Christmas Eats: Friends' Get-Together

Last Saturday I met up with my college friends for our 10th or 11th Christmas party (I'm not sure). We rented a function room at the second floor of Dampa Cubao within the Farmers' Market. Evidently, being inside the market, the venue was not posh but decent enough. The function room was clean, spacious, well air-conditioned and has its own sink for hand washing. A videoke machine is available for entertainment. Just drop P5 coin per song.

Dampa is set-up ala food court style but ingredients are freshly bought from the market and cooked according to your liking. Although seafoods are the specialty, you could get chicken and pork as well. We had SIS serve us the following dishes:

• 1 Kg buttered shrimps
• 1/2 Kg crabs in oyster sauce (3 pieces of large crabs)
• 1/2 Kg shrimp tempura
• 1/2 Kg kinilaw na Tanigue
• 1/2 Kg sinigang Tuna
• 14 cups of rice
• 3 x 1.5 L Coke
• 1 Barrel of San Mig Light
  

I highly recommend the buttered shrimps and the shrimp tempura! The sinigang wasn't as sour as I hoped it could have been, but it was still good. The amount of food was just enough for our group of 13 persons. Beer, I think (although I'm no expert!) was a bit diluted.

For average earning people (like us), cost is a big criteria for choosing a venue for a get-together. So, how much did this Dampa gig set us back? Consumable fee for the function room (for 10-15 persons) was P1,500. Actual rent was P300 for the first two hours and P250 for every succeeding hour. We stayed an extra hour so the total room rental was P550. For food and beer, we spent a total of P3,100 (tax inclusive). Waiter's tip was P100. (Only 1 waiter will serve you, Josh of Sis is a very accommodating chap!) Each of us chipped in P300 for the total bill - not bad I should say! Food was excellent and the venue was a good place for us friends to catch up with each other's lives.

Complain:
The biggest let-down of Dampa are comfort rooms. There are no comfort rooms. You have to use the CR from the market. The toilet wasn't very clean, there are only two cubicles, only 1 working sink, and they charge P10 per use! Tsk tsk!