I only get rare opportunities to mingle with my high school classmates because most of us are scattered to different schools, a valuable number in Manila, and we all have different schedules. But as usual, whenever the Manila friends are around, someone would organize a reunion. This particular gathering was special to me because it would be the last time we all see each other for summer and we were going to dine in one of the places on my list of Cebu's Secret Dining Spots. Thanks to Steven Ling!
I was just so excited! I have been dying to dine here and now was finally my chance. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to bring my camera but credits to my classmates for helping me document all the amazingly tasty dishes we had.
This quaint little white house called Simply J's is along the Escario road, beside Diamond Suites and Residences. It is near Parklane International Hotel. I heard of this little restaurant even before they had put up their signage. So my classmates and I headed here for dinner. I just love the concept of the place, ornamented with novelty and antique items all for sale. It really is just a tiny place, with a seating capacity of 30-35 people. Therefore, reservation is a must. Quite an intimate, cozy place.
The specialties here are Osso Bucco, Grilled Pork Ribs and Kalderetang Kanding. I decided to have the ribs because I wanted to compare it to Casa Verde's (don't we all when it comes to ribs? Casa Verde has now become the mode of standard for grilled pork ribs.) and my own recipe (ehem!). We all ordered different items from the menu to have a little taste of what they offered. The menu was considerably extensive for the accommodating capacity of the restaurant.
Though there was only one server, our orders did not take long to be served which amazed me because it was quite a busy night. The restaurant was fully reserved and the turnover of customers was also considerably quick.
Though there was only one server, our orders did not take long to be served which amazed me because it was quite a busy night. The restaurant was fully reserved and the turnover of customers was also considerably quick.
Here are sneak peeks of some of the dishes we had:
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| Cream Dory Salsa: pan-fried cream dory fillet with tomato cucumber salsa |
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| Osso Bucco @ 200 php |
All the pics were taken by phone only and we didn't really take much pictures of this night for some reason. I wasn't able to take a photo of my ribs as well! Sorry. :(
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| from left: Tiffany, Hennessy, Nikki |
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| Tifaine and Kiara |
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| my plate says it all :) |
Overall, I would rate the food a perfect 10 for value and quality. I enjoyed every dish we had. The osso bucco was tender, my ribs with the honey mustard sauce was delightful to the bones, even our appetizer of chicken fingers w/ bbq sauce was tender and the fish! Oh, the fish was just lovely. Crisp on the outside and the meat was juicy and tender. The salsa melded perfectly. Their bolognese pasta was good too. My ribs pleased my standard for sauce consistency. It was not too thick, tangy and sweet but not too sweet and the meat just fell off the bones.
Price range: 130-200 php
Photos by Edsel Tan and Liezl Jao. Thank you so much! :)
