Location: Ground Floor, Butterfly Garden, Resort Drive, Newport City, Pasay City, Metro Manila, Philippines
When we crave for “inihaw1”, one place that definitely comes to mind is Gerry’s Grill!
Its first restaurant opened on February 14, 1997 at Tomas Morato in Quezon City. After 21 years, it currently has 95 branches nationwide: 2 in Cagayan Valley, 12 in CALABARZON2, 15 in Central Luzon, 5 in Central Visayas, 3 in Eastern Visayas, 11 in Mindanao, 37 in NCR, 5 in North Luzon, 2 in South Luzon, and 3 in Western Visayas. It also has 6 branches overseas (3 in the USA, 2 in Singapore and 1 in Qatar).3
This family-casual dining restaurant offers a wide array of Filipino dishes: appetizers, soups, char-grilled items, sizzling selections, seafood, chicken, pork, beef, rice, vegetables, kinilaw4, merienda5 treats, desserts, shakes, juices, soft drinks, hot drinks, cold drinks, and alcoholic drinks.
It has been decades since we last ate at the original Tomas Morato branch but we were recently in the Newport area and opted to have lunch there.
This Newport City branch is open daily, from 10AM till 12 midnight. It offers airconditioned dining as well as outdoor seating. The latter would be ideal for unwinding after work with cocktails or other alcoholic drinks, accompanied by appetizers or char-grilled orders.
We arrived half past noon. It was very hot outdoors, so the place was packed; but we found a table at one corner indoors. Parking was a problem, though.
I liked the large menu card which really entices customers to order since the colored pictures are so good to look at! Here are the pictures:
Soups and Kilaw, Gerry’s Restaurant & Bar, Newport City
Appetizers, Gerry’s Restaurant & Bar, Newport City
Other Appetizers, Gerry’s Restaurant & Bar, Newport City
Vegetables, Gerry’s Restaurant & Bar, Newport City
Pork and Beef Dishes, Gerry’s Restaurant & Bar, Newport City
Chicken Dishes, Gerry’s Restaurant & Bar, Newport City
Other Chicken Dishes, Gerry’s Restaurant & Bar, Newport City
Char-Grilled Dishes, Gerry’s Restaurant & Bar, Newport City
Sizzling Treats, Gerry’s Restaurant & Bar, Newport City
Sizzling Selections, Gerry’s Restaurant & Bar, Newport City
Other Sizzling Dishes, Gerry’s Restaurant & Bar, Newport City
Seafood and Rice, Gerry’s Restaurant & Bar, Newport City
Seafood and Rice Dishes, Gerry’s Restaurant & Bar, Newport City
Merienda Selection, Gerry’s Restaurant & Bar, Newport City
Desserts, Gerry’s Restaurant & Bar, Newport City
Non-Alcoholic Drinks, Gerry’s Restaurant & Bar, Newport City
Alcoholic Drinks, Gerry’s Restaurant & Bar, Newport City
Fresh Fruit Drinks, Gerry’s Restaurant & Bar, Newport City
Summer Treats 2018, Gerry’s Restaurant & Bar, Newport City
After a weekend stay in a resort with buffet meals, we decided to stay away from pork dishes. We finally agreed and ordered the following:
The Sinigang na Boneless Bangus6 was served hot but was not sour enough. However, this was good for the kid with us.
The Sizzling Kangkong7 a la Pobre was served on a sizzling plate but was not sizzling at all. We were disappointed because it was watery, lacked the expected garlic taste, and was mostly stalks, instead of leaves.
The Inihaw na Pusit8 was the winner for this visit! It was grilled just right and one order could be shared.
The Inihaw na Manok is a half-chicken order that is char-grilled and could be shared as well. However, it was too dry and lacked the anticipated marinated taste.
The Special Binagoongang Rice9 was good and perfect with the grilled items we ordered.
The watermelon shake was refreshing and not too sweet.
The fresh buko10 juice was served chilled, with a straw, and still in the buko shell. (Note to balikbayans who miss this drink: one could not get it any fresher!) We requested the bukos to be opened after sipping the juice. The buko meat was thin and easily scooped with a spoon.
Waiting time for orders was about 20-25 minutes. Service was slow, the waitstaff was not attentive, and getting the bill and change took some time too. My observation: It was almost 2PM but the restaurant was still full. Business is good! Unfortunately, service suffers.
Contact details: (02) 332-1111. Visit its official website –www.gerrysgrill.com, Facebook account – gerrysgrill.com.ph, and Instagram – @gerrysrestaurant
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I hope these footnotes will be appreciated by foreign viewers of this blog who are not familiar with local terms:
1Inihaw is the Filipino term for grilled, roasted, barbecued, or broiled.
2CALABARZON, or Region IV-A, is a Philippine region located in the island group of Luzon, with Calamba as its regional center. CALABARZON is an acronym for this region’s five provinces: CAvite, LAguna, BAtangas, Rizal, QueZON.
4Kinilaw is the Filipino term for a raw native Filipino dish, similar to ceviche. It literally means “eaten raw”. The fresh cubed fish/seafood, or lightly grilled and chopped meat, is mixed primarily with vinegar, plus a souring agent (usually calamansi or dayap), and flavored with salt and black pepper, ginger, onions, and chilis.
5Merienda is the Filipino term for morning or afternoon snack.
6Bangus, or milkfish, is the national fish of the Philippines. Filipinos usually prefer it prepared “boneless” because its numerous pin bones would otherwise make eating it a bit difficult.
7Kangkong is a semiaquatic, tropical vegetable-plant, grown for its leaves and tender shoots, according to the Wikipedia page, “Ipomoea aquatica”.10 It is also known as swamp cabbage, Chinese convolvulus/spinach/watercress, water morning glory, and river/water spinach. It is a popular vegetable in Filipino cuisine, used in a variety of dishes like sinigang and adobo.
8Pusit is the Filipino term for squid, usually cooked as adobo or grilled.
9Binagoongang Rice is a Filipino version of fried rice made with sautéed shrimp paste (called bagoong) and thin slices of raw-ripe mangoes.
10Buko is the Filipino term for young coconut harvested for its sweet and refreshing juice/water and thin, easy to scoop, meat.
10“Ipomoeaaquatica,” accessed April 20, 2018, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ipomoea_aquatica
