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After doing a little shopping at Tiendesitas yesterday, my family and I had an early dinner at Hacienda Resto & Deli across the street. My sister always passes by the place when she goes to work and suggested we try it out because she was intrigued by the old-fashioned signage and the homey-looking decor inside. We ended up discovering a little gem of a restaurant that serves affordable Filipino food in a casual, laid-back atmosphere.

You can tell that Hacienda Resto & Deli is a no-frills restraurant by the appearance of the chairs and the way the tables are out, and the prices of the food (around P150 – P200 per dish) pretty much confirms this. Yet the owners of the place made an effort to create a hacienda-like atmosphere, and it works. The large glass windows are edged with squares of colored glass, and the crystal chandeliers are a stunning contrast next to the sacks of coffee decorating the ceiling.

A pretty blackboard above the counter has today’s menu and specials. Hacienda Resto & Deli serves mostly Filipino food, but they also offer pasta and steak.

Most of the Filipino dishes are placed in labeled kawalis on the counter, turo-turo style.

I like restaurants that have other product offerings you can check out while you wait for your food. To the left of a counter is a shelf filled with Philippine roasted coffee from Batangas, Tagaytay, and the Cordilleras. Apparently, Hacienda Resto & Deli also owns the Philippine Mountain Coffee stall at the Tiendesitas food market.

Hacienda Resto & Deli also has a dessert counter where they offer cakes, large cookies, and halo-halo. They also have buko juice in the shell but it was too cold and rainy for buko last night.

After a short wait, our food started coming in slowly. First was the crunchy, tasty lechon kawali served with sarsa and pickled mangga. It was a little bit oily but then again, what lechon kawali isn’t?

My dad ordered spicy laing for my mom. I don’t eat laing and didn’t get to taste it, but I think it was a little too spicy for my mom’s tastes.

There was also all-veggie lumpiang hubad, or lumpia without the wrapper.

The highlight of the dinner was a small order of seafood paella (P250). Normally, paella at restaurants have way too much rice and very few ingredients, but the opposite was true for Hacienda Resto & Deli. When the dish arrived at the table, I wasn’t entirely sure if it was the paella because the clams, crab, olives, and vegetables completely covered the rice. But when we dug through the dish with a spoon, we found the rice buried way deep in the bottom. The rice was absolutely oozing with the aroma and flavor of all that seafood, and the grains were moist and slightly sticky in my mouth. We finished the paella very quickly and my only complaint is that the rice wasn’t enough.

It’s a shame we weren’t able to try the restaurant’s specialty, native tsokolate with carabao’s milk, which would have been perfect on a rainy day. I’m definitely coming back the next time I get the chance! Hacienda Deli & Restaurant is located across the Antiques section of Tiendesitas, near the big toy barn.

Contact Info

Hacienda / The Charcoal Roasted Coffee / Philippine Mountain Collection
+632-633-2058 / 59
Tiendesitas Complex, Libis, Q.C.

Tags: filipino restaurant, paella, Tiendesitas Restaurant