Valentine's Day Dinner at La Girolle, Fort

Today is Valentine ’s Day, the day of love and although I shudder and abhor the crass commercialism because of all the things I am expected to do and buy today no guy really has a choice but to abscond and bow down to the societal pressures brought about by the great marketing machinations of hotels, restaurants, candy makers, chocolatiers, hallmark and all other purveyors of things deemed “romantic”. 

Nobody wants the one they love to be without the things everyone else has.  That in mind I decided last week, mind you a full week to see where I could book a romantic dinner. 

The thing is with Valentine’s is that most restaurants really have us guys by the throat, they can change their prices, change the menus to special Valentine’s sets and we really have no choice.  Figuring I would be paying through my nose anyway  so being the miser I am I wanted to maximize my buck so I made a list of what I thought are romantic fine dining restaurants in the Fort and Makati.

Massetto is nice, romantic, has great wines because one of the owners owns Premium Wine Exchange, the thing is, their location is a killer with typical Makati traffic so it would be absolutely brutal with Valentines Makati traffic.  Matter of fact it would be pretty much the same with any restaurant in Makati whether near the mall or not.  Hotels are simply out of the question, too posh, costly and I’m sure further bombardment of all things you should be buying, hotels are the department stores of Valentines.  Moving on.   In the Fort, there is the Goose Station which I have never been to, Aubergine which is hit and miss to me and I haven’t been there in years. 

I decided on La Girolle, a French restaurant run by Chef Ian Padilla who actually worked in several Michelin Star restaurants in New York and Paris according to their website.  That alone is enough to pique my interest and reviewing their valentines menu which I requested, they have a six course dinner with wine for P2,500 a person, net.  I have always been intrigued with French cooking, a friend of mine who lived in Paris told me that Pinoys have a tendency to get fat there because the food is so rich in butter and cream, you are supposed to have a bit of everything and be all good, but we Pinoys are of course “LAMON” hehehehhee.
It’s a welcome relief after browsing the La Girolle Fort site to see that Ian Padilla still cooks out of the cookbook of classical French cooking with modern improvements.  I like the statement, no shortcuts, shorteners or what not.  If something needs to simmer for hours and hours then it shall.

I will let you know how it goes tomorrow.  Happy Valentines!

Read part 2 of La Girolle here.

check out, www.lagirollefort.com