I received a Twitter notification yesterday saying that "bullchef" was following me. I don't usually get surprised whenever someone unknown follows me on Twitter since my profile's public. What made me wonder this time was the information under @weareBULLCHEF. It had a local address near my office. Out of curiosity, I googled the name and found out that Bullchef is a bulalo house in Kapitolyo, Pasig. Since I've been on a recent bulalo hunt/craving, I decided to check out Bullchef.
According to the online information I read, BULLCHEF is open until 12 MN everyday. We arrived there a little past 11, and looked around first before deciding whether or not we would try it for the night. I think they were about to close when we got to the store front but they suddenly opened up the place when they saw us. We actually felt surprised and shy when we saw the staff prepare the inside of the little hole-in-the-whole bulalo house. Since they already made us feel welcome, Gus and I decided to try it out. We were, already there, after all.
BULLCHEF is located at #4 East Capitol Drive, Kapitolyo, Pasig City. Yup, another hidden treasure in the heart of Pasig. It's a small hole-in-the-wall restaurant that opened a year and a half ago. Don't worry, you can easily spot it because it is in between what looks like a residential apartment stretch turned business establishments section.
The interiors of the restaurant were very simple. Nothing too fancy. Just big square tables and chairs that could accommodate 2 or 4 people per table. Oh, and there's a big graffiti of a cute bull on the whole left wall, and photos of celebrities who have visited BULLCHEF on the right. I guess this wasn't so hidden in the celebrity world.
We got down to business after looking around, ordering their special bulalo, which was good for two. Before you know it, the bulalo was already being served in front of us. The bulalo came in a deep bowl, soup-less. Yes, we only got the meat and vegetables because the soup was going to be poured in front of you. Talk about a different way of serving hot bulalo!
But before we could sample their bulalo, we were startled with a "ritual" I suppose, when all the staff in the house shouted "bull chef" before ate left our table to enjoy the meal.
Just look at that bone marrow. Gus was delighted to see that one, while I was delighted to see lots of green leafy vegetables in our serving. Yes, yes. That looks like a single leaf, and I thought so too, but as we ate, we found more leaves under the meat pieces. And I'm not talking about small spinach-sized leaves. I'm talking wombok-sized greens. BULLCHEF was also very generous with their calamansi and red peppers. They didn't even question me when I requested for an additional four pieces of calamansi to the two they already gave us.
That serving was definitely enough for two people. More meat pieces surprised us under all the soup, which was refillable, by the way. But what did we think of the flavor? Of the dish?
The soup was definitely bulalo tasting -- real beefy flavor, not the bouillon beef flavor, plus a hint of corn. Gus really enjoyed the soup because he could also taste the flavor of the corn in it. You already know there were meat and bone pieces in it, and lots of vegetables, not to mention a corn cob. Who puts 1/4 a corn cob on bulalo these days? The real ones, I guess. I rarely see corn cobs in bulalos except those I've tried in Tagaytay. I'm not a bulalo expert. I'm just sharing my opinions based on my experience. Oh, and did I mention that the bulalo soup was refillable? Yeah.
Any downsides? Well, as good as this bulalo tastes, the beef could use a little more tenderizing. Not all the meat pieces were tender, some were a bit chewy. The place could also use a little more fresh air. They could add an additional exhaust or open the restaurant door from time to time because I noticed that the different smells of their dishes were mixing and staying in the dining area. Apart from these two, BULLCHEF is a pretty good bulalohan to go to. :)
And lastly, the prices are very reasonable. We paid PhP210.00 for their BULLCHEF Special Sulit Meal, which came with two cups of rice, and an additional two cups of rice, FREE. Yes, their sulit meals came with a free cup of rice. Good bulalo at a very good price.
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Price: PhP80-150/person
3.5 out of 5 for BULLCHEF
BULLCHEF
#4 East Capitol Dr.
Kapitolyo, Pasig
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