The names Petra and Pilar have never sounded so classy until they were slapped on a restaurant with contemporary interiors and cozy ambiance. Carinderias have never been so hip either, until one started catering to executives and the uppity Makati crowd. I've read about Petra and Pilar in society magazines from whence I also read about Apartment 1B. Nothing about the articles enticed me to pay it a visit, however, as I'm not a fan of lutongbahay cuisine in general. If I wanted to lutongbahay, I would eat at home.
So it was generally a surprise to find myself in front of the restaurant one very early Tuesday morning. We were looking for a new breakfast fare, as we're tired of UCC and the default McDo option. The newly constructed Petra and Pilar, as it turns out, is right across one of my company's Internet cafe branches along Buendia. We were the first customers to arrive for the day, so I was able to appreciate the spacious parking and impressive size of the restaurant. A portion of the place is a deli where imported canned goods, meats and wine are sold. P&P also has its own line of deli stuff, although I can't remember clearly. Seriously, my memory's turned so bad I sometimes forget my cellphone number.
As in the ordinary carinderia, the food are lined up on one side and you point which viand you want. The waitress simultaneously scoops up your order and passes it to the kitchen to be heated. At the end of the food row is the huge bowl of black gulaman--a classic!-- and the cash register. Then you sit down and wait for the servers to bring the food to your table. Since it was only 7am, there were no viands yet and the breakfast menu consisted of tapsilog, longsilog, etc. We ordered tocino and corned beef, and a side of longanisa. The drinks are not part of the meal, and you can get a banana if you like.
I would like to praise P&P for a lot of things, not the least of which are the excellent wait staff, clean (and nice!) comfort room and the huge servings. But if you ask me how I found P&P, I would first harp about how cheap the food are. We only spent less than P180 for everything. Considering the size of the place, the prominent location, and the fact that it is owned by the wife of Sen. Juan Ponce Enrile, with Petra and Pilar being the names of the couple's mothers, it seems like a humble endeavor to make high quality home cooking accessible to everyone.
We were quite satisfied with our food-- although the corned beef was from a can, it's P&P's own concoction, and the beef shreds are longer with less fat, unlike what you get from grocery bought corned beef. The longanisa had a very strong spicy, sweet taste, which overwhelmed everything else. It's good to eat with lots of rice.
Although the novel idea was to offer affordable homecooking served sosyal style, most of the restaurant crowd still comprised of senior executives, and rich looking matronas. Ok you didn't hear that from me. I observed this when we came back for lunch a couple of weeks later. P&P's lunch offerings are P100+ a viand (except for simple things like lumpia or vegetables). This is still inexpensive as the serving of one viand is big enough to share. The unique thing about P&P is it has a special viand for each day of the week. On Tuesdays like the day we went, the specialty is Cebu lechon. P200/order is steep, but if you consider that it can be shared, and that it's Cebu lechon, after all, it's not so bad. I'm not sure if it was lechon shipped from Cebu, or lechon cooked like they do in Cebu, but I noticed the difference from normal lechon. It was juicy, soft and tasty without the sauce. If it had been shipped from Cebu, the pork skin was too crunchy to tell.
Petra and Pilar made a good impression on me, but it's unlikely that I'll be craving for it. I imagine the times I would choose to eat there to be when I want someone to try it, or if I'm in the area. I heard that their cheesecake is really good, so maybe I'll try that when I go back.
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