[Review] Pares Retiro

The main facade of Pares Retiro with the self proclaimed tagline of being the best in town

Pares is a braised beef dish that is quite popular in the Metro Manila area. Flavor-wise it is very closely related to asado with its sweet and savory thick sauce with chunks of very tender slow cooked cuts of beef usually with a lot of ligaments. You can often see pares being advertised in smaller street corner eateries or carenderia and is usually served with steamed rice and a light beef broth.

I was able to try out this new restaurant in Tomas Morato that specializes in the beef pares but they do have a lot more to offer in their menu. The restaurant is called Pares Retiro and somewhat elevates the pares carenderia in a more fastfood type of vibe. A large sign declaring that the restaurant is still on its soft opening is seen at the entrance and posted in the walls of the establishment. I was pleasantly surprised with the variety of the menu items but instead of being sidetracked I was determined to give the dish that the restaurant was named after a try.

The place is very bright and cheerful

Me and my friend ordered the pares with sisig combination rice bowl and ordered extra side dishes of tokwa't baboy and adobong kangkong. The portions were smaller than I initially thought (for the price). All the dishes did not disappoint though.

From bottom left clockwise: A bowl of steamed rice with sisig, adobong kangkong, tokwa't baboy and the house specialty beef pares

 The place can be a bit crowded during the time we visited and that was on a weekday during dinner time. Parking is also limited and may be 3 cars deep so if you are parked in the outermost be prepared to move your car when somebody else is leaving or if you are parked in the innermost spot be patient with the expected delay in moving the other cars out of the way. The restaurant is 24 hours though so the customer density will for sure be varying widely depending on the time (and how near it is to mealtimes). Not all locations are well suited for a 24 hour establishment but I believe that this area will not lack any patrons since pedestrian and vehicular traffic is more or less present all the time.

If you happen to stop by, go try the numerous other items in the menu and leave a comment if you liked those too. I will definitely come back.