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.

Va Bene

The gasoline station today is pretty much no longer the gasoline station of years past.  The Petron gasoline station at the corner of EDSA and Pasay Road is a case in point--shops, restaurants, dental clinics and laundromats have made the gasoline station a mini-mall.  Not a bad place for Chef Massimo of Manila Pen's Old Manila to put up his own pasta restaurant--Va Bene, meaning Quite Good!  Vicky and I had the opportunity to eat there with a couple of old office mates on a weeknight, and we were happy to get a table immediately--I heard that on Friday and Saturday nights, the waiting line is quite long.

I liked the interiors of the restaurant immediately.  Quite informal, cozy yet elegant, the use of bright colors and cookbooks made me feel that the restaurant was a statement of Chef Massimo's personality (it probably is).  I was told that uncooked pasta was available for sale, and I was already trying to figure out how to make my own version of their pasta sauces.

The tomato dip was a welcome treat--I sat down a hungry man and started to munch on the toasted bread even before the rest came in (I arrived first).  As our orders came in, I was delighted with the aromas that came to greet me--the tagliolini was made with portobello mushrooms and had a white wine cream sauce, and the light hint of truffle oil made my mouth want more.  The potato gnocchi had a gorgonzola based sauce, it was not bad at all (as a rule though, I prefer long pasta over gnocchi and ravioli).  The tomato-based seafood linguini was another exquisite surprise (I understand that they make their own pasta, which accounts for the sensational bite).  Last on our order list was some pizza slices; these however were ordinary and I would much rather take the pasta, which is the specialty of the restaurant.  As the dinner was the treat of our friend, I didn't get to see the total bill, but my guess would be an average spend of P600 for a pasta meal, and maybe P1,200 for a full course event.

Nanos

I was in SM Manila over the weekend, and came across this new pizza place called Nanos at the basement level.  The interiors were warm and inviting--I liked the brick lined wall and the wicker tables.  I understand that this is the only store that the brand has, but according to the lady, they probably will expand their outlets since the sales are quite good.

Their pizzas are quite large, with prices ranging from P550 for the basic cheese pizza, to P1,200 for their deep dish specialty called the Italiana (they have both white and red versions).

I chose the Italiana based on their recommendation.  The white cheese was quite flavorful, but my only regret was that this variation had pineapples, which to my mind made the pizza classify as a Hawaiian pizza.  Don't get me wrong, I like pineapples, but as a dessert, just not in my pizza!

I was slightly in a hurry, and wasn't able to find out more about the brand--where it was first established, is it homegrown?  I'll probably visit the place again, ask the girls a few questions and try the other flavors.

Italianni's

Meeting at the Greenbelt area usually means some discussion of where to  hold the meeting, as one can find a lot of restaurant choices in the area.  When a colleague suggested Italianni's, however, there was no objection.  The restaurant has been a perennial favorite, and it seems that the wide menu selection, the friendly service, plus the constant quality control (both in food preparation and physical plant) makes good reason for repeat visits.

We just had coffee for our meeting, so I've got nothing to report for the time being.  As a general observation however, the restaurant serves good Italian food, and the serving portions are quite generous.  Average food check I would say is in the vicinity of P800 per head.  The Greenbelt branch is a favorite branch of my friends who smoke--they have an outdoor patio area for just that!

Il Ponticello

Busy, busy... long time no blogging, but we'll go to the reason behind that later when we report about our trip to Hong Kong.  Before we left, I had a lunch meeting at the Il Ponticello Italian restaurant along Valero St. in Salcedo Village.  Being on the 2nd floor of the Antel office building, you have to go up using the fire exit (the elevator doesn't stop on the 2nd floor), and although the restaurant owners decorated and painted the stairway in order to have some measure of appeal, that entrance via fire exit somehow diminished the relaxing interiors of the place.

We started off with thin-crust pizza, which had just the right crunch.  Since we were all hungry, this was gone the moment the food server set it on our table; I didn't even get the chance to take a picture.  For my lunch, I had prawns with tagliatelle cream sauce which was quite delicious.  Pasta was firm and right to the bite, and the sauce was rich and full of flavor.

I understand the place turns into a resto-bar at night, and sometimes, acoustic bands play light jazz and pop music for the patrons.

Overall our lunch was a good dining experience, although the bill was on the pricey side for casual dining.  Prepare some P850 per head if you want starters to go with your main course.

Papa John's

After all that 3:00 pm ramen, our Happy Friday dinner came a bit late at around 9:30 pm, as soon as Monique & I had walked all around the Makati Commerical Center to generate appetite anew (we made our way past Landmark all the way to Glorietta 5 and back).  We found ourselves at Papa John's Pizza in Greenbelt 3, and since we had not yet tried their pizza, we decided to pop in for one family size all-meat pizza and some seafood spaghetti--

As in a lot of good pizza places, the restaurant has a glass partition so one can watch how the pizza is made.  As advertised, the pizza dough was noticeably fresh and delicious to the bite.  The toppings were flavorful and the pizza came in hot off the oven.  However, the spaghetti was good but wasn't exactly outstanding.  As we were still full, we had half of the pizza wrapped for take-home.  Our bill came to around P450 per head.

Upon our analysis, we realized that price was the competitive disadvantage of Papa John over the other pizza chains, as their family pizzas still hover at the P500+ price range.  For example, both Shakey's and Pizza Hut had promotional offers that will enable a customer to purchase a family size pizza for around P300 each.  Overall, though, the dining experience was a good one.

My Kitchen

I almost forgot to write about our encounter with Chef Chris Locher at My Kitchen, located at the ground floor of the Oasis Hotel right beside Paco Park in Manila (the space was formerly occupied by the Barramundi restaurant of the hotel).  Monique and I dropped by for dinner last weekend and to our delight, we learned that Chef Chris has decided to open his own bistro as he brings his famous rolling panizza to Manila.  Some of you might recognize him as the head chef of C's restaurant in Angeles, Pampanga (where he introduced the panizza, the tradition of which has been continued in other local restaurants and pizza chains like Uncle Cheffy's and Yellow Cab).  The Oasis Paco Park Hotel used to house the Swiss Inn some decades ago, and it's good to find a good restaurant operating in the area again.  The ambience is pretty neat and cozy, and I like the Vigan tiles for the flooring, as it gave a very homey atmosphere to the place.  Service was pretty efficient, and courteous and well-trained staff made it a point to make our visit a delightful one.

We had their Paco Panizza, which was newly created specially for this bistro--quite flavorful!  Monique enjoyed rolling the panizza, and I was quite surprised that she would eat veggies--alfalfa and arugula--which she usually avoids.  Spaghetti with mushrooms came next, and for our meat dish we had 3 kinds of sausages, one slightly sweet, one in garlic and another flavored with rosemary and fennel.  Being in the Ermita area, right next to the tourist belt, prices are a bit on the high end--expect to pay something like P800 to P1,200 per head if you will eat in this restaurant.

Piadina

Last week, I had much time to kill around the Salcedo Village area; luckily I spotted the Piadina at the ground floor of the Solaris One Tower, right at the back of Ayala Avenue.  Ordered a piadina (which is folded white bread) with italian sausages and gorgonzola cheese, it was good, but I would have wanted the serving size to have been a little larger...(as usual).  The place offers a variety of Italian food items on the menu--pizza, pastas, and piadinas, both solo and in combi-variants with salads, drinks and desserts.  I spent a tad under P200, but I can imagine that for a full course meal, one would have to fork out something like P500 per head.  I understand that the group operates a Piadina branch in Tokyo, and the owners also have an upscale Italian restaurant near that Piadina branch (I forget the name though).  Fast service, tasty food, reasonably priced.

Cibo

 

Italian restaurants in Manila very often have the classic interiors that give the diner the ambience of an Italian home (e.g. L' Incontro, La Grotta, La Tavole or Pasto) or the feel of the Italian countryside (e.g. Bellini's, Amoroma).  Cibo is one of those Italian places that go counter to that stereotype--the place is hip, chic and quite appealing to the younger set.  As Monique was busy going with her friends around the Eastwood Mall, we took Andi Panini to Eastwood's Cibo branch, which was located along the hallways in the mall proper.  

Andi just loved their spaghettini Alfonso (tomato sauce, seafood and cream), and we were surprised she was able to finish most of the serving.  Sauce was nicely done, not too salty, just the right amount of cream.  Pasta was not was gooey-on-the-inside as I would have wanted, but this was firm and curled up neatly.

We also had meat sauce linguini but we thought this one could have been done with a bit more of flavor.  The two kinds of oval pizza that we got--parma ham with arugula, with shavings of some hard cheese (I forget which one exactly) and

smoked salmon with dabs of cream cheese and roe, more than made up for that.

We wound up with a bit more than we could finish, so the food servers were kind enough to pack the left-overs in a take-out bag.  We spent something like P400 per head, came out of the place, quite stuffed!

Caruso

Happy Friday!  Vicky, Monique and myself found ourselves celebrating the family tradition of having Friday dinner out (for no reason at all, except to be happy) in Caruso Ristorante Italiano along Nicanor Reyes St. in Makati (this street used to be called Reposo).  Tucked away in the ground floor of the Luzon Rattan Building, you can almost miss the place, except for the fact that the multitude of cars parked outside calls attention--something good must be definitely brewing inside!  As we entered, it was a warm welcome we experienced; the interiors were elegant but still cozy, the atmosphere was lively and the staff was pleasant and well-trained.




Vicky and Monique started off with watermelon and lychee shakes, and as the food rolled in, we had porcini spaghetti (or was this truffle-oil spaghetti, i now forget... I must say this dish was excellent in all respects), spinach-filled ravioli (Monique though, wanted a sharper, cheesier bite), vongole (clam) linguini (an afterthought, which was nice and light), and two kinds of pizza--4 cheese and parma ham.

Dinner was capped with tiramisu, our all time favorite.  I like the way their pasta is properly al dente, cooked right yet still gooey to the bite!  A very pleasant night, which set us back just about P900 per head.  Just the place to bring your fiancee when you pop the most important question!