Restaurant Thrills 1

I love eating out! Finding a hole-in-a-wall restaurant gives me a thrill! With this new lifestyle, I am looking at restaurants in a different perspective. I look at each of them now not only on the variety of food that they serve but looking at it in the aspect of being able to cater healthy eaters.

This is the Philippines, I know. Filipinos are meat lovers. So am I. I still eat chicken but I have been trying to veer away from pork and beef. Most restaurants love to serve meat since it's tasty and Filipinos love the oil and the fat but I will try to review these restaurants in their non-pork and non-beef dishes. If you have any restaurants you want me to try out, let me know. I'll share with you my reviews. :-)

Here are the eating places I tried this weekend and my personal rating:

a. Indulgence (location: along Perea St. Legaspi Village, Makati)

My friends and I love this cozy restaurant. They do not only serve tasty food but it is also a good hang out after office hours. Not the usual noisy drinking place but nice place to have good conversation over a bottle of beer without the loud music in the background.

The owner is Ms. Ressa, a super sweet lady who's hands on with the management of the place. She (or her husband) is also very aristic and is into wonderfully created pottery. You can also buy the different pieces you see in the resto.

When we started hanging out there, the biggest come on is the tasty tinola and the super yummy cakes and desserts. Last Friday, I just had a serving of their fish curry with rotti bread. It's filling but I'm not really a fan of tuna so this one is just so so for me. Their green salad with fish shreds was not available that night.

For dessert, I tried their Brownie cheese cake. Very creamy but not sweet! I loved it! You must have it with a friend though coz its too rich to be eaten alone. The carrot cake that Ms. Ressa made was also good without being overly sweet.

Not a lot of salad choices but they still have a few choices for non-meat dishes.

Rating: ***

b. Cafe Meditteranean (location: Power Plant Mall, Rockwell)

I think Ed and I indulged ourselves too much in this resto! :-) We ordered the fish kebab pizza (good for 2 people) which is really tasty! It took about 20 minutes to prepare but its so worth the wait.

Ed also ordered the vegetable soup (I forgot the name of the soup!) which he really enjoyed since he's also in the vegetable and seafood diet. It's a stew of zucchini, tomatoes, carrots and other vegetables .

We also ordered my favorite chicken kebab! It's grilled so there's no oil! Always super yummy! Eating this with the garlic sauce and extra tabouleh is the bomb! :-) Try eating it with the whole wheat pita bread! Yummy and still healthy.

Rating: ****

c. Legaspi Village Orangic Market (location: Behind the Corinthian Plaza Bldg near GB1)

My family got very curious about my stories of going to the Salcedo Saturday Market that they decided to go around the Legaspi Village Market and decided to have lunch there.

This one is not as big as the Salcedo Market but it also has its share of interesting greens and food. If you are used to the Salcedo Market as a big grocey, this one will look like a small sari-sari store for you. :-)

One thing I like here is the fresh chinese lumpia and the japche noodles. :-) Also, you can get the greens and bring it home for an organic lunch! :-) If you like variety though, head out to the Salcedo Market on Salcedo park every Saturday morning!

Rating: ***

d. Di Marks (location: Greenbelt 3, Makati)

Big disappoint in this place.

I tried their tossed salad... WWAAAHHH!!! I wanted to cry. It was full of really sour and unpalatable italian dressing.

The Mushroom Pasta in Tomato sauce was not something you would want to order. Its dark red sauce with no taste and full of cheddar cheese topping. Edgar did not enjoy this dish at all.

To top it all, the Roasted Garlic and Shrimp pizza had 5 or 6 slices (note: not pieces but very small sliced shrimps!) per slice! Never again will I go back to that restaurant!!! It might have been really good in the past but they have not been able to keep up with the restos in their same market.

Rating: Too bad to be rated

e. Heaven 'n Eggs (location: Glorietta 4, Makati)

This is my Dad's new favorite restaurant! I know! He's a few years too late in discovering this place. :-)

He loves the Fish Taco which he made me try. Not bad! Not much dressing which gives more flavor to the fish and enough vegetables to fill you for a snack. Next time, I'll try their Baja fish dish and their salads. I was too full from the lunch to eat more than the fish taco. I'll also try their salads. They sounded interesting from the menu.

Rating: ***

f. NYPD (location: Greenbelt 3, cinema area)

Ok! Ok! I know that this is not a restaurant and they sell french fries and dip. Not the healthiest place to eat at but after the meal in Di Mark's, I needed something else to make me full. I had a cup of mushroom soup which was ok. Much much better than the salad that I had.

This place actually surprised me. They have 3 to 4 choices of salad, from Steaks and Greens to Ceasar Salad! Not bad for stall in a mall. They also serve pasta which is only around P100 to P200.00/ serving. I will definitely try their salad soon. I have only tried their mushroom soup which was good enough to get me through the night after the unappetizing Di Mark's experience!

They just opened a diner on De La Rosa St. Maybe I'll try it their this week.

Rating: soon...