Wife and I had dinner at Assad Cafe on a whim today, after I remembered a friend raving about ‘a great Indian resto front of Unilever’.
Google Map below. There are no markings on it at the moment so play with the map and you’ll get the general area.
It’s your typical working man’s restaurant, and as such isn’t much to look at. Inside isn’t anything to write home about either, with a tired and ‘Needs a new paint job’ look going.
The menus don’t help a whole lot either, with a distinct ‘seen better days’ look.
They also have a Chinese menu, but we were here for the Indian food so we ignored it. Am posting here anyways:
The place was fairly clean, and didn’t smell of anything weird, which is important.
What’s really important of course is the eating, which we got right down to after a few minutes wait for our orders, consisting of Mutton Curry With Chapati (P165) for Jill:
and Chicken Butter with rice (P134) for me.
The waiter mentioned three levels of heat, namely None, Medium and Fire Alarms (or something like that). Not knowing what to expect we ordered ours at Medium.
The verdict?
The warm Chapati that came with the Mutton is soft, chewy and delicious in itself, perfect for dipping into the meaty goo or wrapping meat with and quickly shoving into your mouth to avoid dripping any on your shirt.
The Mutton was also good, with soft, tasty meat easily slipping off the bone – always a good sign of well cooked and prepared meat. There was no usual gamy taste of goat and could easily be mistaken for a more sinewy pork or softer beef. Meat portions didn’t seem to be cut the same with small pieces of bone coming off, but it was fine. Jill loved it more than I did. I give it a 8 out of 10.
My Chicken Butter seems mistakenly named at first because there’s no trace of any type of buttery taste whatsoever, but keep in mind I am an Indian food novice so it’s quite likely I do not know what the hell I’m talking about. It’s chicken breast mostly, but not any type I’ve ever tried. I never understood why people liked chicken breast, I always considered it stringy, dry and tasteless, and prefer other cuts like the fattier thighs instead.
This however, is perfect. In fact, I am ready to pronounce this the best chicken breast meal I have ever eaten. It’s still stringy and dry, but the sauce makes up for that, plus the spicy taste makes it absolutely great. I will mince no words here. We gobbled up our meals in ten minutes, and didn’t waste any time with conversation in between. It was one of those times when you eat something great and totally don’t realize how hungry you were. It was divine, and am giving it a strong 9 out of 10.
Other Stuff You Might Wanna Know
I mentioned ‘working man’s restaurant’ earlier and I meant every word. Strictly an ‘eat and go back to work’ place, it caters to the large Indian population in the Paco, Manila and Unilever area, with similar establishments like an Indian grocery right beside it.
It sells a lot of interesting stuff, not the least of which are goblets with little swastikas.
Jill bought a sweet from it the name of which she forgot. It was recommended by the storekeeper after she asked her what amongst the food there was her favorite. It’s sugary and tastes exactly like Yema.
Overall we spent P316.00, a perfectly reasonable sum for the excellent (and I seldom use that word) meal we had. You won’t be able to tell that from their receipt however, which lists different items but had the same total nonetheless. We didn’t order anything ‘vegetarian’.
Chances we’ll go back there is 100%. I’d very much like to try a beef or fish dish, and some vegetables. In other words, everything. Go check it out.