My son was craving ribs, so we went looking for some. It so happens that my brother said he knows a rib shack near his place. It's not a fancy place—rather quaint, actually, compared to most rib houses. We have cheap eateries that we call 'carinderias' in common parlance.
A carenderia is a kind of a street restaurant here in the Philippines. There are good carinderias and there are bad, of course. The one common denominator of carinderias are prices are cheaper than proper restaurants.
The place we went to is called Ribsarap
The place has no air-conditioning but it is not a carinderia. You could say its a level higher than a carinderia and a level lower than a proper diner. I'm just saying this because it doesnt have air-conditioning but they have menu where you can see all what they have to offer and order to an attendant. I'm saying attendant, not waiter, that's why I said a level lower than a proper diner. Unlike a waiter where you can ask for the ins and outs of the menu, the attendant will just order take. The place is really clean and neat looking.
I'm just giving a picture of the feel of the place but be it a fine dining place, a fastfood place, a carinderia, or a food stall, any place offering any kind of food or dish, what still matters mostly is the taste of what they offer given the preparation was done with consideration of propee hygeine and sanitation practices.
Going back to what I said being a level higher than a carinderia, Ribsarap actually have other branches but I don't know where the other branches are located. It has an extensive menu as I've mentioned. They offer ribs as their main product but they also have chicken wings, sisig , tofu katsu, side dishes like French fries, potato wedges and a slew of other things.
Being a real business entity means they follow a strict sanitary procedure like most restaurants do unlike carinderias. There are some carinderias that also follow strict sanitary guidelines but a lot really don't. Kind of a given they dont, but some do.
The good thing about Ribsarap is it is located inside a gasoline station so there are provisions for parking and access to comfort rooms, which common catenderias wouldn't have.
So me and my son, of course, would go for the most sought after delicacy but wifey is vegetarian so she opted for tofu katsu and tofu sisig.
When the food finally got served, the smell was enough to whet one's appetite even if they aren't hungry.
The price of a solo rib combo which comes with rice, buttered corn and gravy is only 148. Well, I would say it is not as good (but not far off) as Racks Ribs but it's really good considering it's only 149 php. The serving is generous and the meat was cooked to perfection in terms of tenderness. I give it an 8 out of 10 rating.
My wife said the tofu sisig is even better than the one served at Max's.
Ribsarap is located at Naga Road inside the premises of Phoenix gas station. It's near the Naga Rd. entrance of Gatchalian Subdivision.
All in all, Ribsarap is an exceptional place for food tripping as the prices are way lower than the highly commercial ones yet the delicacies served taste frankly on par and even sometimes better. The intention of not going all out to be called a restaurant is intended to keep overhead costs down, and ultimately keep prices down.