A52 Tuesday 1300-1430; 1440-1610
Isungga, Maria Camille M.
Type: Quiz 4 – Dining Feature
Singlish Café: While Quezon City has Maginhawa street, and Kapitolyo street is famous in Pasig, Marikina also has a street full of dining havens. From Korean restaurants to Pinoy tapsilogans, and from hangout places to dinner dates for two, Lilac street in Marikina has it all. There were a huge variety of dishes along Lilac, but what seems to be eye-catching is the newly opened Singlish Café. Singlish Café opened last December 2013. It was an intelligent idea to go against conformity, and open this kind of restaurant – not a Korean dining place. Singlish is a slang term for Singaporean and Western (English). Its menu holds Asian cuisines that are not commonly around the metro and Western delicacies which the Filipinos are quite used to. The restaurant had a unique attack on food; it is the first to introduce Singaporean dishes in the streets of Marikina, and mind you, its menu is usually the mall-worthy and overpriced type of menu, but hey, they offer food at a very reasonable price. Walking along Lilac street, a residential and dining road in Barangay Concepcion Dos in Marikina, it is quite noticeable that Singlish Café is a newly opened café because for those who know the place, the stall they are now occupying has long been vacant, and with long, I meant really really long. Another is when you look from the outside, their accent of red and black details over light brown wooden furniture looks unique compared to the other 3 restaurants beside it. Entering the empty restaurant on a Sunday afternoon, what greeted me was an edgy and laid back interior design. All pieces of furniture are wooden, a few chairs and the frame of a huge mirror are wooden but are coloured red. Their menu is along the counter and also on top of all tables. They also have a chalkboard menu that holds the drinks they have. I took a seat on the left side of the diner just across their