Foodtrip Friday: Sis Rose Seafood Palutuan

Throughout the years, Manila has seen various “dampa/ paluto” restaurants spring throughout the metro, each with their own rendition of fresh seafood recipes. The idea is for guests to choose which seafood catch they want, how they wanted it done (buttered, fried, sinigang, sizzling, etc.) and have these bought by restaurant staff fresh from neighboring markets then cooked immediately after.

Beautiful ferris wheel. P120 per cycle (takes around 30 minutes).

From its original niche in Paranaque, Dampa restaurants has spread to various places in the Metro, including Araneta in QC, Libis and Seaside Boulevard.

Bungee Fun by the bay

Last night, we were able to try a dampa resto in one of Manila’s more recent dampa go-to places, Macapagal Boulevard’s San Mig By the Bay.

This scenic strip fronting SM Mall of Asia is brimming with live music bars, buffet restaurants and paluto restaurants, all offering a fresh view of Manila Bay. A huge ferris wheel, a bungee fun trampoline stage, and a soon-to-open Viking Ride lend an added touch of excitement to the strip.

Live music at Waves Restaurant, just a few steps away from Sis Rose restaurant

After much prodding by the restaurant’s staff, the aunt and the rest of the elders decided to dine in Sis Rose Seafood Pulutan just right beside the Seaside Market.

Sis Rose Palutuan, adjacent to the tiny Seaside Market

I wouldn’t say it was a to-rave-for dining experience, with all the annoying staff from the restaurants jostling us to their respective hubs like peddlers. Service was a bit slow, and it was quite difficult to get hold of waiters even if there were only a few customers around.

Soon to open: Viking ride

Also, the food itself wasn’t too great, considering that they charge exorbitantly for cooking each dish (cooking charges generally start at P300 for a single dish). Guests need to be cautious about these charges, as the menu could be quite misleading and one might be tricked into thinking that the prices indicated per dish includes both the ingredients and the labor already. There is but a negligible sign at the very bottom of the seafood menu that says, “Prices indicated above are only for cooking. Ingredients are bought separately.”

Buttered chicken and butted shrimp.Was that a pack of sugar in there?

While it was a humongous fare, everyone at our table complained how salty and poor the dishes were. The Sinigang na Salmon was too sour and salty at the same time and although the buttered chicken and buttered shrimp had that tinge of butter and garlic, it was overpowered by too much sweetness it seems that they put in half a kilo of sugar in there.

Toasted sizzling sisig, and I don’t mean the usual sizzling burn.

That plate costs P300.

Chopsuey was a bit spicy, nothing too special.

Tanigue steak meat was still quite tough.

We also had Yang chow fried rice, which tasted merely like fried rice with yellow food coloring.

If anything, Sis Rose’s saving grace were the shrimp tempura and calamares , which were both extremely gooood. Also worth mentioning is the salmon sashimi’s freshness.

We were billed around P7,000 for 11 persons, including the bottomless pitchers of iced tea, and a bucket of San Mig Light and Tanduay Ice each. For that price, we expected more, especially that they swore by a money back guarantee should the food turn out bad- which most of them did.

Of course, this is just a marketing pitch. My mother told them about the terrible quality of food but they didn’t even give a discount, except for the 20% discount they offer to all customers to lure them in. They compensate for this 20% discount by billing customers with an obligatory 20% service charge, which wasn’t indicated in the menu either.