BOP BERNIE BISTRO

Bop Bernie was a hole-in-the-wall find along Don Gil Garcia Street in Cebu City. It's a brightly decorated retro-pop themed bsitro well-stocked with Lemon Sola Iced Tea with predominantly Filipino food offerings, smattered with some continental dishes.

There was one other table of customers while my sister and I dined there. The radio was tuned in to a station playing tunes mellow enough for a post-work dinner with an equally stressed out companion. This ambience makes it an ideal dinner place for peoiple who want a quiet dinner minus the fuss of dressing up. The food I'll talk more about later, while the service was enthusiastic and attentive. As with most Cebuano restuarants, service is never its selling point, but the young dude met our dining requirements well enough despite lapses on the type of salad dressing to be served on a side dish of salad.

FlavorFiend for the pork pot roast with a side of mashed potato and pimiento macaroni salad. Inspite of requests to keep the potatoes on the chunky side, the side dish still came out puree soft. Nevertheless it was a creamy, milky mash lent with a nice fresh cucumber aftertaste thanks to the slices it was served on. The pot roast was stewed to a fall-off-the-bone perfection with a lovely wine-infused tomato sauce. It was rather on the bland side, however, and could use some stronger herbs for more aroma. but for Php 165 combo meal without drink, FlavorFiend is happy enough.

My companion opted for Bop Bernie's grilled pork chops which proved to be a winner and proved---once and for all---that size does matter, at least where chops are concerned. The electric grilled inch-thick slab was the size of a typical sizzling plate in which it was served with pickled slivers of cucumber. this one also came with a side dish of mashed potatoes.

All in all. it was a well spent Php 375 including drinks. My companion and I went home feeling sated and fairly lucky to have allowed ourselves to be lured by Bop Bernie's orange signage.

Pino Filipino Cuisine

At first glance, you'll know the owners know the meaning of the word. Crossing the threshold sucks you right into the warm golden glow of the chandeliered interiors. The presentation may intimidate some (at first), but those with impeccable preferences and finer palates would thank the heavens for this boon of a restaurant called Pino.

Pino dared to locate itself away from the mall; in effect, created a cohesive ambience down to parking lot lampposts. The 220-seater restaurant prettily sits in a thousand-or-so square meter property complete with its own parking area. Another major contributor to the wow factor is Joel del Prado's well-placed selections from his antique collection, making dining at Pino a visual, but most importantly, historical experience. Here and there you'll find original turn-of-the-century puli lamps while you eat esconsed in pre-Spanish colonial wooden chairs upholstered in various shades of sea green and lime.

The upstairs dining are, which may be used for function rooms for 10 to 30, take on more ornate decor and invites you to look your best given the propped up floor-to-ceiling mirrors. It's perfect for a cozy party of well-chosen guests as it naturally comes with its own bar.

Servicewise, Pino's is one of the best here in Cebu. At three months old, most of their servers are still enthusiastic and exhibit an attentiveness to diner's needs that most restaurants don't have. They hover about but don't intrude and as far as two meals are concerned, they come forward with perfect timing.

Food Review

Lunch began with appetizers of pickled ampalaya and radish ensalada, green mangoes, and Chinese chorizo followed by lumpiang ubod. Ubod is a vegetable extracted from the base of a coconut tree, cut in fine strips mixed with julienned pieces of shrimp, crab, squid, pork, and chicken. This cornucopia of traditionally Filipino goodness was topped with a peanut sauce and chopped garlic.

There were also baked scallops for starters served on a sinuous bed of rock salt. Every mouthful was a perfect blend of cream, cheese, parsley, and shellfish with just the right hint of saltiness as aftertaste.

The Visayan soup, chicken binakol, came next. The soup on its own could’ve made a fantastic one-dish meal with hints of chicken, coconut meat and coco milk, and enough ginger to give it the right amount of heat. Executive Chef Brando Perez explained that the ginger and lemongrass leaves eliminated the gamey-ness of the chicken (They used Bisaya chicken which are lithe in build with flavors endemic to its species.) and that it wasn’t the chili which lent the soup its spiciness. Pino’s chicken binakol owed its silky texture to the coconut water while its soft alabaster meat came as a pleasant surprise.

Kare-kare and Crispy Pata comprised the main course and was served with fragrant Bamboo Rice. At first it seemed like the Bisaya Bugni mushroom (called Tenga ng Daga by Tagalogs) dominated the flavor and then you’ll get hints of ubod, pork, chicken meat, and shrimp on top of the aromatic bamboo---all in one mouthful! Three types of rice were used, says Chef Brando. Pino’s Bamboo Rice was a carefully proportioned mix of US California rice, Thai Fancy rice, and our own malagkit (sticky rice). To complicate the dish even further, it was served in a shaft of cut bamboo the way our Anitos had theirs, but wrapped in foil to capture all the native goodness. The signature Filipino dish, Kare-kare, was a stew of oxtail and tripe simmered in peanut-based sauce with heart of banana blossom. It is usually bland in flavor as a side dish of bagoong (shrimp paste) accompanies it. Pino’s version had a dash of salt and came with crushed fresh peanuts as topping. Then came the Crispy Pata or deep fried pork knuckle, cooked to perfection so that the skin was crisp while its meat stayed tender. Diners originally had the option of ordering them with or without bones (so one’s carving skills don’t have to be tested) but in the three months of service, Chef Brando realized Cebuanos liked bones in their pata, so the deboned option was chucked. Here is where Chef Brando’s expertise came into play. He’s figured out how to keep the skin crispy well past a photoshoot session plus ample airconditioning levels, but that secret this writer has to keep on pain of being roasted along with the next batch of pata. Pino’s Crispy Pata had extra helpings of spices to go with the usual, so its flavor was not only well-balanced but also had some depth. Diners were given various options for condiments too. The generous serving came with spoonfuls of mild mango chutney, the usual soy sauce, and home-made bagoong with green mangoes. It definitely grabbed the limelight for lunch that day in spite of the fact that their kare-kare is their most popularly ordered dish, so popular that diners call in advance to reserve their order along with their seating arrangements.

To close the meal and sensing perhaps that the Appetite duo were incorrigible sweet-tooths, Pastry Chef Pamela Relampagos brought us Pino’s Fiesta sa Barrio. This is the house’s signature dessert, characterized by its impressive sugarwork of star and stick which are referred to in Pino’s kitchen as the Senorito Stick for owner Michel Lhuillier and Senorita Star for Amparito Lhuillier. Chef Pamela’s mixed origins and influences blossomed in this dish of Haleya ube (the rootcrop imported from Bohol), Leche flan with a distinctly dayap flavor, and a scoop of oozy macapuno. It had us arguing about the possible ingredients used for each of the desserts but there’s only so much a chef would divulge.


Pino Filipino Cuisine
Address: Wilson St., Lahug, Cebu City
Telephone number: (032) 3101
Fax number: (032) 232 0939