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> barHoppinG and pupUnG
Author: aLmich
After a couple of days of turning down good time offers on Thursday and Friday, a strong impulse shoved me out of my Fortress of Solitude last Saturday night. On hitting the centre Z and I popped by San Miguel by the Bay bar strip. A certain group with so hard to understand name was playing to a lovely lively crowd. It seems like every time I go to the place, someone will be playing house music which of course immediately catches my attention hence the existence of any live group. Elektro was played, as well as the rest of my BED playlist, well, it’s always good for a drink or two.
Next, Z suggested that we went to check out the end of the strip which projects movie scenes on their screen. I missed all the films and videos, but caught up with a few people I hadn’t seen in a while. A couple of beers later and I was off to another, where a dude named Chris was having a going-away party.
The bar seems to have it going on: it looks good, the drinks are a bit on the pricey side, but not unreasonably so, the music [at least last night] was pretty danceable house, and there were a fair number of familiar faces there.
A bit of chatting, a couple of beers, too many cigarettes and a cab ride later I was in the far more genuine atmosphere of Malate. The contrast in vibe was kind of stunning in a pleasant way.
I pulled a bit of a whitey after a beer and a few hauls off a spliff and took off. It was around half past three in the morning at this point and I was in no mood to take a night tram back home. So I hung out in O-bar for few beers and a bit of people watching.
Before all these nga pala, we were looking for a new resto to try and so we’ve seen Pupung and Friends accidentally, since I am not so familiar with MOA all I can remember is that this resto is beside an escalator and another new restaurant KKK. Nates and I wanted to try this before but too bad, they were already closed when we both got there. Good thing Z asked me earlier this time.
The Food
We ordered Rib Eye Pork Steak which costs 125.00 including java rice and a glass of ice tea. We also ordered halo-halo.
They also offer, tapa, liempo, longanisa, bangus belly, bbq tuna in sticks, breaded porkchop.
For drinks, they have guinumis [cold drink with coconut milk], halo-halo and buko pandan. They also have green mango ensalada, tinuktuk[?] and laing.
The Cost
An order of a meal would cost around 70-88 pesos, their highest price of food is the pork steak. Drinks costs aroubd 16-25 pesos for soda and ice tea.
Other sidings you could order for 10.00 or 15.00 or 25.00 like laing or pinakbet.
Extra rice cost 12.00 and java rice costs 16.00.
The Ambience
It looks a little crowded and they cannot accommodate all the people coming in so the tendency is to look for another restaurant nearby. Their design is a big tarpaulin on the wall of Pupung and Friends comics, plus they wrap another comics tarpaulin in one of the big posts. They even use it to decorate their lampshape with Pupung and Friends cartoons.
Service
It takes a while for your order to arrive, around 15-20 minutes, but if you ordered breaded porkchop it is readily available, if it needs to be barbequed you have to wait. Though we did not order porkchop, you can see it in their counter that it is already prepared. Maybe it is just their soft opening so they are a little slow.
The concept
Their menu is not new but their concept it, they named their food after the character in the comics, the decoration I think is original. They do not need a lot of advertisement because there is a lot of walk-in clients. They may be familiar with Pupung and Friends and the food is cheap.
Rating
I would give them a rating of 6 out 10, because I like what we ordered, but it is not a candidate for my favorite reataurant. You might just try it but nothing will make you come back, maybe the price or maybe if there is a long line in other resto.
The food is similar with Binalot and other street resto offering tapsi and breakfast meal. Maybe in one year they need to add, french fries, spaghetti, carbonara, and other food and maybe name it Pupung and Friends in Italy or France or America so you can order a burger. Hehehehe.
Oh! and yeah, Nates treated me out last time we were there. After hearing the mass at EDSA Shrine, we went to MOA and had couple of drinks. It was a night worth remembering kse unang libre niya to since he got back. More to come Nates!
