At a glance, Alley at The Grove looks like a good take-off point for the weekend. Enter the joint and immediately you will feel like you were in a steady neighborhood rooftop jam: there are plants adorning the gray brick walls, a series of lights hanging across the ceiling, speakers spewing out motown music, giving the high, happy hour vibe to the 45-seater space.

Scan the room from left to right and you’ll see a bright red oven sitting at the far end, left corner. The kitchen then segues into a bar, one that displays a lot of local Filipino drinks (think craft beers, Don Papa Rum, etc). Toward the middle of the restaurant are elevated bar seating, which meets the long couch lining the wall on the right.

The easygoing vibe Friday vibe is amplified upon first bite of the queso de bola beignets (PHP199). Then you know, you’re going to stay and chill and enjoy yourself.

Alley is perhaps, the most compelling reason yet to brave C-5’s bitch of a traffic to head out to The Grove by Rockwell.

It’s a joint that serves, well, not so much comfort food as it is familiar fare but elevated to a higher, more delicious plane.

Salad, sandwiches, pasta — you may think they all look the same. But in Alley, these food items come with small little details that (1) make them special and (2) reveal chef Thirdy Dolatre’s genius. The young chef is hella inspired.

The pork chicharrones (PHP179), for instance, isn’t just accompanied with vinegar. It’s vinegar flavored with orange and star anise, excuse me. Now, it doesn’t just lift the flavor of pork, but elevates it to a bang.

And while the corned beef belly made the Reuben Sandwich (PHP319) such a star, the generous serving of pickle slaw in the sandwich — and the bread! the sweet molasses bread — provided all the difference.

Pretty much everything in Alley is made from its kitchen — they create their own sauces, make their own chips, bake their own bread. So sandwiches and pastries are all very irresistible.

The Reuben, again, is the shizz, you can’t go wrong with the Grilled Cheese Pimiento (PHP249), and the Breakfast in Bread (PHP259) is the morning-after, post-drinking hangover treat. Which is getting ahead of the story, because apart from Alley being a good weekend take-off point, it’s also a great place to be in while inebriated.

Witness the glory of its Chicken Soy Rice (PHP329). It’s a rice bowl that comes with a very malasado poached egg on top. Break the egg and watch the yolk coat every morsel of rice that’s already generously coated with soy to begin with.

Chunks of chicken play hide and seek with the crackling. It may already sound heavy, but the addition of pickled veggies spritzes the dish with freshness. It comes with homemade hot sauce that puts yet another layer of flavor to the winning dish.

There is so much more to have here — the financiers are like magic, you can almost imagine the taste of coffee to go with it. There is also the most indulgent, non-healthy tasting banana bread we’ve tasted yet, and the beignets, holy god the beignets.

Which brings us back to our point: Alley isn't just a place to begin your weekend festivities. Neither is it just a place to end them. Alley is a joint to check out to have a good time.

Alley opens on Feb 8, 2016. G/R Retail Row, The Grove by Rockwell, C-5, Pasig. +63916 4933136. Sun-Thu 11am-11pm, Fri & Sat 11am-12am.

This story was originally published on Coconuts Manila.