Discovering a new restaurant every weekend is a personal quest that ‘O’ and I have set ourselves on. This particular Sunday, we chanced upon a newly opened restaurant along Upper General Luna Road called Red Rustikz.
Red Rustikz Vibe and Ambiance
First of all, how unique is that name? The restaurant was well lit and it featured an open kitchen, which I love because I like watching the chef and kitchen staff prepare my meals.
I’ve watched enough movies to see how easily a kitchen can turn from imacculately clean to unbelievably disgusting. I’ve also seen first hand how standards and cleanliness can go out the window when the rush hour happens.
So an open kitchen is a good sign. It means they want you to see that they have nothing to hide.
At first glance, you may think that Red Rustikz is a fancy restaurant and it is, fancy in the sense of the food they bring out looks and tastes fancy but it also has a cozy vibe going on.
I love that they have a record player instead of the more modern kind of sound system. The record player just added an incomparable charm to the over all ambiance of the place.
That little corner where the record player and speaker sits is absolutely Instagram-worthy.
There’s just something so comforting about eating delicious food while listening to Ed Sheeran sing about love.😌
Red Rustikz: Serving Great Comfort Food
If I could describe the kind of food that Red Rustikz offers in one word, I would say, comforting. They serve comforting food.
They don’t just serve food for the sake of earning money, you can feel a lot of love and thought went into each dish as they prepared it.
Soup of the day
The day we visited Red Rustikz, their soup of the day was Pumpkin Soup.
I’ve always loved soup, but even I was surprised with how amazing this Pumpkin Soup was. It was so rich, creamy and so velvety smooth and seasoned to perfection. It truly is the best pumpkin soup I’ve ever had in my life.🤤
I literally went, “mmm mmm, mmm mmm”, this has a tune it’s just hard to express in words. ‘L’ makes this sound whenever he eats anything tasty.
I was so happy with the soup, I went Oliver Twist on ‘O’, and asked, “Please sir, can I have some more?” (Read that with a British accent, just like how Oliver Twist said it.😂). Unfortunately, he finished his soup already, but ‘L’ wasn’t and he gave me some of his but it was so good that I also wanted him to enjoy it, so I did my best not to be greedy. 😅
If this was on the menu, I’d gladly pay for it!
Baby Back Ribs Provencale
Being the rice person that he was, ‘O’ ordered the Baby Back Ribs Provencale.
This was good, the meat was tender enough but it wasn’t fall-off-the-bone tender like the one in Canto. The charred parts were actually good, it gave it some depth to it. Not bad at Php225 actually, I’d order it again but I’d have it with mashed potatoes or salad and not rice.
Red Rustikz is Pasta Heaven
If you love pasta as much as the kids and I do, then you’d love the choices Red Rustikz have on their menu, there’s so many!
They also make most of their pasta fresh and in-house. I’m not picky when it comes to pasta, but you can definitely taste the difference between fresh pasta and store-bought pasta. There’s just no competition, fresh pasta is always so much better.
I love that you can see them make the pasta right in front of you as soon as the kitchen gets your order.
Creamy Ravioli
I’ve always loved ravioli but I’ve had a really bad experience with it and that was hard to shake off, but I’m glad that Red Rustikz has erased that bad memory with their creamy ravioli.🤤
Made with feta and mozzarella cheese with ground beef. It has ‘creamy’ in its name for a reason.
The sauce on this one was creamy but not overwhelming, seasoned perfectly and the ravioli was cooked to perfection (al dente), no cold, frozen center here.
The crushed nuts added texture to the pasta dish, livening it up and beautifully tying everything together. It tastes – for a lack of a better word – amazing.
For Php225 a plate, I literally had to dig deep within myself for the strength not to yell at them to TAKE MY DAMN MONEY.😂
Seafood Cannelloni
‘L’ loves seafood, so he ordered the Seafood Cannelloni.
The cannelloni was stuffed with shrimp, squid and cream dory. It had the same sauce as the creamy ravioli but the taste differed slightly because of the seafood.
I’m deathly allergic to shrimp, so sadly, all I could do was take a whiff of this dish, but even then, I knew it tasted so good. You know my cooking philosophy has always been, “if it smells right, it should taste right” and this one smelled really good.
For Php195, seafood lovers will absolutely yell, TAKE MY DAMN MONEY!😁
Chicken Alfredo
‘C’ loves Carbonara, but because they didn’t have that on the menu, she had the Chicken Alfredo instead.
Made with fettucini pasta and accompanied by grilled chicken. Surprisingly, the chicken was not dry, this is probably the first time we’ve had grilled chicken that wasn’t bone dry.😅
Let Red Rustikz take your damn money cause this plate only cost Php195 for a hefty serving of pasta and perfectly grilled chicken.
Baked Mussels in Garlic Butter Chili Paste
Silly me, I almost forgot the Baked Mussels in Garlic Butter Chili Paste!
This one is unforgettable for sure. I’m not fond of spicy food because I have zero tolerance for it, but this one wasn’t burn-your-tongue-off spicy, it had just the right amount of kick at the end.
The garlic butter was delicious. I love garlic so it wasn’t a suprise that I was going to like this one. The mussels were baked to perfection and it’s very clean, no sand residue or ghastly mussel hair.
For only Php225, this is a steal! Perfect as is or with rice.🤤
Drinks and Dessert
The service water was infused with apples, it’s very refreshing and good to wash everything down, but we still ordered milk teas because it had popping boba in it.😁
The milk teas came in different flavors: Caramel, Hazelnut, Butterscotch and Vanilla. I got Butterscotch, ‘O’ got vanilla – of course!, ‘C’ got Hazelnut and ‘L’ got Caramel.
To finish off our meal, we had the Chocolate Chip Cookie ala Mode. It’s a giant, it’s a 10 inch cookie!, chocolate chip cookie topped with vanilla ice cream.
Just like everything else on the menu, they bake this right after you order it. It was done in under 10 minutes and it was absolutely worth the wait.
This giant chocolate chip cookie was crunchy on the outside but chewy on the inside, just the way we like our chocolate chip cookie! It’s not too sweet and the vanilla ice cream is a nice compliment.
I could eat this by myself for sure.😂 But I was with the family so I had to share.😂 Worth every penny at only Php200.
Red Rustikz, Our Family Favorite
We’re definitely going to keep coming back in this restaurant to be able to try the other things on their menu.
Service was excellent, the wait staff are attentive but didn’t awkwardly hover over us.
Over all our experience was an amazing one. Red Rustikz checked off every single item on our checklist to be worthy of being called our ‘family favorite’.🥰
They’ll definitely see more of us!
But don’t take my word for it, pay them a visit and let them take your money.😁
Red Rustikz
82 Upper General Luna Road
Baguio City, Philippines
