On the edge of looking for one excellent place to spend valentines day at, I came across a blog about a new softly launched homey fine dining restaurant,Chef Tatung's place. It was a fine tuesday evening, after receiving blessings from some good hearted people, I decided to take my husband to a fine dining experience right at the heart of Quezon City. As I texted the man himself for a reservation, he urgently texted back directions and the start time for dinner. More awed and amazed by his well-mannered reply, I was even more drawn to trying his cuisine.
At half past seven o'clock, we arrived 30-minutes earlier than our reservation. The place was half filled with dining couples, the wonderful music and the warmly lit house greeted our entrance to the reception area. I ringed the hanging door bell that clearly depicts ancient ways of letting yourself recognized by the host of the house. The house was fenced by white colored wall with a blue gate, with # 17 clearly depicted at its midst. As we entered the house we were welcomed by 2 uniformed waiter, and was asked if we want to dine inside or outside the house. We preferred al fresco dining hence we headed outside. As we chose a round table for 2, we started taking pictures of interesting things we saw at Chef Tatungs.
Picture on the left showed "budding eggplant" one of the organically grown vegetables that Chef Tatung use in all his cuisine. I am not using an SLR so I had to bear with the kind digital camera my father lent me. Picture on the right, is the "örnamented wall" being a non sectarian Buddhist himself, Chef Tatung keep his place vividly screaming that it is a place of substance. Paintings are all from Italy and India. It was an interesting wall. (My apologies for the blurred and the reflection on the painting I am so poor at this.)
The bread: As Chef said, if there is something that people craves for in this place, its the bread. Its to die for. Its freshly off the pugon (that by the way is smoke free). The bread will be served very hot (just like your good old pandesal) with thick crunchy crust yet with a very soft central core! Mouth watering as it is we cannot help ourselves but to ask for a second round. This by the way was served with a balsamic vinegar just like the ones we see at Italianni's.
There came our main course,,,ooops we actually missed taking pictures of the soup that is made up of well blended zucchini with basil leaves. It was a little salty but i think french cuisine are cooked like this cause they are not fond of using msg but uses NaCl and salted butter a lot. The salad by the way is made of iced lettuce with black olives and cherry tomatoes blended with strawberry vinaigrette, yummy. On with this main course, my husband ordered the steak (well done) with garlic and mashed potato that even without the gravy tasted really awesome!Let us not forget the steamed beans.
Now its my turn, Chicken on red sauced pasta. At first I thought it was just your ordinary red pasta,think again. When I took my first bite, the chicken was cooked with mozarella cheese flavoured with basil leaves! The taste was splendid! Pasta cooked al dente, red sauce has the luscious misture of spices that I myself cannot decipher whether it was marjoram or basil or what not. It was fantastic.
We also ordered a'la carte of the shrimp pasta that tasted like soysauce and some chinese herbs. This one was not so spectacular, but I was so happy with the generous number of shrimp that was on the dish.
He is Chef Tatung, (not his real name) was a local born, who had his education abroad. Though short of completing an entire course in culinary, he finished courses in countries like the United States and Italy. He was so entertaining, goes from one table to another and asks how's the food treating us. He told us a brief history of the place. Though was only 1 month open, he has 10 or more constant customers that were actually friends of friends of friends. It was never his intention to make this a real means of living but a fulfillment of a dream and that is to do what he love the most "cooking".
Chef Tatung's
17 Matipid St., Quezon City
Reservations only
