Wicked Kitchen, Katipunan Road, Quezon City

If you’ve followed my food trip adventures on my blog, you will have noticed (and I did mention it once or twice) that I don’t blog about those big Greenbelt or Serendra-level Restaurants. Why bother? I prefer hole-in-the wall discoveries. Those food haven-gems that have at most 2-3 branches.

Outside my subdivision is a crowded little gas station with a strip mall. Just a few years old it already has had its share of financial successes and failures. I’ve seen a few restos come and go. The other night, I chanced upon a new restaurant. New to me is one that I had not seen before regardless of how old/new it actually is.

The gas station is the Petron Square between the gates of La-Vista and the Sta. Maria della Strada Parish along Katipunan Road in Quezon City. The restaurant… Wicked Kitchen.

View Wicked Kitchen, Katipunan Road, Quezon City in a larger map

(note: you may not easily see it from the street… it is on the second floor above Inengs and Bruno Barbers and next to Chowking)

What was it that pulled me into it? The name. With a name like Wicked Kitchen, I naturally was curious.

Getting there fairly early at 6:00pm, the place was almost empty aside from one other diner.

The interior was very tasteful. Décor was current. Typical of most new restaurants.

Looking through the menu, there were a few “witch”-related remarks which were in line with the “wicked” theme. Though, these references were a little sparse.

I didn’t get a chance to take the actual menu names of the items we ordered, so I will refer to them by their generic names below.

While waiting for my friend Raoul to join me for dinner I was going through the list of appetizers and almost ordered Buffalo Wings or Cheese Sticks. Just as I was about to order I saw an entry for Chicken Skin Chicharon. (Followers of my blog are aware of my lust for any form of chicken skin chicharon and yes, I do believe they are extremely healthy and good for you).

When it arrived, it was quite interesting. I don’t often see chicken skin with some thick flour batter/coating. Normally, one would see chicken skin lightly coated in flour like that of Little Hunan, Sunburst Chicken, Bacolod Chicken Insal, Street Food variety and finally those that you see in supermarket stalls along with other forms of chicharon or peanuts.

The thicker coating isn’t a bad thing. All I want to point out is that it was different than what I normally encounter. It was served with some chili-vinegar and I must say… Yum!

Then came my Broccoli-Cheese soup. It came with two slices of a toasted bread.

I must say, that I loved this soup. Usually, when I order Broccoli-Cheese soup, it is quite thick from the cheese. This had a perfect soup consistency… not too light, not too thick. It also had a gentle flavor to it. Lightly seasoned. I loved the soup. Eaten with the bread, the flavor just burst out.

My issue with the dish is this. Note the crispy slices of bread in the picture? Everything that was submerged in the soup was soggy… making it difficult to eat. I had to cut it with my spoon so I could eat it. I would have preferred the bread served on the side and leaving it for me to dunk the bread into the soup.

Taste… great! Plating could be improved.

The other soup on the menu was a Shrimp Bisque… which I would have ordered but the Broccoli-Cheese soup was in their “specialty” box.

Raoul ordered a Mongolian rice dish (once again, I can’t recall the official name for this). His comment to me was that it was good, but it was bland. It didn’t have the umph that is normally associated with Mongolian.

Here is main main dish. I ordered Fish and Chips. Yeah, seems boring, but again, this was in their “specialty” box. So I assumed this would be a great pick. As you can see below it is served with tartar sauce and optionally you can order malt vinegar.

Not to nitpick again on plating. I would have preferred the french fries be “above” the fish or at least on the side. With the fillet’s served on the fries, it was difficult to cut. As I cut into the fish, it would crumble due to the leverage of the fries beneath. Oh, and I was served a knife with my dish. I wasn’t in the mood to ask for one anymore so I just used my spoon and fork.

Let’s start with the positing (yes there are negatives here). The taste of the fish was just right. It was dipped in a beer batter and the fish has subtle flavor. The fish was fried perfectly. You know, crisp on the outside, warm and moist on the inside. Both batter and fish was fried just right. Some fish and chips that I have are fried crispy where the batter attaches itself to the fish. With this, the batter gently coated the fish.

The flavor was not overpowering. But there is the problem. The dish to me seemed a tad bland.

First the fries were not salted. I checked… no salt at all. I had to ask for salt and pepper (why the tables themselves didn’t have salt and pepper shakers was also curious). I also had to sprinkle on the fish as well.

The fish came with tartar sauce. While the sauce tasted like tartar sauce, it wasn’t very tart. It actually just tasted like plain mayonnaise.

Where salt and pepper, and the tartar sauce, failed… I then asked for the optional malt vinegar. This improved the situation for me. The thing is… I feel the fish should be able to stand on its own to a degree even without sauce.

The end result was, again despite the fillets being perfectly, due to the lack of flavor, I didn’t finish the fish. After eating one fillet, I just had the other fillet and remaining fries wrapped.

In the final analysis… when you think of the soup, the Mongolian rice dish, and the fish and chips each having some flavor yet a tad bland. I would have expected the dishes to have a bolder and richer flavor. And remember, I ordered the specialties. Anyone who watches shows like “Top Chef” will be familiar with judges’ usual comments on adequately seasoning your food.

I didn’t order any of the desserts this evening. And they were interesting… each of them names after the seven deadly sins. Maybe next time.

I will probably eat here again to try some of the meat dishes… and that shrimp bisque. But for now, I give this resto a rating of 7/10. It wasn’t bad. But it wasn’t great.

 

Update: My niece just told me that this is one of favorite restaurants. She frequents the one along Mother Ignacia Avenue. Perhaps the chefs at this branch were having a bad day? Diners could have differing experiences based on a number of factors.

 

Contact Details:

Website: http://www.wicked-kitchen.com/ 
Facebook : http://www.facebook.com/pages/Wicked-Kitchen/259261677636?ref=nf

Related posts: