Yesterday afternoon Jeff decided to make a journey to good ol' Binondo where I work Saturdays. Post-typhoon, my afternoon was pretty flexible... I only had one patient and it didn't look like anybody else was going to walk in.
Yep, Lido delivers! That's 735-LIDO!
After walking around Ongpin, Carvajal and Quintin Paredes trying to look for Chinese painting supplies, we decided to go to T. Alonzo and try the food at Panciteria Lido (since 1936, don't forget). Going up the second floor to where the restaurant was, it was like stepping into the casting call for the Chinese version of the movie Cocoon (nahahalata edad ko ha). Almost all the customers were....old. Not just old-er, but old, as in along the lines of geriatric. The average age of Panciteria Lido customers was probably 60, and by showing up, Jeff and I probably skewed that average. Most of the diners were apparently regulars and some even kept standing up and going over to the other tables to say hi (well, not really "Hi" as in "Hi!!!", if you know what I mean) to their other friends. A lot of them also looked like they had been there for a couple of hours. Some were reading the Chinese papers...one was reading Chinese Newsweek. Lido, I discovered, is THE tambayan for Chinatown's senior citizens.
Jeff and I ordered the small chami (Php 140, good for two), siomai (Php40) and ice coffee (Php55).
The ice coffee is of course, the cold version of their famous Lido siphon-brewed coffee (Php 40). I don't like weak or milky-tasting coffee, so it was nice that even after being swirled with milk, the coffee still tasted like coffee.
One of my pet peeves about pancit are those which are cooked na "kulang sa sahog". Lido's chami certainly didn't dissapoint. It was very tasty (oh, how descriptive I am) and you could really see the sliced squid, the shrimp and the pork (asado, is that you?). Apparently, their chami is a customer fave. In the table next to us, an old lolo was spooning chami into his pandesal as palaman. Yum.
The siomai was okay. It wasn't that spectacular, but at least it wasn't tiny, like the ones at Dimsum N Dumplings.
In general, we liked what we ate and we're definitely going back! Next on our list is their famous pugon-cooked asado and their fresh-from-the-tablea hot chocolate. However, this place is not for the weak-of-lung, because second-hand cigarette smoke is the primary air you will breathe. The "angkongs" there have a blatant disregard for the no-smoking-in public-places law, those rebels.
Silang lahat, may 20% senior discount.
Note the smoking lolos underneath the No Smoking sign.
One of my pet peeves about pancit are those which are cooked na "kulang sa sahog". Lido's chami certainly didn't dissapoint. It was very tasty (oh, how descriptive I am) and you could really see the sliced squid, the shrimp and the pork (asado, is that you?). Apparently, their chami is a customer fave. In the table next to us, an old lolo was spooning chami into his pandesal as palaman. Yum.
The siomai was okay. It wasn't that spectacular, but at least it wasn't tiny, like the ones at Dimsum N Dumplings.
In general, we liked what we ate and we're definitely going back! Next on our list is their famous pugon-cooked asado and their fresh-from-the-tablea hot chocolate. However, this place is not for the weak-of-lung, because second-hand cigarette smoke is the primary air you will breathe. The "angkongs" there have a blatant disregard for the no-smoking-in public-places law, those rebels.
Silang lahat, may 20% senior discount.
Note the smoking lolos underneath the No Smoking sign.
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