Restaurants

Banawe Bound: Causeway Seafood Restaurant

By Mariko on 30 December, 2007

It’s funny how B and I ended up at a seafood restaurant without actually ordering any seafood. Unless you count the Shark’s Fin? Didn’t think so.

Our first plan was to go to Wok with Liu, which, I was told, was like a Chinese food version of dampa. With raging tummies, we were about to park when we realized that the place had closed down! Hungry as we were, we didn’t want to have to figure out which among the unfamiliar restos would satisfy us, so we ended up at Causeway Seafood Restaurant.

Those in search of hole-in-the-wall, best-kept-secret-type restos might be disappointed with this post. Causeway, after all, is rather mainstream, with a branch in Libis. But it’s a good starting point for those who wish to explore Banawe, yet are quite timid in their food choices: It’s enough to give you Banawe bragging rights, but it’s also a safe enough choice to keep you from sweating bullets about the eats on offer.

 

We started off with the aforementioned Shark’s Fin (P50 for four, but I heard it goes down to P39 after 9:00 p.m.), which, in my opinion, was the highlight of the meal–not because everything else sucked, but because this was Shark’s Fin done right. It was a perfect blend of meat, mushroom, and shrimp, and there wasn’t an excess of siomai wrapper! You know how the wrapper tends to flake off at those cheap siomai stalls, leaving you with half the Shark’s Fin you thought you bought? There was none of that nonsense here!

 

We likewise enjoyed the Spareribs with Tausi, also P50. I daresay that everything on that roving dumpling cart would be just as good.

A food columnist (I forget which one–perhaps Reggie Aspiras?) once wrote that every time she tried a new Chinese resto, she would order the standards: sweet and sour pork, and lemon chicken. If the resto can’t get these two basic dishes right, she reasoned, how can you expect them to do a good job on all the others? I took a page from her rule book and ordered the Fried Chicken with Lemon Sauce (P210 for a small serving–“small” in this case is enough to feed three). If this was any indication of everything else on their menu, then Causeway would be fairly average. The good part was that the sauce wasn’t cloyingly sweet.

 

We also ordered the Spareribs, which were enough to satisfy our craving for meat, but which weren’t very memorable.

 

 

The Yong-Chow fried rice (P160, small) was likewise pretty average. I would’ve liked to order the Peking Duck (served two ways, P650 for half) but we were just too full–we still had a lot left over.

 

 

What B looked forward to ordering the most was the Tsing Tao Beer (P100), a slightly sweeter take on regular beer. I’m not big on the beer, so I couldn’t really tell. It all tastes the same to me! But I’ll take his word for it.

 

I was surprised that our bill added up to over P800–I expected Banawe eating to cost us much less, but Causeway is supposedly one of the higher-end restos in the area. I think you could get the same stuff for much less elsewhere. But to be fair, we probably ordered enough for three, even four (don’t believe the menu when it says “small”!). If you do decide to drop by this place, maybe it’d be a good idea to keep the dumpling cart parked beside your table.

Causeway Seafood Restaurant
883 Banaue Street cor. Del Monte
Quezon City
Telephone: (02) 410 8690, (02) 740 8787

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  • DECEMBER 30, 2007 5:40 PM

    docchef said...

    yup it was reggie aspiras in her column in PDI

  • JANUARY 2, 2008 3:19 AM

    Travelers Atlas said...

    I looove Causeway!!!! I usually go to the one in Libis. And I love that it closes super late. So my badminton grp and I usually head off there after a night of badminton. Our fave items to order are: hakao, beef hofun, and sizzling sweet and sour fish. They also have the best mango sago of all the Chinese restos I've tried. And sometimes, they even give it to us for free, since we're such regulars :)

  • JANUARY 2, 2008 4:48 AM

    Mariko said...

    It's strange, a lot of my friends seem to love it, though I wasn't really impressed. I guess we ordered the wrong things. Or maybe the branch in Libis is better?

  • JANUARY 2, 2008 7:52 AM

    anonymous paul said...

    the taro duck's quite good if you're into greasy stuff. although it's just another chinese restaurant for me... maybe it was the surroundings that made it feel more "authentic". but some of my favorite chinese restos in manila are Shechuan House on roxas and Hong Kong Spring Deer on Timog Ave... the latter looking like it needs an inspection by the city health department but i swear its a great place.

  • JANUARY 3, 2008 11:43 AM

    Amelio ES said...

    You won't really love Causeway till you tried enough on their menu. That food columnist isn't Chinese and don't know Chinese food. Lemon Chicken and Sweet and Sour Pork are not high on my selection. Try the Garoupa in corn sauce and other seafood. You can't really get good value for money when there's just the three of you. Besides, I would not order Tsing Tao when I can just buy it from a corner grocery at the same price as San Miguel. We usually in dine in a group of 10 or more and that really drives the prices down. A 5-course lauriat dinner can go as low as 200 per person.

  • JANUARY 3, 2008 9:46 PM

    cathy b said...

    Fried food (lemon chicken, spareribs) is not a good measure of Chinese Food. Chinese Food did not get its "name" with its fried food - there's more to that so I don't think it's just right to use the two dishes to gauge how good a restaurant is.

    Re: Shark's Fin, I am quite surprised that you are okay to find everything except errr. Shark's Fin? I always feel cheated when they say they give me Shark's Fin when there's none of it. Why should it be called and priced as Shark's Fin when it is just plain old Siomai?

  • JANUARY 4, 2008 12:32 PM

    Mariko said...

    Hmmm, Chinese isn't exactly my favorite cuisine, so perhaps that's another reason the whole Causeway trip wasn't spectacular.

    Anonymous Paul, the "inspection by the city health department" bit seems like a common theme among good Chinese restos I've heard about! Haha.

    Isn't Shark's Fin called Shark's Fin because of the shape?

  • JANUARY 7, 2008 3:32 PM

    cathy b said...

    No! It's shark's fin because it was supposed to have shark's fin :)It's like scallop siomai..where I did recall a one time where there's a whole scallop lying on top.

  • JANUARY 8, 2008 10:16 PM

    wysgal said...

    Tsingtao Beer in a Chinese restaurant in Manila? That's awesome.

  • SEPTEMBER 2, 2008 7:20 AM

    Anonymous said...

    ..."inspection by the city health department"...i very much agree with that..we usualy love to eat..we've been there for a food trip..but i swear and vowed not to come back anymore..from the rolling push cart my husband ordered spare ribs with tausi-taste good for meat lovers..and me ordered a seafood siomai-look good coz its size is really different from an ordinary siomai i used to..the whole shrimp in it is really visible..but gosshh when i took it near in front of me to start eating.. it has an strange toppings..gwarrkk (maybe u already picture what is it). For our Food Trip not to be ruined, we just inform it to one of their personnel..our other orders arrived and we start eating..almost forgot the "strange siomai toppings"..one waiter slowly and trying to be unobvios..go near our table and tap his feet near under our table..and walk away.Out of curiosity i eyed on his feet and saw what the thing he stepped in and carried under his shoes away..and gosh again..maybe its the mother of the "strange siomai toppings"..we're almost done with the food-half fried chicken,seafood pancit,seafood veggie(looks like their version of chopsuey)- when i noticed that the sister of "strange siomai toppings" was part of the ingredients of the seafood veggie..we ended up having "3POINTS" as what my husband expressed the thing to them..could u blame me on my vowed not to tried Causeway Banawe again..?? Good thing we have a strong immune system..

  • FEBRUARY 4, 2010 9:47 AM

    Anonymous said...

    causeway in libis is still at the top of our favorite chinese restaurants. we love the peking duck, salt and pepper spare ribs! (the best!) sweet and sour fish fillet, pata tim, beef tenderloin.. and almost all of their dimsum (seafood roll, kutchay, tofu, chicken feet, HAKAW!)