Point and Grill Restaurant Elevates Turo-Turo Up North

Point and Grill restaurant elevates "turo-turo" style meals through various branches north of the Philippines including Baguio City, Tarlac, Pangasinan, and Nueva Ecija. 

Turo-turo in the Philippines

Turo-turo food in the Philippines is synonymous to home cooked meals served in a fast food style speed through small kitchenettes, locally called karinderya, found anywhere from marketplaces to sidewalks. The term "turo-turo" can be literally translated as point (2x) where you simply point at the dish you'd like to order for dine in or take out. 

While the meals are very affordable and convenient (since you won't be cooking anymore nor cleaning the dishes if you dine in), those from the upper (or even middle class) may be adamant to eat here or even buy a meal due to sanitation issues. I'm not saying all karinderyas are dirty but there are some who may neglect cleanliness in exchange for serving cheap food. 

Point and Grill Menu

Point and Grill solves that problem by offering the same home cooked style meals ala turo-turo style, pointing to the menu, that is. 

The menu is comprised of inihaw (grilled) dishes; hence, the slogan "ituro mo, ihaw ko," which means they will grill what you'd like (seafood or meat). They also serve foreign originating meals like barbecue or grilled seafood or meat, steak, ribs, pork chop, chicken cooked in various ways and more. 

I honestly can't remember what this is nor can I recognize it based on the image. 🤔 ⬇️

Authentic Local Dishes

What I personally like are authentic local dishes that are quite possibly not served anywhere else except karinderias in the region or at home. Some of those are on the images below. 

Above is pinakbet with bangus, an Ilocano dish. They also serve the Tagalog version; meat is used instead of fish, if I'm not mistaken. It's also similar to the laswa of the Ilonggos and dinengdeng (or inabraw) too, also of Ilokano origin. 

Dinengdeng uses a krill-based bagoong (fermented with salt) while pakbet uses the fish version instead. 

Photo of the same dish below but with variations in terms of vegetables and sagpaw --- the Ilocano term for an ingredient other than veggies like say fish or meat. 

Below is pinapaitan; a beef-based soup. I know it may look oily to some but the hot soup is very heartwarming, perfect during cold weather days or for hangover. 😅

There's another similar dish, called sinanglaw, which often uses goat instead of beef innards. 

Regional Dishes

Apart from the North Luzon menu, they also served other regional dishes such as Kapampangan (Pampanga) and more. I think this might depend on the branch and the availability of ingredients. 

Here's another Iloco dish, bagnet --- seasoned crispy fried pork belly meat. 

Combo and Platter Meals

Other familiar dishes are even served in more affordable combo meals. Some of which include bulalo, kare-kare, kaldereta, pinikpikan, sinigang, sisig, lechon kawali, sinampalukang manok, chop suey, relyeno, binagoongan, ginataan and more. 

But again, some of the items are not available when ingredients (particularly specific seafood) are not in season. 

More combo meal dishes from different visits and branch locations below. 

 Above is pork sinigang. Below? I cannot seem to recall again. 😬

Point and Grill Branches

As of this post, branches are located mostly in SM malls such as SM City Baguio, SM Megacenter Cabanatuan in Nueva Ecija, SM City Rosales and SM City Urdaneta which are both in Pangasinan. They also have another branch in Baguio, at the Upper Session Road, infront of Porta Vaga Mall. 

Information

For more information, visit their official Facebook page, https://www.facebook.com/PointandGrill.