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| Comedor-en-la-Kamillah |
Spanish 101:
Comedor - dining room
Azotea - terraced roof
Put them together and you'll have Comedor En La Kamilla.
Situated along Zamora St. near the San Pablo-Calamba Jeepney Terminal is an old house. If you won't notice the sign board, you'd think that it's just a house if not a hole in the wall. But if you take the stairs leading to the azotea, you'll discover that it is actually a restaurant (well, discovery credit goes to Mayordoma's former students).
Once you're there, you can't help but be nostalgic if you grew up in a similar house - one where the stairs to the second floor is outside,literally a few steps away from the street and you need to go through the azotea first before you get to the main door. Visiting the place was some sort of a deja vu for Yaya and Mayordoma. Yaya even thought of Donya Victorina from Noli Me Tangere.
But before we go any further, though the structure has a Spanish feel, it's not a Spanish restaurant. They serve the typical fare of sizzling plate dishes with rice, sandwiches, noodles, pasta, etc. Their food is budget friendly. This restaurant will show that one does not have to shell out much money to enjoy good food. Value for your money. The five of us - Senyorito Lakwatsero, Driver, Yaya, Mayordoma and Reyna Elena - spent only Php760 for a dinner of appetizer to dessert with drinks plus additional take out order for the Winehouse Sisters (no relation to the late Amy Winehouse). These were what we ordered:
Sweet Spaghetti with toast and Iced Tea (Php68) - For its price, we thought Senyorito Lakwatsero will be served with "Ispaketchup" but to our surprise, it was a "gourmet" tasting kid's spaghetti with a hint of rosemary
Pika Platter (Php110) - If you can't decide which appetizer you'll order, get this one. This could be filling on its own. The platter is composed of french fries, potato wedges, chicken fillet, fish fillet, kani roll with three different dips - sweet&chilly, mayo, mayo with ketchup. Of all the dips, the sweet&chilly one was the hit.
Two orders of Pancit Chopsuey (one was to go) (Php98 each) - We originally wanted to have lomi so our meal won't be dry. But, there was none. So we opted for this but with the request that they make it saucy which they did. We loved how it tastes, chinese-style. We even ordered extra for the Winehouse Sisters.
Sizzling Sisig (Php100) - If you will look at their menu, Sizzling Sisig is served with rice, as a meal. But you can order it ala carte indicating the "worth" you'd like to have. In our case, we ordered "Php100 worth" which was a full sizzling plate. The sisig did not only sizzle on the plates, it also sizzled in our mouths - hot! But it goes well with rice.
Spicy Spareribs (Php100) - Same as the sisig including the spiciness!
Potato Salad (Php58) - Their potato salad tends to be on the sweet side so you can have it either as an appetizer or a dessert. We had it as dessert.
One tall carafe of Red Iced Tea (Php68) - The perfect complement to the spicy fare.
Four orders of Rice (Php15each) - Being used to rice subsidy, we found this too pricey. On a positive note, at least it will limit our rice intake!
Madam, the owner, even gave us a complimentary salad which was a mix of red beets, apple and ingredient X. We call it X because Madam made us identify the three components, two of which we were able to identify. It was actually a fun exercise because we were literally analyzing what we were putting into our mouths. Alas, we still didn't get to identify the third ingredient which up to now still remains a mystery. The salad was very light and we think it would go well with vanilla ice cream.
Other interesting items in their menu which we plan to order in our next visits would be the Budbod (rice toppings), Pancit Bathala, Pancit Bulkan and their Chocolate Cake which comes highly recommended by one of Mayordoma's former students.
Comedor En La Kamilla is a place sans of pretensions. It's really value for your money.
'Day, paabot nga ng aking balabal, malamig dito sa azotea!
