Big BURP for Php 100 - flat



Dencio's Pares 2: Grilled delights for 100 pesos flat.

After a looooong hiatus, I recently went back to blogging. This time I'm no longer Drama Queen but a happy Ina-Tay. 

On the Davao Bloggers FB page, Ria Jose (Kusina Maria) posted an invitation to the bloggers  to write about our 100-peso Davao gastronomic experience. Hmmm... this sounded like a good practice ground for me given that I've been out of the blogging scene since 2008. Quite frankly, I think I'm now a little rusty. It's Kadayawan  time in Davao so I was confident I would find lots of good material for this topic. Unknowingly, I didn't have to go far...

Last Saturday I was in my I'm-not-in-the-mood-to-cook mode, drained because Leia (again) refused to sleep early the previous night. Mum was also in the same mood as me so she suggested we just call one of the food delivery services. But we couldn't agree what and where to order. After an hour we finally decided to try Dencio's Kamayan right outside the village where we live. I liked the idea because it means I need not drive. I brought my ever-reliable digicam just in case the food was worth blogging about. You see I've been shying away from grill places, especially the ones that offer unli-rice, I had a bad experience with another restaurant (this is near People's Park) when I was pregnant. I ordered their Chicken BBQ combo. After 15 minutes of waiting I asked one of the waiters if he can follow-up my order because the eight-month old baby inside my bulging tummy was already hungry. Lo and behold, it took 30 minutes before my order was served! I was  halfway through the chicken leg when I realized that it was half cooked!!! I was a pregnant woman feasting on a half cooked chicken!!! Think salmonella and listeria! I shared this experience with friends and some of them said that they too were victims of the sssssllllooowwww service and half cooked meals (they didn't order chopsuey by the way).

Dencio's was packed when we got there, mostly by families and group of friends. We found a table and looked at their menu. I saw their Pares 2 - a stick of pork bbq, 1 chicken bbq, soup and unlimited rice - all for Php 100.00! Perfect! All three of us ordered this combo and a pot of steaming hot mixed seafood sinigang. The waiter who took our order said it will take 15-20 minutes. I set my phone's alarm to 15 minutes (I have to check if they can live up to their word). We were pleasantly surprised because we had our meal after 12 minutes! Okay, one point for promptness. I took photos of my plate still unsure how they would score. 

Now the test of the chicken... I was not disappointed!  Moist, juicy and most importantly, cooked all the way through!!! The marinade was just the right balance of sweetness and saltiness and has really infused the meat. Each bite was flavorful and not masked by any sauce which is how I like my bbq to be. Unlike other barbecues in town, theirs was not heavily charred like you're eating charcoal.There was also no foul or gamey smell from the chicken which means they used fresh poultry and marinated it well. Yummy-ness! It was a definite palate pleaser, even Leia enjoyed her share!  

I also have to commend the staff for being attentive. The one in-charge of refilling rice asked me twice if I wanted more. Do I look that big??? I politely refused because really, two cups was more than enough for me. I looked around and the other customers were obviously satisfied with their meal, especially one foreign national who kept on rubbing his full stomach. Each Pares meal comes with a small bowl of chicken broth, two cups of unlimited rice (which was cooked perfectly) and water to flush down the feast.  

We were a bunch of happy campers that night, stuffed to the gills from our first Dencio's Kamayan visit. It was also a productive dining experience because finally, I've gotten over my chicken barbecue horror from two years ago and met the criteria for the 100-peso dining experience that I can share with all of you. BURP!

Click here for a list of Dencio's Kamayan branches and contact numbers. Bon appetit!