The early bird catches the worm.

The Steemit Philippines Yearender Dinner at Romulo Cafe in Tomas Morato, Quezon City last December 3 started off with @steemph carpooling to the venue. We figured it was best rather than going in separate cars. We anticipated holiday traffic so we met 2 hours earlier and enjoyed a couple of chocolate sundaes at Jollibee while waiting for the others to arrive.

Logistics c/o me, @grazz and @deveerei - bringing tarpaulins, laptop, a projector and some printouts to the venue. We had ample set-up time while we figured out what to use as a projector screen. Luckily, Romulo Cafe offered their projector screen free of charge. We arrived at the venue at 430 PM and finalized the plans for the program and put on ready the stuff we would project during the program flow.

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Surprises are not for the faint of heart.

The room had 1 long table setup which we needed to change so we can have a mock "stage" for our esteemed speakers. @deveerei decided on our setup which gave us proper legroom for the projector. We had 1 pocket wifi ready from @zararina and everyone had their mobile data ready for our discord voice conference.

We had the biggest surprise of all! We didn't expect that @immarojas would be able to join us since she wasn't based in the Philippines but lo and behold, she graced us with her presence even bringing chocolates for everyone.

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Chef's know best...

about food that is. Our food order was nothing but the best - we chose Romulo Cafe's bestsellers and chef recommended dishes. The food made a disappearing act into our belly once they reached the table!

Making a party reservation at Cafe Romulo was a breeze really, I just googled their number and inquired if they were able to accommodate a large group for a Private Party. They didn't require a downpayment like most places and they were able to get the food ready in 15-20 minutes.

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Drumroll....the FOOD!

Lola Virginia's Chicken Relleno

Roasted Chicken stuffed with ground Pork,raisins, chorizo, and peas

Source

Expectation vs. Reality part of this Chicken Relleno dish is something I wanted to show you because the serving looked quite large in the menu photo, don't you agree? On one side, it wasn't the large serving I expected but on the other hand it was quite tasty especially with the sweet and sour sauce it came with.

Laing with Adobo Flakes

Taro leaves cooked in coconut milk and topped with Adobo flakes

The laing was fantastic especially if you sliced the long pepper into thin slices and eat it with each laing bite. I think the laing was the second dish to run out aside from the Crispy Pata.

Gising-Gising

Baguio beans and ground pork in coconut milk

Gising Gising in the photo didn't look like the one on our tables because they weren't sliced in long slices, they were sliced like tiny disc-shaped greens. I love gising-gising naturally because it was spicy and the coconut milk was a nice finish to the spicy taste.

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Boneless Crispy Pata Binagoongan

Deboned crispy pata served with Eggplant and tomato-bagoong sauce

This dish is one of the chef's recommended dishes in their menu and it didn't fail to impress us. It was absolutely crispy and sinful. I made sure to eat the eggplant first to trick myself out of guilt of eating sumptuous fried pork skin.

Tito Greg's Kare-Kare

Oxtail and tripe stew in a peanut based sauce, served with steamed vegetables and Romulo Cafe's house bagoong

I had little space in my stomach by the time I got to the Kare-Kare. I tried a but of the peanut sauce with some veggies and it was most like other Kare-Kare I tasted, the sauce was thick and the bagoong complemented it well.

Spaghettini with Shrimp and Aligue sauce

Shrimp sauteed in olive and garlic, in an aligue sauce (crab)

The crab sauce made the paste look bright orange which was a little bit out of the ordinary. The crab taste was really strong so you cannot really take more than 3 bites of the pasta if you didn't love crab aligue. It was also the last dish to arrive so probably everyone was already full when the pasta touched the table, we joked that the pasta was our desert because it arrived last.

Here we are with plates empty, stomachs full and faces full of smiles.

All in all I would love to go back to Romulo Cafe and take my family out for dinner, I saw they had high chairs available for toddlers and the place is a lot spacious so your kids will have space to explore while you eat. The place wasn't packed but there were 3 private parties ongoing that night. All secluded from each other so we couldn't hear the noise from the other parties downstairs.

I will definitely go back for their Crispy Pata and Laing most of all.

References:
https://www.zomato.com/manila/romulo-cafe-tomas-morato-quezon-city/menu

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