With so many restaurants popping up all over the metro, it's inevitable that one's dining experience can be a hit or a miss. It's so disappointing eating out and being underwhelmed by the food which is why people usually seek for some sort of recommendation before trying a new restaurant.
I guess it must have been our desire to discover a great restaurant in the mall (or probably that adorable slice of rainbow cake on display) that convinced us to try Zoricho without any assurance if it was going to be any good. And we're so glad we did.
The first thing you'll notice about the place is it's bright white and yellow interiors. Yellow always reminds me of mornings. It's the color of sunshine and egg yolks which makes it very apt for this all day breakfast place.
The restaurant is named after its specialty, Zoricho, which is their own version of skinless longganisa (Filipino sausage).
Aside from their savory dishes, they also offer various desserts that look too good to eat. If that rainbow cake doesn't scream "Eat me!" to you, then you had no childhood.
Even though their specialty is Zoricho, we had to pass up on that and order their other best-seller, the Crispy Bagnet Kare-Kare. I mean, how could you not order this? The idea alone of putting together these two well-loved Filipino dishes is genius but when you taste how good it actually is, it will blow your mind away. Kare-kare is made with peanut butter and is traditionally cooked with tripe or ox tail which have soft, gelatinous textures which just feels all mushy inside your mouth. Using crispy, firm fried pork instead was a great texture contrast to the creaminess of the sauce. Bagnet has a tendency to be fatty and oily but what I love about this dish is that the pork is not oily at all but meat is still tender and the skin is very crispy (which is honestly what we're all really after in a bagnet). Kare-Kare is also eaten with bagoong (shrimp paste) since it's usually bland without it but this was one of the few Kare-Kare dishes that I've tried that was so flavorful it could be eaten without it. It was soooo good.
As if that wasn't sinful enough, we had to pair it with their other best-seller, Tinapa Fried Rice. First of all, I was expecting the fried rice to be sprinkled with some tinapa (smoked fish) flakes on top but what arrived was a plate of rice with chunks of fish and scrambled egg everywhere. They surely do not skimp on ingredients. I remember having our first spoonful of this and our shoulders just collapsed and we were just weakened by how delicious it was. The amount of fish in the dish was so generous we actually asked for vinegar so we could eat the dish on its own.
We were surprised that we were given not just one, but three bottles of vinegar of different varieties -- Sinamak, Sukang Iloko, and my all time favorite vinegar, Pinakurat. I honestly felt like we were in a vinegar tasting session, smelling and tasting them, figuring out which one would go best with the tinapa.
Everything tasted so good that before the food arrived, my friends and I we're so talkative but when we started eating, the food literally shut us up.
And just so you know how much we absolutely loved Zoricho, a few days after, we went back there to have lunch, and we brought along more friends because we wanted to the spread love and deliciousness.
Of course we had to order the Crispy Bagnet Kare-Kare and Tinapa Fried Rice again just so that our friends would understand what we were raving about. They too had their moments silence just relishing how amazing the food was.
Since this was already my second time, I couldn't go there and not try their Zoricho. My idea of longganisa has always been ground meat in tube form but their version of skinless longganisa is basically just ground meat. I'm not really fond of sweet longganisa which is why I loved their salty, garlicky version.
My boyfriend, Martin (being the healthy eater that he is), ordered the Zoricho Tortang Talong with Pinakurat Salsa. This has to be the lightest, fluffiest, freshest torta I've ever had and it was so cute because they actually used small, individual eggplants.
And we definitely couldn't have ended another awesome dining experience without having a slice of the super cute rainbow cake (which was actually really called Mardi Gras Cake) that drew us to this place to begin with. To be honest, I wasn't expecting a lot from this cake. I thought it was just going to be a simple, multi-colored, layered chiffon cake but the moment I stuck my fork in, I was proven wrong. The cake is so dense and moist you could pick up the whole slice and the layers will not break off. And even though it looks really sweet because of the color, it had just the right amount of sweetness. Just when I though rainbow cakes only existed on Tumblr or Pinterest, I finally got to eat one! And a good one at that.
From Crispy Bagnet Kare-Kare to rainbow cake, this dining experience was definitely a big hit.
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