Elevate your exquisite home style dining experience right at the heart of Candelaria in Quezon Province. Let JIJF Lutong Bahay ni Inay express its decades of experience and tested expertise in developing their recipes to serving on your tables. Delight with their recipes that would truly impact your experience of Candelaria town, and the province of Quezon in general.

With almost two decades in operations that began in a modest native hut, the beloved Filipino restaurant now operates with two branches. The other property is located right at the front yard of their residence. Located at Barangay Poblacion, the restaurant is located right at the crossroads of different economic progresses of Candelaria town. Its strategic spot is one of its aspects that would be an ease to locate by visitors from other provinces. The restaurant is about few meters from the highway and features an airy high ceilinged dining hall that is full air-conditioned for your convenience. Its table and seats are configured and designed with metal and wood accents. It has a spacious front yard garden where you can enjoy the greeneries before or after you dine. It has also two clean common restrooms with working flush and bidet. They quite have a limited parking space so it is recommended to coordinate your arrival and save some headache.

The menu is simple yet straightforward Filipino cuisine. No further discussion as all of recipes listed are common, but you have to try their version since their techniques where handed from their parents and perfected through the years. Seeing such style of menu would truly depict their love of labor and quality service.

LET’S EAT!

However, they serve only what is available on the day, hence, an element of surprise. Here is the photo of their menu. If you wish to try, I think it is better to contact them beforehand. During the Niyogyugan Festival 2023, we have the opportunity to visit and try their specialties. Here are the heavenly dishes we tried:

CRISPY PATA (Php800) – This is their poster dish and remains the top seller of the restaurant. Their version of Crispy Pata was developed by their parents, and they perfected their version which elevates the Crispy Pata dish among their competitors, as mentioned by the owner, Ms. Annabelle Garcia. The Crispy Pata features a crispy textured skin and a delightful moist and interior meaty core that lets you fray its portions without using any knife. The meat comes with nice balance of flavors plus the crunchy texture created a truly delightful bite. It is truly recommended and certainly their top dish.

SINIGANG NA SUGPO (Php800) – A Filipino Soul Food staple that all generations love and their version comes with good ratio of sour and seafood flavors that plays a wonderful gourmet performance on your tongue on every sip. The vegetables came in fresh and nice to the bite. The Prawns are indeed large in size, and would really fill your spoon. I personally love this with flavored vinegar dip.

RELYENONG BANGUS (Php450) – A+ for their effort for making the Relyeno Meat Core almost free of the annoying fine Bangus Fish Bone. Their version came with subtle flavors of the aromatics and the unique egg core that adds with the umami base flavor.

WHOLE FRIED CHICKEN (Php550) – This is my favorite – a personal choice. Crispy fried with basic seasonings that brings out the deep chicken meat flavors coupled with tender and moist meat. The texture and savory flavor of the Fried Chicken marries well inside your mouth and creates a nice mix of textures and chicken flavor.

CHOPSUEY (Php375) – The Chinese dish that is ubiquitous to every province, came with the usual flavors we expected. The carrot portions are crunchy to bite.

ENSALADANG MANGGA (Php275) – This is another favorite of mine where chopped onions, tomatoes, sour yellow mango, salted egg and fern fiddleheads mixed with the bagoong were the main actors of this gourmet dish. I love how the fresh ingredients are fresh and crunchy.

A hearty Filipino meal will always be a perfect experience whenever we travel around the Philippines. With different perfected versions of various dishes that creates this myriad of gastronomic activity would deepen and widen your understanding of each town like Candelaria.

FOR RESERVATIONS AND INQUIRIES,

The JIJF Lutong Bahay Ni Inay Restaurant is located at Corners Martinez Street & Gonzales Street, Barangay Poblacion, Candelaria, Quezon Province. Daily operations begins from 9:00AM to 8:00PM. Its another branch is located at San Antonio Village, Barangay Mangilag Sur.

Landline: +63 42 585-6001

Mobile Number: +63 933 826 1128

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

Our heartfelt thanks to the Department of Tourism – CALABARZON for this gastronomic experience, and to Ms. Annabelle Garcia, the proprietress of the restaurant, that opened their business for us to try their best of bests.

(Prices indicated in this article may change without prior notice)