Tagaytay is the nearest city from Metro Manila that you could go for a romantic lunch or dinner date.
But the heat this summer, the cost and hassle, coupled with the unbearable traffic is not worth the time, or at least my time – rather than transporting yourself and your significant other to the country’s second summer capital, why not enjoy a nice, stress-free, lunch at 13t Ubay located at 13th Ubay Street, Sta. Mesa Heights, Quezon City. It’s parallel to Banawe, and perpendicular to N.S. Amoranto/ Retiro street.
Feel and Ambience
13 Ubay boasts of space that could easily accommodate 50 diners, with ample parking space below, it has an outdoor, lanay and indoor dining area with warm wood and Filipino accents that will make your stay and dining experience comfortable as soon as you enter their premises.
Apart from the different dining experience, the organic design all throughout the establishment with natural light coming in will let you and your date feel that you are dining outside the hustle and bustle of the Metro. 13 Ubay is pretty posh for a hole in wall restaurant hidden inside the car district of Quezon City.
Orders
13 Ubay serves Filipino dishes with a modern twists. Their menu is quite extensive, which is a good thing, even though they just started not that long ago. For our meal for 2 pax, we had their 3 Hour Belly, and Dirty Mash with Bacon, and a tall glass of grape shake all for sharing.
Grape Shake
13 Ubay’s Grape shake is very similar, if not the same to Cibo’s grape shake. 13 Ubay’s refreshing beverage is sweeter than the latter’s. Cibo’s has tangy taste. So it is really up to your preference. I prefer 13 Ubay’s grape shake, you may ask the servers if this is available, as grapes tend to be seasonal.
Dirty Mash with Bacon
Mashed potato, roasted garlic and cream topped with either a handful of pulled pork, or 3 crispy slices of bacon. One thing that stood out to me if you completely ignore the availability of BACON on this dish is the taste of their mashed potato. Admittedly, the level of taste of a mashed potato dish should be better or at par with KFC’s mashed potato; which is the best tasting mashed potato in the world.
13 Ubay’s Dirty Mash with Bacon is tasty, while other restaurants serves mashed potato that often times tastes bland, tries to cover the taste with gravy or has a very strong garlic taste. 13 Ubay’s has just the right balance of garlic, and cream with a bit of saltiness from the bacon which makes it just taste right and hindi nakakasuya. We do hope they could throw in a few more pieces of that heavenly bacon on the plate.
This dish is priced at Php 230. Avoid ordering rice when ordering the Dirty Mash with Bacon.
3 Hour Belly
Lechon kawali at its finest, the 3 Hour Belly is slow roasted pork belly with pickled vegetable on the side.
This should be one of the best pork belly dish I’ve ever tasted, this 3 Hour Belly is very soft and has a lot of flavor packed on its meat. Take note that the flavor is on the meat and not on the fat. This dish has very little fat, albeit this is a pork belly dish that health conscious diners would also enjoy. The skin is so crunchy you might want to separate it from the meat to enjoy it at a latter point of your meal. If you want a different flavor they have two special vinegar on the table, you might want to dip your pork belly on one of them. I recommend the spicier vinegar just to give it a little kick.
Full Menu
Verdict
13 Ubay boasts of the best comfort food has to offer at an okay price vis-à-vis the serving. All our orders were delicious and clean, service was great although we came in around weekeday lunch time and they only had two tables to service. I would love to come back and try a few more dishes like fried tripe (180Php), Smoked Salmon Salad (250Php), Grilled Chicken Harissa (370Php), Twice Cooked Ribs (320Php), and their Tres Leches (100Php) for desert.
13 Ubay is open everyday from 11:00am to 2:00pm and 6:00pm to 11:00pm. You may check out their facebook page for more information here.
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