Dampa sa Libis Restaurant

I love grocery shopping.  I take my sweet time combing all the aisles and picking out stuff from the shelves.  The market, especially the wet market, is a whole different story.  I'm squirmish about the cleanliness and smelliness of the place.  I've probably been to a wet market about a dozen times only and I admit that I have a lot to learn.  Imagine my lack of enthusiasm when my husband took me to the Dampa sa Libis Restaurant.

I've been to other paluto restaurants but I never went to the market.  I remember staying in the restaurant/dining area and our other companions picked everything out.  There was even this one restaurant that we requested the waiters to do the marketing for us.  

In Dampa Sa Libis, we had no choice but to go to the wet market.  It wasn't as bad or as icky as I thought it would be.  It wasn't that smelly and the seafood we checked out looked fine.  I'm no expert so I can't really vouch for their freshness.

The vendors assisted us and brought us to another weighing area.  The minimum purchase requirement was half a kilo.  Then we paid for the raw prawns and squid at the cashier where we also told them what dishes we wanted.

This huge board with the cooking charges gave us an idea of what we would buy at the wet market.    

We were informed that we could sit anywhere.  We camped out in the airconditioned Oyster Room and hung up our number.  We ordered our drinks and rice from the waiter.  He didn't give us a menu and we just asked him what was available.  We paid for the cooking charges, rice and drinks after we ate.  

We didn't feel like staying in the other dining area with the ceiling fans and a view of the tiangge and cooking stations.  

Looks like this huge group of around 30 people were celebrating a special occasion and over estimated their stomach's capacity.  I snagged some photos of their leftovers that were displayed behind us (see the spread at the top of this post?).  The steamed chinese fish looks promising.  

The Yang Chow Fried Rice was pretty ok but not super special.

We barely touched the Grilled Squid which lacked seasoning.  It still wasn't appealing even after dipping it in some soy sauce.  These 2 pieces of squid weighed in at about 650 grams.

About half a kilo of Prawn Tempura wowed us with around 20 pieces which we gobbled up one after the other.  It tasted good but it was a far cry from the quality of Ebi Tempura at Dads and Sambo Kojin.  A clear case of quantity over quality.  

Our food was prepared by Kusina ni Manang and China Gate but I forgot who did what.  The waiters normally line up the orders at the least busy cooking station unless the customers request for a specific one.

This adventure was definitely worth every penny.  Although the food was so so, the experience and the thrilled look on my husband's face made it enjoyable.  Total damage was around P870 and we took home most of the squid, a few pieces of the prawns and some of the rice.  

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Dampa sa Libis Restaurant  

107 E. Rodriguez Jr. Ave.

Libis, Quezon City