Rufo's

Breakfast fare has become so popular nowadays, short order food stops have mushroomed around the city. Fast food chains, with their unrelenting advertising on TV and billboards, are top-of-mind when it comes to set breakfast meals which contains a cup of rice, a side dish of end and a fried dry viand, usually traditional breakfast fare of tocino (preserved reddish, sweet pork cutlets), longganisa (sweet and spicy sausage) or beef tapa (salted, spiced dried beef).

Rufo's, a smaller food chain serving short-order and all-day breakfast meals, did one better over the bigger fast food chains with their saucier famous tapa.

The Rufo's branch I visited, located in the Ortigas area, was a small air conditioned space sitting beside open air carinderias that cater to the telemarketers, students and office personnel. I was having brunch so the breakfast crowd had ling since gone back to their office cubicles and stuffy classrooms. So when I ordered  the famous tapa, it was served pretty fast.

The meat was tender but the serving was spare. The sauce is similar to adobo took away the distinct saltiness of tapa we are used to. It was also too extended with starch, like adobo-flavored pares (sweet beef stewed) so it left me a bit confused.

I did love the eggs over easy which rounded off the sinangag and tapa combination. Coffee please!