Papaya Grill

It's not easy finding new and interesting places to eat everyday. Today I enlisted the help of YELP!, I needed to see what other people in the area are eating and enjoying. Papaya Grill is located in San Ramon and has been getting some great reviews. It's Wednesday and I was accompanied by one of my regular lunch companions Gary M.

Papaya Grill offers Filipino cuisine either ala carte or they have 1 or 2 item combination plates served with white rice. There are 8-10 prepared items on a steam table for you to choose from.


The lady behind the counter was very friendly, offering free samples and education on the various dishes.

What's amazing is, Papaya Grill serves an authentic Filipino breakfast menu for only $4.95 available until 12pm.

Gary took advantage of the breakfast, he ordered the Tocilog, served with white rice and a fried egg. Tocilog is a Filipino sausage made with pork, it's very crispy on the outside and chewy in the middle with an exceptional pork flavor.


There were many unique and interesting choices available for me. Gary suggested I sample one of the dishes that were on display. Pork Dinuguan is the name of this strange purple colored concoction of pork chunks slow simmered in pork blood, vinegar and spices.


Ok, you can swallow your bile, it wasn't too bad actually. I've never been too keen on anything that is flavored with or cooked in blood. Honestly though, I've never tried it before. Recently I have been watching more and more food shows on the Travel Channel, and well I'm starting to get a little brave. I found this dish to have a very strong vinegar flavor to it, I couldn't taste the blood, and the pork was tender and juicy. I wouldn't eat a whole plate of this stuff, but I definitely could try it again.

For my lunch I decided to order the two item combination. One item I chose was my old Filipino stand by, Chicken Adobo (chicken parts simmered in soy sauce, garlic, vinegar, bay leaves and other spices). I needed to order something that I have tried before so that I could have a basis for my comparison. In addition to the adobo, I tried the Beef Mechado which is slices of beef stewed in tomato sauce with carrots.


The Chicken Adobo was fair, I've had better and certainly worse, but I wasn't wowed. The Beef Mechado had a great flavor and the sauce from the stew was excellent on the rice, I wished the beef was more tender though. This restaurant had some strange condiments as well. In the picture above there is a brownish grey sauce and a red sauce. Neither of these sauces went with the dishes I selected but I was curious about their flavor. I was reading the label for the sauce on top, the first two ingredients were sugar and breadcrumbs, yes it tasted strange. The red sauce was called banana sauce it was a sweet ketchup like sauce that tasted like bananas.

Let's face it, food is fun! It's enjoyable trying different ethnic fare around the bay area. I think of it as a lunchtime vacation.

If you are ready to take it to the next level, stop by Papaya Grill. For only $8 for a 2 item combo it's a great value as well.

You can visit them online at:

http://www.papaya-grill.com/

Or in person at:

280 Market Place
San Ramon, CA 94583