A cozy family lunch at Dory’s Restaurant

Dory’s Restaurant is probably one of the best neighborhood restaurants in Novaliches.

We celebrated Mother’s Day late last week and we decided to do it at Dory’s Restaurant. It was honestly my first time to hear about this restaurant so I was a little curious about what it has to offer. Dory’s Restaurant was described to me as being like Countryside Restaurant (now known as CS Place), so I pictured its menu to be mostly home-cooked meals, grilled meats, and beer food. 

We drove off a little after lunch thinking that it was more practical since there would be fewer diners already. I was told that there was a branch at Novaliches Bayan but we were to go to their Jordan Plains outlet which was near our place. When we got there, I suddenly recalled that this was the restaurant that I used to look at whenever we pass by this part of Commonwealth Avenue when going home.

When we got there, there were only three groups of diners having lunch. The interiors are not what you would consider impressive; it looked like any other neighborhood restaurant with no effort to impress.

We immediately scanned the menu when it was handed to us. It was composed mostly of Filipino-Chinese favorites, Pinoy sweets, and drinks.

We ordered fried rice, whole fried chicken, Dory’s Chopsuey, Camaron Rebosado, Shredded Squid with Kumpao Sauce, Pancit Canton, and Sautéed Squid. We were a large group and we love to eat, hence, the quantity of our orders. Who would want to go hungry on a celebration, anyway? I ordered a cup of Sago’t Gulaman which looked refreshing when I saw it at the table nearby. The orders soon came afterwards; it was good because we were already starving by this time.

Fried Rice

The fried rice is a large pan of flavorful, well, rice. It has bits of shredded omelet and pieces of meat, and sprinkled with spring onions. It tasted good but it was not overpowering so as to render the viands flavorless.

Fried Chicken

It was served chopped into chunks, which spared us the effort of cutting the chicken. It had flavorful skin and moist but not oily meat. I took a piece of the breast and loved that it was a little dry. It was best eaten with banana ketchup but they did not use Jufran which, I think, tasted the best among such dips. My brother-in-law told me that Dory’s chicken used to taste like Max’s but through the years has somehow deteriorated in quality.   

Camaron Rebosado

This is not the best in their menu. The shrimps were small and were coated with thick breading. Dory’s would have made up for the thick breading had the batter been seasoned well so the dish was not tasteless.

Dory’s Chopsuey

This was good. The vegetables were fresh and crisp and the sauce was flavorful. This went well with the fried rice.

Shredded Squid with Kumpao Sauce and Sautéed Squid

The squid dishes were not really spectacular but they were still flavorful. The seafood, cut into rings, were cooked just right so they remained tender. Between the two, I like the one with Kumpao Sauce which was a little spicy.

Pancit Canton

The classic Pancit Canton is a meal on its own. Dory’s version had lots of vegetables, meat slices, liver, bits of chorizo – all the good stuff. One serving was also large; we did not have to order another plate for us.

Price was also affordable, we had to pay only a little over Php2,000 for a group of eight. All in all, it was an enjoyable experience having lunch at Dory’s Restaurant. It was also good discovering a new restaurant just around the neighborhood.

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