Pagliacci

Anita and her kids decided to accompany Kong Kong on his wheelchair journey to the Podium at the Ortigas Center.  We chose the mall because of its wide aisles and the availability of an elevator, which made it very easy for us to move Kong around.  We wound up having lunch at Pagliacci (Italian for "clown") which Mira recommended to us (apparently her classmate had invited her to eat there a couple of months back).

The interiors were a bit dark compared to the brightly lit corridors of the Podium.  Once your eyes adjust to the light, you can see that the owners made an effort to decorate the walls with a lot of Italian masks, and the clown motif was clearly evident.  We had a prosciutto pizza, and another one with truffle oil and mushrooms.  The pizzas had a thin crust, which was crunchy and hot.

The kids wanted some pasta, and we were delighted with the cream based linguine and the seafood spaghetti that we ordered.  However, the stuffed chicken (essentially stuffed with bacon, olives and cheese) was a bit on the tough side, and the sauce had to make up for the loss of meat juices.  It was at that point that I remembered the advice of a foodie friend pertaining to Italian restaurants--stick to pizza and pasta, and if you must take meats, go for the stewed meats instead of the pan fried dishes.

The kids were very happy with the pizza and pasta, and the adults had to finish the chicken.  For dessert, we had some gelato (they make this in house), which was around P100 for a couple of scoops.  Apparently, they also operate the Gelatone icOur aggregate bill came to around P400 per head.  Not too full, just right.