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Dining | Dencios - Tomas Morato


It's always a delight to eat at Dencio's.  I have brought my family here countless times and finally this time around, I was able to make a review of their place.

This branch of Dencio's can be found along Tomas Morato.  They are bunched together with Pancake House so you will not be able to miss this when you drive by Tomas Morato going to ABS CBN.  We came here on a Sunday early evening and it was a long weekend so there was not much people eating at their restaurant.

What lacked in diners were replaced by drinkers, oh woe is me.  We sat down in a table which there was another table beside us that had a big group of male drinkers.  It was evident they were having a reunion of sorts as they kept on babbling about their high school exploits.  Of course they had beer and they were already shouting at each other.  Add more to this, someone in the same group had an idea of playing (loudly) Randy Santiago songs (on his mobile phone) to complete their reminiscence of the past youth.  I guess they were regulars to Dencio's as the manager even offered to plug the phone to their sound system.  Imagine, a quiet Sunday evening gone rogue.  We were seated outside (smoking area) and I see some families moving inside the restaurant to escape the loud group.  We had our food on the table so we were stuck with their time loop.

We were also young once so we let these group's antics slide.  I was hoping they would play April Boy Regino songs so I can have that reason to go wild at them, but they didn't.

Now going to the dishes.  We ordered the Sizzling Bistek Php365, the Calamares Php209 and two cups of rice for Php88.  Usually my articles would delve into the dishes themselves, but let me hold that thought.  Fast forward to the end of dinner.  The attendant or server (whatever you call waiters now), asked us a very peculiar question - "was the bistek too salty?"  I then had that quizzed look on my face.  Why would they ask if it was?  The question should have been, "How was your Bistek Sir?".  Somehow I got the idea that most of the diners thought it was salty and they were merely confirming already if it was so.

Honestly, yes the Bistek was salty.  I love salty foods and yes, this is too much salt for my taste.  I hope they make changes to the preparation for this dish as this is one of my favorites.  As per their description of this dish - "crisp tender beef slices...." I wondered how a tender beef slice would be crispy.  As it was drenched in sauces, this adds to my confusion.  Beef was a bit rubbery, I think it was cooked too long and having too much salt flavour didn't help.

The Calamares was great in taste I can assure you.  A bit greasy yes, maybe just a few more minutes over kitchen napkins will make it less greasy I think.  Hey, its fried so it should have at least a minimum amount of grease in it.  If they serve you crispy and dry calamares, it would be cold already.  I like them hot and having a bit of grease and slight crispiness I can forgive already.  This dish saved the bistek snafu.

Overall dining experience, dining in Dencios Tomas Morato is I surmise a good one indeed (I discounted the loud group).   The ambiance is great for the price point, and there's a lot of parking at the back.  Just pray that you don't have table of people having their annual reunion of sorts.

For more information on Dencio's, better visit them at their facebook page here.