Lilac Street Food Crawl - Marikina | Part 1

There's a new foodie strip in Metro Manila that everybody's been talking about: Lilac Street in Marikina. This stretch of road is dotted with delightful food joints you don't usually find in malls. There was nothing to do one Saturday afternoon, so me and my sisters decided to do a Lilac Street food crawl.

Bennt II Building: Infinitea and Cupcake Bites Cafe

It's literally a crawl, because there's no better way to explore your dining options here than by foot. Establishments are conveniently a few steps away from each other. Most of which operate right in the homecooks' yards - modestly converted to accommodate a small number of dining guests.

K-pop tunes keep the customers entertained

We took an initial stroll to survey the area before deciding on our first stop. Omonok is a Korean-themed hangout serving juicy Korean-style chicken, flavored fries, egg roll and Korean ice cream. It was fairly early (we're only on our first stop), so we ordered their specialties: Omo-nok and Omo-log.

A yummy sampling of Omonok's fare

The chicken was a mix of sweet, spicy, crunchy and juicy. Using the disposable plastic gloves they provided, we quickly finished the chicken wings to the bones! The Omo-log was a spiced tamago roll type of dish, which we equally loved. In fact, we dissected the thing and planned to try cooking it ourselves at home.

Burrito Brothers Menu

The four of us shared a can of soda before hieing off to our next point of interest: Burrito Brothers. Not sure if it is a homegrown Lilac St. brand, but we were up for some Mexican food. Our orders: Beef Super Burrito and a Chimichanga.

Chimichanga with mi hermanas

Their dine-in canteen was nicely decorated in Mexican theme, not to mention the piped in mariachi sounds. We had requested for our orders to be sliced into four - for sharing. You all know what a burrito is. A chimichanga, however, is a deep-fried chicken - corn - cheese wrap.

Small sampler bites to keep up through the crawl

The verdict? Well, this is not a food review, but we were all satisfied with our orders. In fact, this stop was one of our favorites! Just be wary when using their hot sauce and dips because your food might end up tasting the same.

Streets are safe and there is police visibility

For those who haven't been to Marikina, let me point out that this city is the most pedestrian and bike-friendly place in Metro Manila. Here, sidewalks are respected and bike lanes are functional.

HOHOL-ing

We only intend to try out restaurants that we unanimously deem interesting, so we skipped a burger joint and a pancit place. Instead, we went browsing in Django, a leather art and craft shop. They sell leather bags, djembe drums, wallets, footwear and can customize any leather fancy of yours.

Leatherworks and accessories

Their frontage is currently being converted into an intimate watering hole. Its original branch can be found in Makati. Django Marikina holds a djembe open jam every Friday night (Sundays in Makati) - that's something interesting to look forward to.

Our expenses so far:
Taxi (from Marikina bayan) 180
Omonok chicken wings 115
               Omo log 40
               coke 35
Burrito Bros chimichanga 105
                     beef burrito 109
Django 0

That's all for Part 1.
Here's a link to Lilac Street Food Crawl - Marikina | Part 2

*This is not a sponsored post