Torch Restaurant: A Review

We got to try Torch Restaurant, the latest addition to the Greenbelt 5 food strip, when my wife and I met up with our friends one Friday evening. This is the restaurant's third location.


It was a diner type of restaurant that also features a bar for those who want to grab a few drinks while having dinner. It was full but not jam-packed. And the tables are ample-spaced so that you get good breathing space without having to worry that the occupants of the table beside you can hear your conversation.

Our friends went ahead with their orders so we ordered for just two. We scanned the menu and found several interesting items like the soft-shelled crab salad and blackened chicken pasta. Craving for meat, I suggested steak salad. We also got the blackened chicken pasta and fish and chips. We asked for the steak to be cooked medium well. I asked how the chicken in the pasta is cooked and our server said it was roasted.

After a fair amount of waiting, our food arrived. We had our forks ready and quickly speared the thick slices of beef in the salad. It was good -- pleasantly salty and charred well on the outside with a slight hint of pink inside. However, the salad contained only 4 slices of meat, thus, it was not really enough to satisfy our craving. The pasta, meanwhile, was really creamy and well-seasoned with generous strips of chicken. It was like chicken carbonara. This one was equally delicious. The last dish, the fish and chips, was a huge fillet of battered fish sitting on a generous bed of potato chips. The taste was standard -- good but not exceptional. What we liked about it is that they used potato chips instead of the usual fries. It added texture and it was more enjoyable to eat.

In the middle of our meal, one of the servers requested us to turn on the artificial candle on our table because they will dim the lights for the bar.

For this satisfying dinner for two, we paid around P1,000. It was a fair amount to pay for such good food.

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