Casa Armas

The month of June has been pretty much a busy month for me, and I haven't had much time to go online.  But I've been visiting a lot of places, and among them is Casa Armas, which used to be just a quaint restaurant in the Malate area, but today has several franchise outlets all over the metro (I understand that there is even a branch in Davao).  This restaurant was started by Jesus Armas great chef with a flair for good food and fine living, and further on gained prominence in the the late eighties--people were simply raving over their paella!  Yes, that was, and still is their number one bestseller!  Our business meeting turned into a happy hour meal of sorts, and we had a lot of tapas and pica-picas on our table--

Ham, salami and cheese platter for starters!

Spicy octopus, bathed in olive oil, was sheer delight to much on

Beef tenderloin tips, fried crispy and cooked with a lot of garlic

The squid was soft, albeit a bit bland for me, so I let the calamansi add the zing!

Beef Tapa was quiet tasty, and the raw onions added contrast to every bite

Garlic fried button mushrooms!  A time tested favorite

Gambas, with lots of olive oil, and with just the right spice

Baked clams, lots of cheese on top--one of my favorites

The branch's interiors at the Podium have been quite modernized, a far cry from the traditional brick look and homey feel projected by the original Malate outlet.  Service was pretty fast and courteous.  Just one comment--the restaurant outlet is located right next to the entrance door of the mall, and this was a bit distracting to our discussion, as there was a steady stream of shoppers lining up to enter the mall.  Despite the modern mall surroundings, select Spanish decor gave the place some authenticity--the bull heads adorning the wall gave a nice Iberian touch.  Our bill came to around P400 per head, which was not bad for happy hour chit-chat!

Dulcinea

Dulcinea has been around for almost 50 years, and while its early close competitor La Cibeles Pasteleria y Salon de Te has already gone the way of the woolly mammoth, Dulcinea is currently flourishing, with several branches operating in various parts of Metro Manila.  Went around the Greenbelt Mall with the Callars late into the Labor Day holiday, and we wound up having a fast dinner at the  Dulcinea branch located at the ground floor of the mall.  We were initially contemplating a late merienda cena, but as things turned out, we ordered a lot!

I started off with a pitcher of my favorite fruit shake, and we took advantage of their P99 promo for club sandwiches and burgers, and their P149 offering for pasta and other rice meals.

Being a popular priced restaurant, the Spanish dishes come in at very down to earth prices, about P300 on the average.  Tuhod y batoc, callos, paella and beef salpicao are all available, and the food comes out fast.  The deli counter also has several sweet and savory favorites, including two of my favorites--jamon Serrano and tocino del cielo!  The absolute must-try, however, is their churroz con chocolate, and this is exactly what the sisters Vicky and Becca ordered.

The Greenbelt branch is bright and casual, perfect for a lazy breakfast, a quick lunch or a light mid-afternoon snack.  This place has been a favorite of my colleagues for intimate business meetings in the Makati area.

Casa Marcos

We had a classic Spanish dinner with Vicky's former classmates last night, and it was a wonderful surprise to find out that the Burgos Circle at the Fort has transformed into a gourmet's lounge area.  As it was a special night (one of her good friends and drinking gal-pals from the old days arrived from San Diego), they opted to have the reunion in Casa Marcos, which was last seen some 10 years ago, operating in Tomas Morato Avenue in Quezon City.  As I understand it, the original restaurant was operated during the peacetime days by a Spanish national, and the restaurant was located along Dewey Boulevard in Pasay (now Roxas Boulevard).  After the war, the franchise was passed onto a local businessman, and the gentleman's family moved the restaurant to Granada Street in New Manila sometime in the early eighties, before further relocating to the Tomas Morato site in the nineties.  The New Manila location started selling their pan de sal by the dozen, which was pretty much the same starter bread laid out by the staff when you dine in the restaurant, and the tradition has carried on ever since.  The current iteration is run by the third generation family members, and the old favorites are still around.  We had gambas for starters, lengua, fish in tomato sauce, 2 pans of seafood paella (still with the tutung or crunchy burnt rice at the bottom of the pan), tenderloin tips, and callos for our main meal.  The gambas was still the same as I remember it, but the callos was a bit disappointing, as the chef in their old Dewey Boulevard branch probably had a better understanding of how the dish should be prepared.  For desserts, we had chocolate cake, pudding and french-toast style pan de sal topped with ice cream.  For that, it came to something like P600 per head.  It was a memorable evening, and we didn't even notice that 3 hours had passed since we started.  It was great to see old friends in a restaurant evoking good memories.  As we left, it just occurred to me that I didn't get to taste their Sopa de Mariscos, which I remember was everything the classic soup should be!  But then, that would be for another visit... ;-)

Buenisimo

Went for lunch today with Anita, Kong & Gwammy to Eastwood at the Buenisimo, the Spanish-Italian restaurant operated by the children of Chef Gene Gonzalez of Cafe Ysabel fame.  Our special guest this lunch was Uncle Emong and his family--this the regular quarterly gathering of the two friends from UP Engineering Class of '49.  Imagine that, 62 years of friendship, and still going strong!

The word "buenisimo" is the superlative of "bueno" or "good!"  Yes, the restaurant has been graded by Chaine des Rotisseurs, one of the few in Manila that claim the distinction.  We started off with salad greens, and had several Spanish dishes to share--callos, paella, lamb stew, Angus hanger steak, lengua, salmon steak and grilled lapu-lapu.  The paella was tasty and served piping hot, although I would have preferred an extra 5 minutes on-heat to get more tutung (crispy burnt rice at the bottom of the pan).  I liked their callos, tasty, with a thick sauce and my only comment is that it would probably take 2 servings to satisfy my  cravings!  As we concentrated on the Spanish entries in the menu, we were not able to try the Italian pastas, and we probably will do that next trip.  All in all, the restaurant is very reasonable for an average spend of P600-P700 per head.