You know a good Filipino restaurant when it offers a family-friendly
atmosphere (knowing Filipinos are very family-oriented) and the food just sticks
to your mouth and keeps you coming back for more. That is exactly what I felt after
trying out the fusion of Filipino & Western cuisine offered in Dong Juan.
Dong Juan is a Cebu homegrown restaurant that started as a
hole-in-the-wall resto in Guadalupe and is run by entrepreneurial couple, Aubrey
& Barney Borja. The name Dong Juan comes from the affluent profligate Don
Juan, but instead replaced Don with Dong (short for “dodong”) which is a Cebuano
endearment for young men which means “The average pinoy”. Thus, the restaurant
basically aims to provide luxurious food in wallet-friendly prices for the regular
Filipino.
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| Candy Crush inspired wall. |
The restaurant’s ambiance is very homey. I like how they
were able to combine traditional and modern elements into a contemporary look. And
I just love the fact that they are
bringing out a more family-friendly atmosphere by giving out activity materials
for kids, as well as including kid-friendly dishes on their menu. Not every
restaurant does that and this is a good practice to keep kids entertained while
waiting for their orders, and to make it easier for parents like me in choosing
meals for the kiddos. According to Mrs. Borja they will be launching this
starting August 2016.
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| This brought out the kid in me. LOL. |
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| Menu for the kids. |
Dong Juan is actually more famous for their Dong Juan Burger
and I’m sure you’ve read blogs about how great their burger is. So today, I’ll
be writing about other stuff on their menu which also deserves to be on the
spotlight.
To start with, we had Mozzarella Sticks and Chili Wings for appetizer.
I really love cheese but somehow their Mozzarella Sticks tasted a bit bland for
me if you’d eat it on its own, but it goes perfectly with its marinara sauce. The
Chili Wings, however, was a hit. The buffalo wings are coated with chili paste and
sesame seeds. I really liked its sweet and mildly spicy taste.
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| Mozzarella Sticks |
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| Cheesy goodness. |
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| Chili wings |
For drinks, they offered us a choice of their Kalamansi
Blush and house blend Iced Tea. The iced tea had a really unique container. I
was expecting it to be served on a mason jar container but this one’s really
cute! The Kalamansi Blush is a definite must-try. It’s an infusion of the local
kalamansi and real strawberries from Baguio! They’d even add 3 or 4 whole
strawberries with it! But of course make sure that you mix it well before
drinking or else it’s gonna taste sour.
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| Dong Juan Iced Tea |
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| Kalamansi Blush |
For the main dishes, we had their Dong Juan Fried Rice,
Seafood Soup, Baby Back Ribs in Barbecue Sauce, All Meat Pochero and Gambas
Pasta. My top 3 picks would be the Dong Juan Fried Rice, All Meat Pochero and
Gambas Pasta for the following reasons: The Fried Rice was really flavorful and
it’s also made with beef. You can in fact eat it on its own because it’s that
good! The All Meat Pochero also took me by surprise. My initial reaction was, “What?
No bone? So no bone marrow to scoop into?” but when I tasted it I completely
forgot about the bone marrow. The meat was really soft and tender, and
the sauce is very creamy and flavorful. According to Aubrey, they added milk on
the sauce. No wonder it’s so good! The Gambas Pasta was something different for
me. Aside from being flavorful, it was also served with a really soft tablea-infused
bun. Most restaurants serve their pastas with garlic bread and although it was
something new, the tablea bread complimented the pasta well. This was also
topped with bonito flakes (thinly-cut fish) which was a first for me. And the
shrimps were also cooked to perfection.
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| Dong Juan Fried Rice |
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| All Meat Pochero |
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| Gambas Pasta |
The Baby Back Ribs did not make it to my top 3 for the sole
reason that it lacked the smoky barbecue taste which was what I was looking for.
Others had this on their top 3 though and one of our fellow reviewer/blogger
ranked this her top 1 so it’s not all that bad. Still a must-try. The Seafood
Soup, however, needs improvement. The soup is made with shrimps, thinly-sliced
squid, fish, diced seaweed wrap, and an egg that was left to cook on its soup.
The soup tasted bland but I’d still like to acknowledge the fact that the squid
was cooked nicely on this one.
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| Baby Back Ribs in Barbecue Sauce |
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| Seafood Soup |
Dong Juan also adds new dishes year after year and it was an
honor for us to be the first in line to try their new Dong Juan Tablea
Collection. I just love how they did not limit chocolate (specifically, our
local tablea) to drinks and desserts, but also added it to main dishes like
pasta and bread.
Their new dishes are Spanish Chorizo Pasta with Cacao de Bola,
Carbonara with Cacao de Bola, and Linguine Meatballs with Tablea Marinara
Sauce. My least favorite would be the Linguine Meatballs because I found the
marinara sauce a little sour. Completely understandable because they based it
on the Italian palate. I still prefer the traditional sweet flavor though. But
the Meatballs is one thing that I liked on this dish. My top pick would be the
Carbonara because it was so flavorful and I liked that they added shiitake
mushrooms in it. The tablea shavings also complimented this dish really well.
And I like how they would shave the Cacao de Bola on the pasta right in front
of you. The sweet aroma of the tablea makes it even better.
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| Spanish Chorizo Pasta in Cacao de Bola |
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| Shave all that tablea! Yum. |
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| Carbonara in Cacao de Bola |
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| Linguine Meatballs with Tablea Marinara Sauce |
Lastly, for dessert, we had their Mug Cakes and they serve
it in different flavors like Dark Fudge, Red Velvet, Salted Caramel, Crunchy
Cookie Butter, and S’mores.
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| Red Velvet Mug Cake |
My favorites are the Red Velvet, Dark Fudge and S’mores.
The Salted Caramel needed a little more caramel (preferable drizzled on top of
the ice cream as well so that it doesn’t all look the same), and the Crunchy
Cookie Butter needed a little more crunch or else it would just taste like the
Dark Fudge Mug Cake. And I wish they made the cake a tiny bit thicker so that
we don’t have to dig all the way to the bottom just to get a piece of the cake.
Others preferred it to be served in transparent glass containers so that it
would look more enticing. But I understand that it can be difficult to make
that possible since they bake the cake inside the mugs and placing it on glass
containers which has the tendency to break on high temperature just makes it infeasible,
unless of course they use oven-safe transparent glass containers (which are, by
the way, hard to find). What I can suggest is probably to add toppings on the
ice cream to differentiate the "look" of each flavor and make it Instagram-friendly.
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| Dark Fudge Mug Cake |
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| S'mores Mug Cake |
Overall, Dong Juan is a must-visit restaurant. And you can
check their menu on
Zomato. I’m definitely coming back with my family. And I’m not
surprised that they are slowly branching out all over the country. I can see a
lot, and I mean A LOT, of potential in Dong Juan.
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| With the owner, Mrs. Aubrey Borja |
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| With the Zomato Team and Cebu Bloggers Society |
Address: Ground Level, The Persimmon Plus, M.J. Cuenco Ave., Mabolo, Cebu City
Operating Hours: 11AM-10PM Everyday
Contact: 032 5052121 / 032 2665826
