THE PILGRIM
Maginhawa has been known to be a haven for those who crave for interesting food that will satisfy their palates. I have heard a lot about Maginhawa from my friends and I have always wanted to try dining at one of the various restaurants lined up at Maginhawa. I was finally able to try one of the restaurants at Maginhawa which is The Pilgrim. Right after my class ended, I went to Maginhawa to look for The Pilgrim which is located at Unit 1-i 189 Maginhawa corner Makadios street Barangay Sikatuna Village, Quezon City, it is near Via Antonella and Crossfit Gym.
The lights looked nice, they had hanging lights and a street lamp.
I had the chance to talk to Chef Dennis Tan. We asked him various questions about The Pilgrim and the food. I asked why the name “The Pilgrim” and Mr. Tan told us that it is really because of the street, Makadios. Currently, they are the only restaurant located in the area that is like an adventure. I was curious about the elephant in their logo and he replied that it was because elephants traveled around. Regarding the food, Mr. Tan told us a lot of interesting details. It was as if the dishes spoke of his adventures traveling around Asia. To me, it seemed as though he was well traveled. You can read about what he said about the dishes that was served that night in the succeeding paragraphs of this post.
This board full of maps caught my eye but I forgot to ask about it. It had various maps of places located in the Philippines as well as brochures such as the bamboo bike tour around Intramuros. My guess is that this might be a board full of traveling ideas or maybe a collection of their adventures throughout the country.
They served appetizers, entrées, omelettes, additional side dishes and various drinks such as coffee, tea and healthy fruit shakes.
Behind me are the chairs and table at The Pilgrim. As you can see, the place is very cozy. However, they will be performing renovations in order to accommodate more space for walking. There are also tables and chairs outside, you can choose to eat outside if you prefer chilling outdoors.
You can also choose to dine at the bar table if it suits your fancy.
Behind me is the kitchen.
The kitchen is just within the vicinity of the dining area so you can easily call the food servers. Actually, you can also see your order being cooked since they cook the dish upon order.
They serve both imported and local beers.
A brick oven is what they use to cook the food. If my memory serves me right, I think it was a Filipino-made smokeless brick oven, also known as Pugon, which utilizes charcoal. Mr. Dennis also told us that they try to make their dishes as healthy as possible without compromising the taste and quality of the food.
Dinner time!
Let us begin with the appetizers.
First off the menu are the oven brick hot chicken wings (190 pesos). As the name suggests, this dish is of a spicy nature. I have a high tolerance for spicy food so I cannot tell how spicy these chicken wings really are but I found them to be not too mild and not too spicy. The skin of the chicken was crisp while the meat was tender, it is probably so because of they used the brick oven to bake this dish.
The chicken wings were garnished with chopped parsley and I think the sauce that came with the wings was sour cream with chives.
Isaac and I both found the taste of the chicken wings as okay.
Their chicken fingers (180 pesos) was a new taste for Isaac and I because of the rice krispies. The chicken fingers came with their homemade mayonnaise and was coated in rice krispies. You could tell that their mayonnaise was really “homemade”, it was unlike those store bought mayonnaise which were colored white. Without food coloring, mayonnaise is naturally yellow in color due to it being made from egg yolk.
Their chicken fingers are crispier than your usual chicken fingers thanks to the rice krispies which, as you might know, is a kind of cereal.
The Waywurd house salad (160 pesos) contained lettuce, tomato, zucchini and rice krispies and was served with grilled chicken and basil tarragon dressing. Some of their dishes had salad on the side which tasted similar to the Waywurd house salad. The dressing they used for their salads seemed to contain green peppercorn which is kind of rare.
I found the taste of the salad to be very fresh. I could clearly taste the freshness of the basil in the basil tarragon dressing. I love how green and fresh the salad appeared to be.
Isaac found the dressing to be lacking in taste, the vinaigrette probably needed more vinegar. The salad needed more dressing as well. The rice krispies got kind of soggy since it was left soaked too long in the basil tarragon dressing. Also, it seemed as though the pepper overpowered the sourness of the vinaigrette.
You can make your own omelette (190 pesos) by choosing between regular egg and egg white only; picking two ingredients among bacon, farmer’s ham, pastrami, mortadella, spinach, onion, bell peppers, tomatoes, jalapenos, red chillies and basil; choosing one of the cheeses available namely cheddar, American, cream cheese and mozzarella; and selecting one of the bread from white, wheat and baguette bread.
For the omelette, it was Chef Dennis that chose the ingredients for us. He chose cream cheese, spinach, tomato and jalapeno for the contents of the omelette. The omelette came along with wheat bread and Ballantyne butter. I liked the taste of the omelette but I am biased when it comes to egg dishes and according to Isaac, the taste was so-so.
Their special of the month is “Pilgrim goes Southeast Asia” baked packet St. Peter’s fish with béchamel sauce and coconut rice (220 pesos). According to Chef Dennis, people in Thailand grill the fish which leads to the blackening of the fish. However, people here dislike eating black (due to health reasons) which is why they came up with another method. Rather than grilling, they bake the tilapia. As the menu suggests, the fish contains shredded lemongrass inside. Also, Chef Dennis mentions that in the streets of Thailand you can see lemongrass poked into the mouths of the fish as if they are having a cigarette.
Their Aussie Rib Eye Steak (320 pesos) came with green peppercorn sauce and weighed 250 grams according to the menu. Both of us agreed that the steak was too tough, it was probably overcooked. The green peppercorn sauce was okay but nothing special since it seemed like gravy according to Isaac.
Salad and roasted potatoes came with the dish as well. The salad needs a little more dressing.
According to Isaac, the contents of the stir fried vegetables seem to be lettuce, yellow bell pepper and zucchini as well as fresh tarragon as garnish.
Baby back ribs by Mr. T with homemade barbeque sauce along with one sidings of which you can choose from parsley rice, roasted potatoes, stir fried veggies, French fries and grilled corn. According to Chef Dennis Tan or “Mr.T”, their baby back ribs are their best seller and that the 550 grams of baby back ribs is good for 2-3 persons.
Our order had parsley rice and stir fried veggies for sides.
Ribs, in general, usually take time to cook so it would be better to ask the server if it would take too long to have the dish of your choice to be served rather than getting impatient. However, since I really recommend their baby back ribs, I suggest you first order some of their dishes that do not take too long to long to serve especially if a lot of people are at the restaurant. The ribs are worth the wait and are a good value for the money considering that the ribs weigh 550 grams (with bones) and are simply scrumptious.
According to the menu, this dish is bacon wrapped prawns with paprika béchamel and roasted potatoes (320 pesos), however, our bacon wrapped prawns were served with carrots and zucchini along with salad.
Isaac found the bacon wrapped prawn as okay while I found them to be scrumptious and chewy. We both agreed that the prawns were fresh.
Their healthy fruit shakes were refreshingly delicious! They were generous with the amount of fruits they used in the healthy concoctions. According to Chef Dennis, they played around with fruits and vegetables in order to come up with these delicious fruit shakes.
According to the menu, their Sublime fruit shakes (80 pesos) will make you “refresh yourself with this unique blend of watermelon, cucumber and lime.”
Their Rejuvenate fruit shake (80 pesos) will make you “feel alive, younger and fresher with every sip of the green mango, coconut and mint symphony.”
”Invigorate with this healthy concoction of mango, papaya, wheat grass and lime” called The Cure (80 pesos). This is probably my favorite flavor of fruit shakes. It did not have fruit bits since when you puree ripe mango, it would come out smooth.
The Khmer green curry (195 pesos) is an Indochinese dish of which you can choose either chicken or fish. I could clearly distinguish the taste of the gata, they used fresh coconut milk. I like the taste and how the coconut milk went well with the cream dory. Isaac found the bean to be improperly cut as it was too long.
Thank you Aldous Calubad for the invite. I had a good time and I would definitely come back for the baby back ribs and the healthy fruit shakes. These two were definitely worth it and I recommend that you try them if you happen to drop by.
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