Escaping to Antipolo’s Hollywood Steakhouse

My boyfriend and I usually stick to the city for our dates, but we did something different last night and went to Antipolo for a juicy steak dinner at Hollywood Steakhouse. There’s an old joke that goes, “If he takes you to Tagaytay, it means he loves you. But if he takes you to Antipolo, kabit ka lang niya (you’re only his mistress).” I don’t know about being the mistress because I was the one who decided to go there. More importantly, a classy place like Hollywood Steakhouse will easily dispel any myths about Antipolo being a seedy place for trysts.

Hollywood Steakhouse is a cozy little open-air restaurant that overlooks the hills of Antipolo. It’s owned by the same group of companies that runs Center of Culinary Arts (CCA) in Katipunan, which means that the recipes were developed by CCA graduates. The gorgeous view makes it a lovely place for dates, whether you’re taking your girlfriend, wife, or mistress. The Hollywood theme of the restaurant is not particularly strong, and I found out later that the restaurant’s name is based on its location, which is the Hollywood Hills Subdivision.

We both ordered steaks, and I was delighted to find out that all steaks come with a soup and carbs of your choice. I got the corn chowder, which I enjoyed enough, except I think it needed to be less thick and clumpy.

My boyfriend chose the mushroom soup, which had shiitake mushrooms instead of the canned variety. If I had known, I would have gotten this instead – I love shiitake mushrooms.

I chose the Pepper Rib Eye Steak (P650) for my main course – a grilled US-grade rib eye steak rubbed with cracked pepper corns, drizzled with red eye sauce, and served with sauteed vegetables. It was soft, juicy, and generously topped with pepper. It was tasty enough on its own, but it’s not just because of the pepper – the meat itself was very flavorful. The only thing I didn’t like was that I found it too fatty, but maybe ribeye steaks really are supposed to have lots of fat clinging on to the sides. Note: you may not want to order this if you’re on a first date, because the pepper tends to get stuck in between your teeth. For my carbs, I picked the macaroni and cheese, which was deliciously cheesy in a comfort food sort of way.

The boyfriend never had a porterhouse steak before, so he picked the Western Porterhouse (P680) – a grilled US-grade porterhouse steak with a red wine glaze. Like the Rib Eye Steak, this one was juicy, tender, and passed the no-gravy test with flying colors.

For dessert, we went to Sugar, a lovely coffeehouse located at the Seven Suites Hotel right across the restaurant. Seven Suites Hotel is home to the fourth largest telescope in the Philippines, but we weren’t able to use it because the in-house astronomer took a leave to propose to his girlfriend. This looks like a great place to watch meteor showers though! I missed Leonid last year but I’m definitely heading up to Seven Suites during the next shower.

The interior of Sugar is very well designed; it looks like an upscale bar at Greenbelt, but I don’t get a “trying hard” vibe from it. Definitely not a seedy place for mistresses! The coffee shop is open-air and overlooks the glittering city lights; it was such a lovely way to enjoy our dessert.

Sugar has the most creatively-named desserts I have ever seen. It was so tough deciding which one to get! I think it’d help if each dessert had a short description or photo.

After what seemed like forever, I finally decided on the Guilt-Free Fried Chocolate Truffles. Instead of being coated in batter, the truffles were covered in shredded coconut. The chocolate was dark, gooey, and rich – if you could order this in a box, I’d have bought one on the spot to take home with me.

Tempting as the name might have been, I decided against the Controversial Smores. As a general rule, I never order anything I can easily make myself, and Marco and I make smores all the time. He got them anyway because he wanted to see if Sugar added anything unusual to it. The only thing controversial about these smores is that they didn’t have chocolate, just marshmallows. Halfway through my dessert, I discovered that the Chocolate Truffles went great with the cream dip.

If you’re tired of going to the same old restaurants in the metro, I highly suggest that you take the drive up to Antipolo and visit Hollywood Steakhouse. The steaks provide real value for money because they come with soup and a side dish, and the desserts at Sugar are definitely worth checking out. Let me know if you’ve tried any of the other desserts – I’m curious about the Kinky Pavlova.

Hollywood Steakhouse is located along Sumulong Highway. To get there, go on Marcos Highway then turn right from Masinag Market to get to Sumulong Highway. Then turn left at the narrow street by the Old Spaghetti House and Grilla across Valley Golf.