Food & Art at Silya't Sili

If you regularly pass Katipunan Ave., White Plains in Quezon City, I'm sure you've seen the sign board of Silya't Sili. We pass the area only occasionally but the green and bold red color of the sign, plus the intriguing combination of silya (chair) and sili (chili) puzzled us - what is the connection of the two, save for both starting with the letter "s"?

So we gave in to our curiosity and visited the place one lunch time. We were at first apprehensive since we're not sure if it's a restaurant or a furniture shop. Unlike other restos, it doesn't have the feel of being in a glass aquarium that most often make costumers look like goldfish.

Once inside, it evokes a classy elegance that doesn't come handy anymore these days - there are no shouting food servers that greet you with "WELCOME MA'AM-SIR" at the top of their voice. Instead, a plain 'Good morning ma'am/ sir' from the staff is enough. And the paintings - oh, the paintings. Big, small, and huge decorate the walls - some are modern, others are post-modern!

As we sat, we admire also the chairs - simple and elegant. Indeed, the place evokes a feeling of being in a fine-dining resto.

When we checked the menu, we understood instantly the odd combination of "Silya't Sili" - the owner of the restaurant also loves to 'play' with chili - either to add an 'umph' to simple dishes, or to simply put a little 'red color' in a rather bland brown-colored "sisig."

The price range is also very friendly! For instance, we hosted a meeting in the resto for 15 people, and ordered 3 chicken teriyaki, 3 grilled pusit, 3 binagoongan-lechon kawali, 3 veggie curry, 3 okra salad, 3 sisig, 2 fish sinigang, 3 fried fish, adobo rice for sharing, bagoong rice for sharing, and plain rice, and bottomless iced tea/ lemonade - and guess how much was our bill? P9,000 only - that's just about P600 per head (and we did brought home a loooot of left-overs). The place has two function rooms that can accommodate 15 and 20, respectively - and the room can be used for a minimum of P5,000 consumable, for 3 hours)

My favorite, thus far, is the veggie curry (crispy and very flavorful), lechon kawali-binagoongan (sinfully delicious), kare-kare (all beefy-meaty goodness), chopseuy (crispy veggy, just as we like it). The adobo and bagoong rice are also good. In fact, all the dishes we've tasted so far are good - kudos to the cook! It's definitely one of our favorite resto at the moment.

Silya't Sili is along White Plains, QC (near David's Saloon). Visit their website at http://silyatsili.com/

A painting of a praying girl at Silya't Sili

Blog written by Apple