When eating at home, one expects to receive a lovingly cooked meal straight from the heart. Kwentong Kanin attempts to bring that familiar taste and feeling into the Ateneo with its mouthwatering selection of Filipino comfort food.  

Taste

Among the dishes offered, the Chicken Barbeque skewers stand out with their careful cooking process. The chicken is marinated for a week to provide that perfect balance of sweet and salty, making the soft, chewy meat easily fall off the stick. The Chicken Inasal is also worth mentioning since the juice of the chicken oozes into the mouth even at first bite, along with its rich and sweet glaze. 

For those after a healthier option, the Tofu Sisig provides a palatable choice with its special sauce, which provides a hint of vinegar and creaminess, but falls short in elevating the tofu’s bland taste. Meanwhile, the Inihaw na Baboy, while tender and savory at first, lacks a zesty and juicy bite. 

All these dishes are served with java rice to complement each viand. However, the rice sometimes lacks its garlicky flavor, making the taste inconsistent, and at times, dry. The stall’s sides of egg, kropek, and turon are more or less the unsurprising mainstays found in JSEC over the years. Despite this, the stall’s take on turon—with a more subtle brown sugar glaze than usual—highlights the natural sweetness of the saba on the inside, while retaining its crispiness on the outside. 

Finally, if you’re hungry for some dessert, Kwentong Kanin’s Mango Float strikes a balance of the cold, creamy condensed milk with the sharper taste of tangy mango. Meanwhile, the hint of sea salt in its so-called Job’s Cookies is a perfect foil to the smooth, sugary taste of the classic chocolate chip variant.

Concept

Kwentong Kanin simply revisits Filipino options familiar to JSEC. However, the stall clearly seeks to promote an approachable dining experience. This is realized through the consistent use of bright orange and yellow and their mural of playful pigs. When it comes to food, the stall offers Filipino condiments or sawsawan for customers to adjust flavors to their tastes. Above all, Kwentong Kanin takes pride in its locally sourced ingredients delivered every day for that extra dose of freshness. 

Value for money

With solo and combo meals costing Php 100 and Php 130 respectively, Kwentong Kanin’s prices are on the higher end of JSEC. However, the generous servings of viand and rice, alongside the beverage selection of soft drinks and orange juice, helps justify these price points.  

Final verdict

Overall, with savory options and sizable portions, Kwentong Kanin is a well-crafted, flavorful story of local comfort food. Although lacking in a consistent taste, this stall’s offerings remains an earnest effort to bring students a bite of home from the comforts of JSEC. 

Rating: 4/5

Editors’ Note: In the interest of fairness, Vantage writers only reviewed food that was offered by the stalls during their respective taste tests.

Photos by Bruce Ong