Pinoy Food & Other Cuisine :: Food PhotoBlog and Events |

Eating, for me, is a social event, and what makes a dining experience particularly memorable is when you can share your food with your friends, family, your lover, or whoever it is you’re eating with. For this reason, I prefer eating at restaurants that have huge servings. The only problem is that most of these restaurants have really pricey menus – but not Bigby’s Cafe and Restaurant at SM Megamall Atrium.

Bigby’s reminds me of T.G.I. Friday’s in so many ways – the souvenir kitsch on the walls, the worldly menu, and the overall friendly atmosphere of the place. Unlike Friday’s, however, Bigby’s is proudly homegrown. An enterprising young couple named Herick Yu and Joanna Yu opened the very first Bigby’s at Cagayan de Oro in 1998, a year when people began to shy away from fine dining and preferred restaurants that served big meals at affordable prices. The restaurant was a hit among the locals not only because of their generous portions; Bigby’s is a family-friendly place that hosted a lot of reunions and parties. Despite the Asian financial crisis, Bigby’s continued to expand – they eventually opened two more branches in Cagayan de Oro, two branches in Bacolod City, two braches in Davao City, and two branches in Cebu City. And right before the end of 2008, Bigby’s came to Luzon and opened in Manila.

Last week, we got to try out Bigby’s for ourselves and we were not disappointed. The meal started out with a fresh strawberry-mango shake that had lots of pulp and a hint of basil.

Our main course was the Fisherman’s Catch (P650), a seafood platter composed of squid rings, two sticks of fire-grilled boomerang shrimps, and a large tortilla-crusted dory fish on a bed of white rice. The serving sizes are no joke at Bigby’s – they were huge. But just because they put more on your plate, doesn’t mean that they scrimped on the quality of the food. Everything was fresh, from the chewy squid to the crunchy dory fish fillet, and the garlic tartar sauce enhanced the flavor of the food. You definitely need one more person to share this platter with because unless you haven’t eaten in a week, there’s no way you can finish this on your own.

For dessert, we were tempted to try out the godfather of all desserts – the Titanic Treat. It’s a huge bowl of all sorts of ice cream flavors topped with fruits, brownies, chocolate chips, and more goodies! And we were told that you can have the Titanic Treat on the house if you finish it all in ten minutes. Unfortunately we were too full from the seafood platter to get a heavy dessert so instead, we got a Midnight Dream Cake – a decadent chocolate cake covered in a mocha and toffee sauce – and a Fudgy Sensation – a warm in a cup topped with ice cream. I am a huge sucker for brownie a’la mode, and the Fudgy Sensation was devoured in seconds. By then I was too full to eat more than a couple of bites of the incredibly moist Midnight Dream Cake, but I will definitely order this again the next time I come back.

Check out their website at Bigby’s Cafe and Restaurant