bagoong rice, which was subtly flavored anyway, not overwhelming with its bagoong, and it went well with the other dishes.

And of course, we ended with that above mentioned dessert, a good reason to come back. The extensive menu is another compelling reason to try this resto again. Next time, I'll try the Bagoong Club Binagoongan Combi and more of the seafood selections.

The place looks warm and attractive inside and out. Though they were nice enough to move us to the empty second floor when we were bothered by the noise of the other diners, the service could still be improved much.

I'm so rarely in the Tomas Morato area, but I want to go back here the next time I'm passing by.