Apung Quintin Restaurant: A Kapampangan Carinderia (Eatery) in Manila

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Kapampangan (ka-puhm-pang-gn) Cuisine is the cuisine of Pampanga, a province north of Metro Manila. Popular dishes include Kilayin (pork and pig liver cooked in vinegar and spices), Tidtad (the Kapampangan version of dinuguan or blood stew), and the world-famous Sisig (a Kapampangan dish made of chopped pig parts and chicken liver). There are even exotic dishes such as Betute (stuffed frog) and Camaru (deep-fried crickets).

You can try Kapampangan food in Apung Quintin Restaurant, a carinderia (eatery) in the city of Manila. (“Apung” is a Kampampangan word for grandfather or a honorific term of a respected elderly).

Inside Apung Quintin Restaurant. They have an airconditioned dining area, which is unusual for a *carinderia*.

Like most carinderias, they employ a turo-turo (literally “point point”) style of ordering, where customers point to their desired dishes.

I tried researching for Apung Quintin Restaurant’s history. Unfortunately, there’s a lack of resources about the restaurant. All I know is that it was established in 2011 (which their signage says), and that it serves great food!

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So here’s what I think of the food:

Bistek (sliced beef braised in soy sauce and calamansi juice): It has tender chunks of beef but is on the sweet side. I prefer it to taste more sour.

Inihaw na Liempo (grilled pork belly): It’s tender and slightly sweet. The fat is also yummy. While I wish that it be a bit more smoky, it’s a good dish.

Inihaw na Pusit (grilled squid with stuffing): It’s rightly cooked and smoky. The stuffing is made of tomatoes, adding freshness and acidity, and green chilies, giving heat.

Kare-Kare Pata (pata/pig leg in peanut stew): This one has a big piece of pata, which is fork-tender and gelatinous. The peanut gravy is creamy, nutty, and rightly sweet unlike other recipes. The vegetables are crisp as well.

Lumpiang Shanghai (deep-fried meat rolls): It has a crunchy wrapper but I find the filling mushy.

Papaitan (innards soup made bitter with bile): Its broth is bitter, gingery, and spicy, while the innards are soft and clean-tasting. I just forgot to ask if the innards are from a cow or a goat. LOL.

In retrospect, I’m not sure if I saw or had a truly Kapampangan dish in Apung Quintin Restaurant. I was hoping for sisig or other Kapampangan dishes. Still, I think they make good food, Kapampangan dish or not. Most of our orders were really good. In other words, I highly recommend it to you!

Apung Quintin Restaurant

Address: 1353 Maceda St., Sampaloc, City of Manila, Metro Manila, Philippines | Operating Hours: Tuesday-Sunday, 8AM-12AM

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