September 18, 2014

Weekend Getaway: Baguio City Eats - Ketchup Community

The last time me and Viel was in Baguio was exactly 10 years ago. We were constantly being invited by friends and had several plans to go up there before, but the travel time was too long and it would eat at least 1- 1 ½ days of our vacation (which we couldn’t afford because we only take 2-3 days off from work quarterly). That’s the reason that for the past years we opted to go to other places which are easily reachable by airplane instead. I mean for example, going to Coron or Puerto Princesa by plane will only take 45 minutess to an hour, while going to Laiya Batangas takes a good 3-4 hours (by land). And before, going up to Baguio would take 6-8 hours!




Not until recently that we found out that another highway, the Tarlac-Pangasinan-La Union Expressway (TPLEX), is now operational and that it would make the travel time to Baguio cut in half. One of our married friends who recently bought an SUV invited us to go on a road trip so that they can break-in their new wheels and it was Labor Day Weekend (in the U.S., which is the holiday we follow in our line of work); the timing couldn’t be more perfect so I decided to join them.

There were 6 of us on this trip and most of us, it was a long long time since we went to Baguio. Some of us was there when they were still kids, so Viel and I weren’t the title holders for the one-who-hasn’t-been-to-Baguio-in-decades. And was pretty cool to be back in back and enjoy the super cold weather of the City of Pines.

On our last day in Baguio, we decided to visit Ketchup Food Community for our brunch. It was a recommendation from one of my  officemates who hails from Baguio City and he said that we should try Canto Restaurant for their sought after ribs.




Ketchup Food Community is a compound along Romulo Drive near Wright Park, The Mansion and Botanical Garden. It is a community because inside the compound are 5 homegrown and Baguio-based restaurants, namely: Happy Tummy, Canto, Rancho Norte, Rumah Sate and Green Pepper. Each food establishment have their own unique flavors, ambiance and architecture giving customers a different outdoor dining experience nestled amidst the towering and abundant pine trees in this part of Baguio City.




Happy Tummy serves mainly Thai food.



Rumah Sate serves Indonesian and Malaysian dishes.



Green Pepper serves continental/western food like pasta, salad, steak and sandwiches.



Canto is the most popular among the 5 restaurants because of its generous and affordable Pork BBQ ribs.



Rancho Norte serves Filipino comfort food.



It says in the Ketchup Food Community’s Facebook page that the restaurants open at 10:00am so when we were on our way there we were confident that we’ll get to try the ribs from Canto. But when we got there almost all the restaurants were still closed except for Rancho Norte; Canto, Happy Tummy and Rumah Sate told us they will open at 12:00nn. We were too hungry to wait for more than an hour so we settled with Rancho Norte.




Looking at Rancho Norte’s menu, no dish was new to us except for the tapa ng kabayo, tapa ng usa, and tapang baboy damo, which for sure, all of us will agree that we won’t order it. So we ordered what we would usually eat in Pinoy restaurants like this.




All was good but nothing was exceptional. I love the Binagoongan  because bagnet was used for it and the avocado shake.


Pork Binagoongan

Bulalo

Sisig

Sizzling Squid

Avocado Shake

to call the service crew ring the bell! hahaha!


The service was kinda slow, even if you ring the bell, that the crew put on our table to get their attention. People were already pouring in but there were only two of them manning all the tables.

Eventhough our craving for the Canto’s ribs was not satisfied, overall we enjoyed our lunch and left Ketchup Food Community with super full tummies and happy pockets because the prices of the dishes at Rancho Norte were very affordable.


Ketchup Food Community
Romulo Drive, Barangay Lualhati (Near Wright Park), 
Baguio City, Benguet, Philippines


Baguio Travel Diary Series:
Baguio City Eats: Café By The Ruins - A Place for Friendship and Fresh Food
Baguio City Eats: Choco-late de Batirol - Reviving Traditions


For more information and restaurant reviews, check out their Zomato profile:


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4 comments:

  1. nice place, hope makapunta kami jan next feb:)

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  2. I love the decor, very successful :-)

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  3. Sayang di man lang ako nadaan dyan nung last vacay ko! Thanks for the review! Will visit this sooooooon :))))) Good food and cheap prize for the gastronomic menu!

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  4. nakakagutom naman.:) I will recommend this place to my cousin who planning to have a 2 days vacation in Baguio this coming December.Im sure magugustuhan nila ito.:) Nice blogging mam Jen. :)

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