by Ruth Suson
I was at Tea Rock at UP Town Center the other day at lunchtime, for my officemate’s going-away lunch get-together (also called the “despedida”). It was my first time at Tea Rock, and I was excited to try it out!
The ambiance of the place was nice; decorated in blues, it felt cool, clean, and pleasant. I found it curious that a place named “Tea Rock”, obviously somewhere to get milk teas and such, also served quite a variety of lunch meals.
My order: a Jumbo Chicken Steak bento meal with a Cheese and Rock Salt Wintermelon milk tea.
I loved that every bento meal gave the customer an instant 20-peso-off the drink!
The first course to arrive was the soup! It was squash soup, served with every bento meal. It was very light with the bright particles floating about in the liquid. It was of a thin consistency, mildly flavored, and as with most soups, best taken hot.
Next came the bento meal. Smack in the center was a red sauce for the chicken, which was considerately cut into strips for quick eating. In the upper left corner was coleslaw, and the lower left pocket held a deliciously tasty vegetable side dish. The chicken itself was simply huge and crisply covered; it held the upper right corner. Below this was the rice, although the menu offered a choice of noodles soup. On the rice sat half a boiled egg.
I loved all the side dishes! The rice was cooked well, too. In my opinion, the chicken was not amazing, but cooked crisply and tastily enough to not be tiresome. It went perfect with the veggie side dish and the red sauce.
Also, there was way too much of it. (Although a guy might complain that there was too little rice!) But waste not! I had the excess chicken wrapped to go by the very accommodating staff.
I had taken the Cheese and Sea Salt Wintermelon tea on recommendation by a friend. I also thought I would like it, as I always get the Rock Salt and Cheese Green Tea drink at Happy Lemon.
In Tea Rock, the wintermelon taste dominated the tea; an overall sense of a slight extra saltiness and the creaminess of the tea gave away the presence of the salt and cheese. It was lightly creamy but still thick enough to give a sense of richness to the taste, which I enjoyed.
Overall, with the helpful staff and the company of friends, Php250 wasn’t bad to pay for a very nice experience.
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