Maginhawa Street's Cocina Juan: The Winner Central American Dinner on 10-10-10

Yesterday, I talked about how I spent my 10-10-10 but I skipped out on the dinner part because I felt it deserved a separate blog entry. Yes it's that special! 


We wanted to go up to Antipolo and eat in TOSH to enjoy a great view but after 4 taxi rejections, we decided to have a plan B and head out to Maginhawa Street instead. 


Last time I was there, I visited Delish and had a great time. Across Delish though, I saw this other restaurant that caught my eye as well, Cocina Juan. For our monthsary dinner, we decided to try out this Central American garden-looking restaurant. Can I just say, it's really one winner dinner!

We arrived in the restaurant at around 6PM and we were the only diners inside. All of the other diners opted to stay outside. Most of the diners outside had their laptops on. Since we're in UP village, I'm guessing they're UP students. :)

Dining Area Outside 

We opted to eat inside since we wanted to explore the place. Walking through the hallway, I knew instantly that I was going to love this place with all its artsy vibe. 

The walls were brightly painted in Hispanic yellow and orange colors which matched the colorful striped chairs and the strategically tiled floors. 

Dining Area Inside Cocina Juan

Since Halloween and Christmas are fast approaching, the store was heavily covered in "cobwebs" and Christmas decors. A little confusing huh? Haha. The waiters were also wearing red horns and a red bow tie. I had to shyly ask one waiter if that was really their outfit all yearlong or if it was just for the month of October. He told me it's only for the Halloween month. Good thing! 


Cocina Juan's walls also serve as an art gallery, F. Gallery, for local Filipino artists. You can actually purchase some of the paintings on the walls. The great thing about these paintings is it also attracts the UP Fine Art students. 


During our visit, the walls were heavily covered with dark paintings. I guess it's also in line with the Halloween theme. The painting over our seat really freaked me out, I decided not to take a photo of it. It definitely achieved its purpose of eliciting strong and violent reactions. 

There was one particular painting that I really liked since it reminded me a lot of the lion in CS Lewis' books. Plus, I was really fascinated by the use of colors, lines and shading. Here it is:

Since we were the only diners inside, we took the long couch and the waiter gave us a run down of their best sellers. I have to applaud this waiter for having memorized their menu by heart as he recited the long foreign sounding names of their dishes. We were so puzzled (not because of the waiter, but because of the names of their dishes) so we just asked for some time to read the menu and figure out what we wanted. 


After a few minutes, we finally ordered and we were told to wait for 20 minutes since they grilled their food on the spot. For the mean time, we were given these complimentary colored nachos to munch on.

Complimentary Nachos (Php free!)

We finished this in under three minutes so we decided to take a closer look at the store's displays. Across our table, they had a quite impressive empty liquor bottles display. Is this the liquor victory wall? :)

I picked up the bottles one by one and took note if I've tasted it before. Some of the liquor bottles however, were  foreign looking. I'm not surprised though since the restaurant is Central American inspired. After reading up on some write ups about this place, I found out that Cocina Juan's tagline is, "Inspiration De Centro America, Plato para La Filipino." This means that the restaurant brings to us Latin American inspired food so that we can also experience the "latin colors, music, culture and art in each bite of the dish they bring out." 


The restaurant opened last July 2008 and was conceptualized by the three siblings, Thomas, Juan and Karlo Adviento. Coming from his trip in the United States, Thomas wanted to open up his own Mexican restaurant after experiencing their food. His culinary graduate brother, Juan, took on this idea and started creating Mexican dishes with a Filipino touch for their menu. On the other hand, his brother Karlo, an interior designer, started drafting the Hispanic looking restaurant. 


Almost at the end of 2008, Tom had to leave the country once again for work. He was now assigned to Nicaragua for four months and it proved to be very vital since it opened him up to more Latin American dishes. The moment he arrived from his trip, he added food from more regions of Central American to the menu such as Gallo Pinto rice (rice from Guatemala, but staple food in America) and Sopa Borracha (Panamanian dessert). 

The waiter probably took notice of our boredom and he offered Monopoly cards for us to play with. We were in the middle of trying to comprehend the game's rules when our appetizer arrived - Sizzling Hungarian Sausage! 

Sizzling Hungarian Sausage (Php155)

These sizzling hot, meaty brown sausages were glistening from the mix of oil, spices and a special marinade that added much flavor to them. It was really hot so we had to blow each piece a little before biting into it. The oil on this dish was surprisingly light and very tasty that we kept on dragging the sausage all over the pan to take in more of it. This dish made RJ smile so much because he has been craving for sausage for quite sometime now. 

Pita came along with these sausages, although you can also opt to have rice instead. Of course we chose the pita option. How can you turn down a pita this soft? 


Eating this dish reminded me of my childhood bahay-bahayan days as we shredded pieces of pita and sandwiched sausages in between them. We felt like children playing with food - but this time we were allowed to play with food. :)


We finished our sausages in 10 minutes and waited for a few more minutes before our main meals arrived. RJ's dish came first and we were so amazed at the serving size but our breaths were completely taken away when the waiter presented my meal in front of me. Woah! 


Our very attentive waiter somehow felt our extreme excitement for a picture that he came over and volunteered to do it for us. Awww thanks! Here's our RAWR LET'S BEAT UP THESE DISHES shot: 

Rawr let's beat up these dishes shot. Scary painting over our heads!

Look at my dish in comparison to RJ's! Now who's the one with the big appetite here? 

Cerdo Castillo Chimichurri "Pork Ribs" (Php249)

RJ ordered one of the store's specialties, the Cerdo Castillo Chimichurri "Pork Ribs". The menu describes it as "grilled pork baby back ribs and served with jalapeno and chimichurri sauce. The serving is quite generous and can be shared." But of course, we didn't share this, I also ordered another dish for myself!


He kept raving on about their pork and their hot slices of jalapeno as he kept glazing his meal with Chimichurri sauce. The real secret behind this dish is their special sauce. It's the one that gives the meat the nice herby and parsley taste to it. Chimichurri sauce is an Argentinian sauce which is used by other Latin American countries. It's composed of parsley leaves, oil and lemon. 


Immediately slicing off a few chunks for me, I noticed that the meat was a little tough as it took some effort to cut it off. Good thing they have a really sharp knife! However, once the meat has been cut off, it has a certain degree of tenderness to it. It's smoky right-off-the-grill taste was very evident at first bite. As I went on chewing, the lovely citrus and herby flavors came to the forefront. To top it off, RJ gave me jalapeno which gave it a nice heat. 

Churrasco de Nicaragua (Php359)

My dish, Churrasco de Nicaragua, came only a few seconds after RJ's and its generous serving had wow written all over it. Winner dinner! I'll honestly say that this dish is good for two or maybe even three people, but can you believe it, I finished it all by myself! I gave RJ a few bites but I was the main slayer behind this meal. 


Here's the menu description of the meal, "Refers to the technique of cooking meat on skewers, Churrasco de Nicaragua comes with 3 types of marinated meat (beef, chicken and pork sausage) served with gallo pinto rice, ensalada and chimichurri sauce." 

Their salad was boosting with freshness with a nice cheesy aftertaste from the sprinkled parmesan. This always provided a fresh palette since all the other elements of the dish were so rich in flavor. There's nothing really special about it but it served a vital role in this whole meal.

This meal was also complete with corn and potato side dishes. They were well cooked and fans of roasted potatoes would certainly love this. 

A taste of Guatemala was also offered in my meal with this Gallo Pinto rice. This rice is a combination of white rice, salt, salt-free chicken broth and the evident star ingredient, red beans. There are other versions of Gallo Pinto rice which includes bacon, onions and other flavor adding elements. I think Cocina Juan sticked to the basics and made the red beans the main star.

Of course, the behind-the-scenes star is their Chimichurri sauce. It went excellently with the Chicken skewers and also the salad. I love how refreshing, subtle but powerful its lemon taste is. 

Of course, how can we forget the 3 meat skewers that knocked our socks off and left a "winner dinner" imprint on our minds. All meats were cooked with crunchy sweet green and red peppers and onions which went well with all three. 

RJ wasn't in the mood for chicken so I had the two sticks all for myself. The softness of the moist chicken meat went wonderfully with its hint of refreshing citrus flavor. It was so tender that it easily falls off the stick in one bite. 

The single juicy pork sausage tasted the same with our hungarian sausage. Since we enjoyed our appetizer earlier, this was a nice continuation. RJ and I took one stick each of beef skewer. Its flavor was reminiscent of Balkan Express' meat but a little less flavorful although still delectable. Patiently soaked in a subtle sweet and salty marinade, the beef was soft and it glided off the stick with little effort.  

Since there was so much flavor in my mouth, I started craving for some dessert. There were only two desserts available during our visit so we chose the Pastel Tres Leches. 

Pastel Tres Leches (Php145)

The waiter personally recommended this ultimately creamy sweet dessert since it's a combination of three kinds of milk. We weren't sure what kinds of milk but RJ guessed it's evaporated milk, condensed milk and uuh chocolate milk? Haha. Biting into this dense sponge-like cake brought us back to our childhood memories of eating the famous pasalubong, Inipit. Looking at it, it did look like a giant Inipit but soaked in an extremely thick, milky, artistically zigzag-ed sauce. 

It was a great way to end the meal since it left a sweet taste in our palettes. Although it did knock me out and I was asleep on the taxi on our way home. I was already yawning by the time we were getting our bill. The combination of a very heavy stomach + milk cradled me to sleep. :) Haha. RJ had the problem of waking me up. I'm a deep sleeper so it wasn't an easy job!

We'll definitely give this place another visit. Their superb service and exciting flavors have convinced us to try out their other dishes. We had a great monthsary dinner. Thanks Cocina Juan!

Btw, here's a continuation to yesterday's list of 10 things I'm grateful for 10-10-10:

6. I'm grateful for a very caring and patient God who never tires in loving me :)

7. I'm thankful for my dear unitmates and guide who I can freely talk to about anything under the sun and pray with 

8. I'm thankful for my professors who are constantly there for advice 

9. I'm thankful for a happy, quiet family and our Sunday morning coffee sessions :)

10. I'm grateful for my very makulit, maalaga and malambing RJ who's been my partner in my happiest and lowest points <3

For more info and pictures of Cocina Juan, click on the following links: click me, click me, click me, click me and click me. 

More Info on Cocina Juan:
Address: 100 Maginhawa St., Teachers Village East, Quezon City, Metro Manila, Philippines
Contact: 434-3911
Operating Hours: Monday to Saturday 11:00am to 12:00am 
                            Sunday 6:00pm to 12:00am


PS. I'll show the results of the Kythe contest later or tomorrow since I'm having trouble with viewing the answer of one of the entries. :)


~It's the little sweet notes everyday that matter. :)~