JC Café: Your second kitchen on Tinian

GETTING hungry on Tinian anytime of the day or night  has never been a problem for the past 19 years because anyone can always go to JC Café in San Jose — a place considered as everybody’s second kitchen.
I got to sample JC Café’s sumptuous cuisine when Tinian businesswoman Susan Cruz invited me and buddy Ed for lunch some weeks back.
I had been to the place the night before for a couple of drinks but did not get a chance to try the food. I decided to try one of the house specialties — beef sizzling served with steamed rice while my buddies ordered the breaded shrimp and the famed JC Café’s buttered chicken. We chatted over glasses of iced tea while waiting for our orders, which did not take long considering that a lot of tables were filled with the lunch crowd.

My order was served sizzling on a hot plate — a mouth-watering mix of tender beef strips, young corn, carrots, green peppers and onions and bathed in a delicious sauce. Buddy Ed’s buttered chicken was just as advertised: crunchy and crisply chicken slices with finadene sauce and Susan’s Creation’s Asiga, a Chamorro-flavored salt with powdered hot pepper. Susan’s sizzling shrimp with vegetable salad was enough to tempt anybody to take a bite.

Although we were not that hungry, we made short work of our lunch, sampling each other’s orders. We never finished everything so we ended leaving the restaurant with take-out packs.

JC Café serves U.S., Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Chamorro and Filipino dishes —dine in or take out.

The breakfast menu includes bacon, corned beef, Portuguese sausage, spam and Chamorro sausage, and an omelet which comes with a serving of steamed or fried rice, garlic rice or toast with egg.

A wide selection of all-time island favorite appetizers such as beef, fish, or chicken kelaguen, crispy hot chicken wings, crispy pata (deep-fried pork leg) and more; salads, soups and noodles, burgers, sandwiches and pancakes are available.

Feast on lunch or dinner at JC Café with the house specialties on top of the list — sizzling beef, chicken, mixed seafood, pork, shrimp or squid served, and mouth-watering hamburger, sirloin, t-bone or tenderloin steak served with your choice of steamed rice, mashed potato or fries.

Check out the variety of lunch or dinner choices such as beef, pork, chicken, shrimp, mussels, fish, and Cham Pinoy or a combination of Filipino and Chamorro favorites. You can also try the oriental dishes, any of the bento platters.

JC Café manager Marie Rose G. Bunao said they have just opened another line of delights for their diners: a selection of fresh salad or fresh grill wraps in tortilla or tossed in a salad bowl.

Not that hungry? JC Café serves pearl shakes in various flavors, your favorite cup of iced or hot coffee, chocomilk, or tea with one free refill.

At night, you can dance the night away of pass the time over bottles of beer, soda, all kinds of juices.

For the past 19 years, JC Café has been providing residents and tourists an ideal place to hangout. Pool tables are available for those in the mood, the Poker Palace and ATM are open 24 hours, and J.C. Café’s mix of modern and traditional furniture and decoration, checkered patterns on the floor and table cloths, wooden tables on the sides and a relaxing new smoker’s section outside provides diners an ambiance where they can unwind and relax in the café’s old world charm and get pampered by the friendly, cheerful and efficient staff.

Here’s a bonus. JC Café can pick up and drop off customers. It also delivers for free. JC Café is open 24 hours daily.

Major credit cards are accepted. For orders or reservations, please call 433-3413. This article was first published HERE.