Kubiertos

I was intrigued by this place when I first chanced upon it. It had tall glass doors and white interiors. It exuded an aura of a fine dining establishment that it is no surprise I have not had a chance to try it until now.

An officemate suggested the place because our first choice to go to for lunch was unfortunately packed during that day. I was excited partly because I have never been to the place and partly because it was late and we hadn’t eaten yet. When I heard though that it served Thai food, my enthusiasm toned down. You see I am really not a fan of curry or spicy food and we all know Thai is abundant in those types of dishes.

We were hoping to get seats even without making reservations and just planned to look for another place if we were turned away. Since it was past rush hour lunchtime, the place had lots of space to accommodate our party of eight.

One very distinct feature of the place is the appearance of cleanliness. Everything was bright and white, with high ceilings and bare walls. It projected minimalist chic that would at any other time intimidate me. The servers were friendly. We sat down and felt at best “served”. It had been a long time since someone else laid my napkin on my lap.

The prices of the dishes though were indeed expensive. But that was what I expected with my first step inside the restaurant. I was wishing I would find a dish that would be compatible with my taste buds. We ordered “family style” so that we could get a taste of a bit of everything.

We ordered spring rolls, crispy catfish, pandan chicken, chicken and cashew, lapu-lapu fillet, pad thai, and tom yum goong accompanied with plain rice.

I perused the drinks list to see if I could try something new. Then I saw it - People’s Palace Iced Tea. I figured any dish or drink that had the restaurant’s name in it would be a specialty. The iced tea came in a tall glass filled with crushed ice. It was refreshing. However, I did not find any distinguishable taste that would make me remember it to be a specialty of People’s Palace. It was cool though how they served unlimited rice placed in silver bowls (wowza!).

Personally, the dishes were ok. Just that ok. Maybe its because Thai food doesn’t rock me. But I would like to share a surprising experience with the People’s Palace spring rolls.

I love eating what we call locally as lumpiang shanghai. This would be a pork mixture that would be covered in rice wrapper and deep fried. This is usually dipped in banana ketchup and eaten with tons of rice.

Spring rolls appear similar to lumpiang shanghai but its ingredients and taste is different. The spring rolls that I have tasted in chinese restaurants and other thai restaurants left me permanenty staying away from them. These rolls tasted too veggie for me.

I tried out People’s Palace’s spring rolls through the insistent prodding of my officemate. She swears by their goodness and I felt I could at least give it a chance. And there came the surprise. The spring rolls were packed with a mixture that I was sure had a lot of vegetables in it. The roll was so packed that you could hardly taste the wrapper after you’ve taken a bite unlike most where the wrapper cracks and leaves crumbs all around you. I couldn’t get enough of it and the two rolls I had did not satisfy my hunger for it.

If there is one thing I will come back for it would definitely be the spring rolls. I have reformed my opinion of them and am looking forward to future encounters.

Oh and did I mention they have the cleanest comfort room I have ever been in? That alone gives them the thumbs up for me.

People’s Palace
Ground Floor, Garden side Greenbelt 3 Ayala Centre
Makati, Metro Manila
Philippines

Tel: (632) 729-2888
Fax: (632) 728-4812

Operating hours:
Lunch 11:00am to 2:00pm
Dinner 6:00pm to 11:00pm
(except on Friday & Saturday 6:00pm to 12mn)

Open all day on Saturday & Sunday

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This entry was posted on Saturday, August 4th, 2007 at 9:31 pm and is filed under People's Palace, Thai . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.