A Different Kind of Club

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Friday is always a good time for a barkada night out after a full week focus at work. Together with five officemates in the nearby Laguna Technopark, we traversed the vicinity of Paseo de Sta. Rosa for a closer look on the active construction in the rear site of the place on a cold and humid climate. What we saw is a promise that this place will be in high gear once it will be finished.

It happened while we were searching for a place to dine so we could unwind and relax, trade stories and relieve ourselves from stress. We realized after finally getting our behinds settled in the comfy ambience of Kanin Club, we got more what we bargained for.

Initially we were already convinced by few other friends who already had an experience being delighted by the place boasting its unusual menus and attention grabbing food names such as the Crispy Tenga. Upon circling the entire lot with no restaurant that competed with its attention, we held our breaths and assailed the place like eager beavers finally getting home after being lost in the jungle for days.

Kanin Club located adjacent to Paseo’s atrium is a fine dine that prides itself with classical combining effects of nipa hut window with glass for its tables. Use of wood and varnish is maximized in the chairs that probably extend up to its kitchen interior. It’s uniqueness defines the ambiance which perfectly complements the kind of food being served. The lighting and illumination has also added a different perspective from inside and out.

However, the true test of a good restaurant’s character lies entirely in its food.

The menu is simple and similar to those bakya restaurants with a one page laminated list of all dishes grouped according to its kind such as seafood, veggies and crispy meat. It also presents a list of its specialty, a variety of rice menu cooked in sumptuous fashion. It includes rice cooked plainly, or with garlic for the usual orders but the menu is nicely dashed with Loaded Rice, Aligue Rice, and Chorizo Rice among others, a more fitting description for its name’s derivative.

Stand by waiters donned their own identity with green shade polo of floral prints such as those worn by the late former Senator Raul Roco.

The food arrived in no less than thirty minutes unnoticed since someone already started a joke to fire up the impending evening while another willfully stared at the photographs of the scrapbook I brought. And from the moment the first dish came, the excitement has already begun.

A hot Sinigang soup poured in a white porcelain bowl with vegetables and strips of tadyang ng baka was the first to come. It was billowing steam from its covers and since then, serving bowls were started to fill.

Crispy Tenga ng Baboy and Crispy Pork Binagoongan is not recommended for the high blood people but its appearance and aroma is extremely inviting. Coupled with spices and condiments, a bite or two is good enough to gratify the prohibited craving. For others, the food experience is a pump-up stomach and ultimate bliss.

I ordered Pinakbet, my all time favorite vegetable dish which was introduced to me by my Ilocano mother who have showered me with her delicious cooking while growing up. Kanin Club’s Pinakbet is one of a kind. The taste can be linked to the half-cooked vegetable strips topped with fillet cuts of real crispy pork.

Fried Boneless Bangus and Lumpiang Sariwa, the size of a NFL football cut into half, completed the whole set of meal we ordered.

The overall price shared by everyone is a handful, amounting to almost 250 pesos each. It is not bad for a first time particularly if one is willing to shell out extra stash for the sake of good food.

What probably sets Kanin Club from the rest of Paseo de Sta. Rosa’s collection of fine dine restaurants is that it puts the customer to a different kind of distinct mood. It’s as if you were put in a canister isolated from the rest of the world and presented in a different view. We almost forgot the cold whistling wind and became unaware of the time.