Toni's Grill - Pearl Drive, Fairview, Quezon City

"That was a great lunch!" Cynthia said for the umpteenth time as we were driving home. My wife who is an excellent cook herself very seldom reacts this way after a dining out experience. So what was it at Toni's Grill that elicited such praises from my better half?

The food, of course! We had been to this place along Commonwealth several times before inasmuch as it is very close to La Mesa Ecopark - a favorite birding place of ours, but in those occasions we just ordered from their "99'ers" menu. For the price of 99 pesos (about $2) we get a rice plate - unlimited rice with a choice of entrees and bottomless iced tea. The servings are quite small, which is fair enough considering the price but still the dishes are delicious.

This time, however, we opted for the ala carte menu. We had our friend Irene joining us so we ordered three entrees: Crispy Binagoongan, Seafood Medley and Sizzling Bulalo.

First the Binagoongan. Basically it was deep fried pork loin on top of sauteed bagoong (shrimp paste) and boiled eggplant with hot chili pepper on the side. As the name implied, the pork loin was indeed crispy! The sauteed bagoong had just the right fishy flavor in it that boosted the overall taste of the dish.  We all agreed that this merited a 5 star rating.

The seafood medley was super delicious. It had shrimp, squid cutlets and breaded orange roughy cooked with red and green bell peppers, onion, tomato, garlic and bits of black fungus mushroom with soy sauce. The orange roughy definitely does not have any fishy taste at all which, for me, is a big plus. It had that melt-in-your-mouth tenderness. The squid is a bit tough but then that's how squid meat really is. Because of the squid, we gave it only 4.5 out of 5 stars.

The bulalo (meat around a bone with marrow inside) was served sizzling but strangely not painful-to-the-tongue hot. The meat was served with a special gravy, onion rings and mixed vegetables on the side. The beef was tender and juicy and very well done. Without question - 5 stars.

Complementing the delicious food was the excellent service provided by the staff. Ice cold water was served even before we have made any order. The wait for the entrees were not very long - about 15 minutes which was fast considering the kind of dishes we ordered. The waiters were very attentive and courteous.

Overall rating: 5 stars! Did I mention how my wife kept gushing over our dining experience here?

They don't have a website but you can check out important information (address, telephone number, menu) in this website: http://www.clickthecity.com/food-drink/b/NN33222/toni-s-grill-fairview