I got my first taste of Gerry's Grill's smoking menu back in 2001 at the original Tomas Morato branch, a stone's throw away from the ABS-CBN compound, when I was in the middle of my struggles to have a door-opening prefix and all the privileges it entails attached to my name. It was a time of stretched budgets and an an even more stretched schedule of cramming everything I have learned in four years in a five-month time frame.
Going to Gerry's then was a treat my board mates and I gave ourselves after a grueling week of review with our minds demanding a rest from all that legal gobblydegook that was starting to sound like a foreign language. So before any of us suffered a total mental meltdown (of course I exaggerate, no four-letter prefix is worth a visit to the sanitarium, with due apologies for those whose emotional make-up just couldn't take the wringer that is the B__), we decided to give our brains a rest and our mouths and stomachs a respite from the fare at "Lutong Bahay"(that small carenderia in UP Diliman that has customers eating as if they're in an assembly line). The group unanimously chose the restaurant owing to a tidbit we got that its the frequent haunt of ABS-CBN stars, thus, the best place for star-gazing for us probinsyanas. While there were a few howls of protests, the idea of bumping into Jericho Rosales overrode all objections to Gerry's being a bit pricey for our shoestring budgets .
The bar at Gerry's Grill Tacloban branch
Well, we were not disappointed as the guy himself was seated just a few tables from us looking even more cuter than he was on tv. No, of course we didn't fall all over ourselves getting his autograph. We acted like everyone else in the restaurant, real cool, pretending like we didn't know an artista was in our midst, with a few surreptious side glances when we thought knowing was looking. But pretenses aside, the food was great and the sizzling sisig we ordered was worth the dent it made on our relatively shallow pockets then.
So it was with much anticipation that I awaited the opening of this cool grilled place in Tacloban once I got wind of news that a local businessman had gotten a franchise. My friend and I went for dinner on a Wednesday weeks after its soft opening. As if wanting to dash too-high exepctations for a dining place that carried a nationally-known name, notices that went: "this is just our soft-opening, please bear with us as we are still on dry-run" or words to that effect was plastered on all its air-conditioners prompting me to be as gentle as possible in making this post-cum-wannabe restaurant review. Doing so required me to hold my punches, so to speak, on things that didn't quite satisfy me as far as what I would expect a fine-dining haunt should be. Having said that, let me then talk about the good points.
The staff are ever so friendly, smiling and at your beck and call at the snap of a finger. The interiors are well done and in keeping with all Gerry's Grill branches, has a stone and mortar look dominated by the colors orange and red. The comfort rooms are clean and supplied with all the necessary toilet room needs (e.g. toilet paper, hand santizing liquid, air fresheners, etc.). As for the food, all items were reasonably-priced which came as a surprise considering that the place was a franchise. We tried the chopsuey and the sizzling sisig, a star item as far as the Tomas Morato branch was concerned. Well, the fare did not have us singing endless allleluias but it was not so bad either. The vegetables in the chopsuey was cooked just right and the serving was hefty enough for three people to share. It was good enough for, yes, a dry run but still has a lot of catching up to do in order to come at par with its Manila cousin.
The Tomas Morato Gerry's had that hard to define "f" (f as in foodie) factor that makes you want to return and savor more of its food again, and yet again. Up to now when the many choices of places to eat in Manila confounds me, Gerry's is the dependable resto I go to and I never come away disappointed. I actually have a theory of why what works and what makes a foodie haunt click. Taken from a voracious eater's point of view of course and not a chef or cook. Ask my hubby and he will tell you just how good I am in the kitchen, (hahaha, if you have a taste for roasted, a.k.a. burnt, adobo cooked ala carte style). You see, I totally agree that cooking is an art and just like any art takes passion and skill to make one excel at it. You may have everything right, the exact amount of ingredients, fresh and picked straight from the garden, cooking temperatures followed to the letter and a place with an ambiance thats not gonna send Erap saying: "Ambiance, thats very expensive, i haven't ordered any ambiance" yet if the cooking does not come from the heart, it will eventually show and patrons can always tell the subtle difference.
What's my point? The food in GG Tacloban was more than passable but lacked the zing that makes for one unforgettable dining experience. But lets give it time, there's always room for improvement and for the baby that it still is, Gerry's in Tacloban has enough time to find that zing and its heart, foodie heart that is. Last time I checked the place was still on "dry-run" mode and hopefully is in the process of improving its menu. Maybe by the time we come back, Gerry's Grill Tacloban shall have lived up to its name.
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