Brad's Family and Friends Diner Review

BRAD'S FAMILY AND FRIENDS DINER 643 J. P. Rizal St., Lamuan, Marikina City Mobile No. 0927 922 07 31 Business Hours: Mon-Sat 4pm-11pm, Sun 11am-11pm Website | Facebook

Up until now, I was never really a food park guy. My point being, is that it gets really expensive if you want to enjoy the whole she-bang when you dine in one. Like, if you're going to spend 500 pesos or more for a main dish, dessert, and some drinks, might as well go to an eat-all-you-can buffet, right?

Well, there's finally a food park that defies those costly odds!

Enter Brad's Family and Friends Diner, or BFF Diner for short. Located in the heart of Marikina City, this foodie haven is run by the Marikina Foursquare Gospel Church where a portion of the proceeds goes to their charity programs. You can find them along J.P. Rizal st., the part of Marikina that's bordering Quezon City.

The place is quite comfy and ambient: good lighting, well-ventilated, it has adequate space and ample parking. What's nice is that since each food stall is managed by people from the same organization, you can make sure they'll work together to make your visit a great experience.

This Banchetto-style diner currently has a total of 11 food stalls, each serving a unique type of food. Marketing Manager Michael Oyco mentions that having no similarities of products among their food stalls will not only eliminate hostile competition, but also promote teamwork.

With just me and my girlfriend to front the attack to BFF Diner, we weren't able to taste the wonders of each stall. But we did try our best and order what our tummies could handle!

Iced Calamansi Tea / Fresh Melon - P45, Star Apple Shake - P70, Chicken Skin - P40, Ihaw-Ihaw - P15-25

For starters, we ordered drinks and a couple of appetizers before we went on to get our main meals. The highlight for the drinks is that they are legitimately fresh! Served ice-cold in a Mason Mug, they're a perfect match for your munchies here in BFF Diner. They also have seasonal drinks like the Star Apple Shake so watch out for them.

I love isaw baboy (pig intestine) and isaw manok (chicken intestine) so of course I tried them too (barbeque as well), and they're pretty delish! I like how both the marinade and vinegar sauce are rich in savory flavor. Lastly, Michael recommended to us his favorite, the Chicken Skin. Definitely a sinful delight! A generous serving for only P40, it's very crunchy, very yummy, but also very unhealthy haha.

Mixed Sushi - P160, Miso Soup - P30, Ramen - P125

The Mixed Sushi platter isn't anything spectacular, but hey, it's only P160! That price would only get us one or two pieces of nigiri in a Japanese restaurant, but here we already have an entire platter- salmon nigiri, tamago (egg) nigiri, kani (crab) nigiri and california maki, two of each! The salmon is of average quality- tender and succulent enough to enjoy. We're just not that sure if it's Japanese rice they're using, or if it's because of the cooking procedure, but the rice tend to break into pieces when we tried to hold them using the chopsticks.

The Miso Soup is also average for P30. It tastes like the one in Tokyo Tokyo but with a lot more tofu cubes. Ramen? Personally, I'm not really a fan. It just tasted like your usual noodle soup topped with seaweed, pork, egg and naruto. If I wanted to eat really good ramen, I would have just went to restaurants that specialize them. Ramen on the streets have better broth. No offense though. It's good noodle soup, just not good ramen. It's good to be affordable, but not at the cost of sacrificing too much.

Chicken Meal - P99, Rock-a-Belly Grilled Pork - P150

Now on to our main dishes! The star of the night would be the Chicken Meal from 'Felipe's Chicken Fillet' stall. Sorry for the following change in tone, but for just 99-frickin'-pesos, you get this big-ass juicy chicken fillet on a big serving of java rice, topped with creamy mushroom gravy and sided with mixed veggies! McDonalds' Chicken Fillet Meal ain't got nothing on this bad boy. Of all the things we ordered, this is the most recommended, price and quality-wise.

Much to my chagrin, the Chicken Meal was Lei's order, not mine. It was only because of her charitable deeds that I got to taste it haha. Moving on! For my main dish, I got the Rock-a-Belly Grilled Pork for P150. Not as explosive as the Chicken Meal, but it did have its impact. The marinade is just right, basing from the taste. It's sweet and smoky as what you'd expect from barbecued pork belly. My only complaint is that it's somewhat hard to chew in some parts, so maybe it was a bit overcooked. Nonetheless, I still enjoyed it.

Dessert-it-Yourself Ice Cream - P95

And for the grand finale! (Really, at this point, we're already stuffed for the entire week, but you know what they say: there's always a separate tummy for desserts lol!) Of the many choices available for sweets, we decided to go with 'Jeriah Desserts House' and their Dessert-it-Yourself Ice Cream for P95. 

It is what it is- you choose from a variety of choices for your base, ice cream, toppings and syrup. For our order, we had a chocolate base, vanilla ice cream, Choc-Nut and almonds for the toppings, and caramel for the syrup. And you know what, it was a tasty masterpiece! It was a big bowl but we munched it down in minutes lol.

So those are pretty much what we had that day. With just the two of us, it's somewhat impossible to have tried all the 11 stalls in BFF Diner. But we'll definitely be back! For now, here are pictures of each of the stalls and a preview of the food they offer so you'll have an idea:

Naruto Sushi / Felipe's Chicken Fillet / Briquette

Let's Drink to That! / Cusina Esperanza

Meat & Bread / Tatang's Grill

Pinoy Mix / Munchies

Jeriah Desserts House / Siomaity

There you have it- Brad's Family and Friends Diner! A food park my unyielding wallet finally likes. With snacks for as low as P15, fresh drinks on mugs as affordable as P40, and big-ass delicious rice meals for only P99, you can have a grand feast without breaking a sweat on your savings in this budget foodie haven!