Monday, October 28, 2013

Bamba Bistro at Aguirre, BF Homes, Paranaque

On a visit to relatives in the Alabang area it was suggested we go to Bamba Bistro located at 55 Aguirre Street BF Homes.  It was suggested because my sister in law was seeing a lot of raving posts on Instragram on the food.

Bamba Bistro is the newest in a chain of BF Restaurants from a restaurateur family the Legarda's.  From where we sat we could clearly see Chef Tina slaving away in the kitchen to a relatively full house last Sunday.  
Quaint signage that is warmly backlit





The Gem - Bamba Hamburger 210

Steak Ala Manila PhP 690

baby back ribs

The recommended steak ala Manila was not to my liking at all.  Nothing wrong with it its just that I am not a fan of sweet tapa, if I wanted something sweet I would go find tocino.  I found the meat fatty and tough, the barbecue and char like flavor reminded me of pork barbecue.  I prefer the Maple version of Tapsilog.

We also had pasta which was ok, the mussels in a cream sauce which was fantastic except the mussels were tiny in large shells, I wonder why that is because even local mussels I have had are usualy 3x the size.  The cream sauce is cheesy and makes an excellent dip for bread.

As for dessert, the chocolate ravioli is interesting, just let it cool down a little bit or you will burn your tongue.  The panna cotta a bit too burned for our taste, but it does say it is toasted.  The cookie ala mode was very good.

What I really liked and is an excellent bargain is the burger, soft, juicy, tasty on what I must say is the best hamburger bun I have ever had.  At P210 it is not that much more than a Mc Donald's Quarter Pounder!  It was so succulent and juicy and I kinda have to say tastes a lot like the Friday's Cheeseburger.  It comes with a generous serving of Onion rings and comes with fruit and bacon sauces.  If I had a burger of the year award it would go to this!

Bamba is pleasant, a nice place for a quaint date.  Food takes a while but is worth it when it gets there.  Whatever you plan to get, don't forget to order the burger :)

Thursday, October 17, 2013

Mesa Filipino Moderne at SM Aura

I just absolutely love Filipino food.  Matter of fact I have been to two Filipino restaurants just this week starting with last Sunday at Mesa Filipino Moderne at SM Aura.  

We as a family sought out Mesa at the behest of my younger sister who was craving Pritson, crispy lechon de leche wrapped in pita wrappers with different sauces, the Filipino version of Peking Duck.  I personally never got why some people go so crazy over this dish but to each his or her own.  Mesa even gives you a choice of the second way meaning after enough meat has been stripped for about 16 priston wrappers the rest is cooked - we chose sauteed with garlic.  Just like Peking Duck.


Just like Peking Duck - the Pritson is prepared in front of you

Snazzy, modern interior with interesting touches

Boneless Crispy Pata


Two Way Laing


Pritson
Naturally as the Pritson is the know specialty there were many orders of it being prepared at tablesides.  I couldn't help myself and asked the poor woman slicing the lechon if it was hot.  After all she was handling a newly cooked pig with thin plastic gloves so that couldn't have been pleasant for her.  She just smiled and said "a little".  A few minutes later we had the first batch of Pritson and were asked how we wanted to second way or second cooking and we went with sauteed with garlic (the other choice is sauteed with garlic and chili).

Can't say I was impressed with the Pritson.  Pritson is all the same to me and the extra thick, chewy wrapper took away some of the Pritson flavor.  A novelty of those party Pritson is the myriad of choices of sauce but Mesa for no obvious reason to me only offers three.

Everything else was pretty good though, I enjoyed the boneless crispy pata and scooped all the extra garlic and chili to top everyone's rice.  The laing too was excellent, my mom mixed the too together as she preferred everything a bit wetter - separately one is dry and one is wet.

The Pritson was good for four at 1,500.  Had we not have that our bill would have been a little north of one thousand pesos, quite reasonable indeed.

Mesa is decent Filipino food at an excellent price.