Davao City
Trellis 'n Vines now has four branches (Matina, Casa Maria, Mabini St., F. Torres St.) in Davao City. Business must be doing great if you can afford to branch out that much. A friend who has tried the place said that they generally serve good food. The only complain he had was that it took forever for their order to arrive. This was at the Mabini branch. Checking Trellis 'n Vines' facebook page, they actually apologized for the slow service at the Mabini branch. They blamed it on the small kitchen at that branch.
With an approving nod form most friends, it was the Food Scouts turn to try out the place.
I went with friends to the newly opened branch in F. Torres. It's beside Yahong Restaurant, the same compound with Coffee Cat Coffee Shop and Nonki Japanese Restaurant.
Despite being a new branch, the place doesn't actually look new.
We ordered the Chicken Biryana, Baby Back Ribs, and Pan-fried Bangus (Milk fish). These were the best-sellers according to the waiter that served us.
All the food scouts loved the chicken biryani. It was well seasoned with just the right balance of curry flavor. The food scouts chose this as the best dish among the 3.
They didn't use Basmati rice though. They used a sticky variety (probably our very own local rice) which caused some of the grains to stick together. This can be a major turn off for real Biryani eaters.
The paratha or more like a cracker really was a bit salty. Surprisingly though, it had a lot of Indian spices on it which can be hard to find here in Davao. It appears that this may have been home-made and not store-bought - a definite plus! Just go lightly on the salt next time. And I would have loved for the chicken to be in bite-size pieces and preferably boneless. (^o^)/
PAN-FRIED BANGUS
The food scouts agreed that it was nothing extraordinary. It was plain, something you can cook by yourself at home.
I loved this the most as I'm not a fish eater and yet I was able to eat a lot of it. But yes, it wasn't anything special.
The general consensus was that we've tasted better.
The problem with serving Baby Back Ribs is in making sure that the meat is super tender. I would rate this one as tender but not tender enough. The sauce was also lighter than most BBQ sauces. Regardless, it was still delicious.
It took a whole hour before our orders were served! I guess this branch also has a small kitchen. Or it might just have been due to the bigger group that came ahead of us. Management should figure out a way to solve this problem.
One friend also shared her stories of ordering food at their Matina branch only to be told by the servers that it would take an hour before their food would be served because they still had to go to the wet market! This almost sounded very unreal - a definite blooper for people in the food industry.
To save time, try calling and ordering ahead of time. If this doesn't work, I don't know what would. And I guess it would only be days before this restaurant also runs out of business as well. tsk tsk tsk ...
Trellis 'n Vines Restaurant
F. Torres St., Davao City
+63-82-2215566
+63-82-2867694
+63-82-2867694
I have never found baby back ribs i didn't like! i just love them...
ReplyDeletehahaha ^^ they must have all been extra tender ^^ this one was around 250 pesos I think. ^^
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