Restaurant Rave: SALA Bistro

Much as I love dinners, I also adore brunches, most especially when it's with the company of ex-colleagues from my magazine life. We try out a new place every time we meet up and each time is a late morning full of great food and plenty of industry gossip.

I love the simple elegance of SALA Bistro, and the food ain't too shabby either. I wanted to have the Champagne Brunch with unlimited bubbly but everyone was in a rush that day. Next time!

My Bistro Sunday Fry Up-- essentially a Full English brekky without the beans and black pudding. I ate every last bit of this.

Kat's Bistro Minute Steak (topped with Onion Rings!)

Tippi and Andrea got the Creamy Scrambled eggs with smoked salmon

As if our mains weren't enough, we had little desserts to top off our meal as well.

I got the rum and raisin bread and butter pudding with vanilla seed ice cream. I was mad full but guess what, I still finished it!

Warm chocolate croissant with vanilla seed ice cream

Ricotta and Banana Pancakes with Maple Syrup---I'm getting this next time!

Happy Faces--and bellies!


P690 for a two course brunch and P1280 for a two course brunch plus unlimited bubbly.
Available Saturday and Sunday 11am-2pm Call 7294888 for reservations. Sala Bistro is located at the G/F Garden Side, Greenbelt 3

Restaurant Rave: The Balcony

This was actually my THIRD visit to The Balcony, the new Gastro-pub along C.Palanca in Legazpi Village in Makati, but my first time to actually go there to eat. The first two times were to meet and catch up over (more than) a few drinks with friend and fellow blogger Dane (trustme-itsparadise.blogspot.com) so this third visit's mission was purely to FINALLY try out all this yummy food I have been seeing photos of on Facebook.

Met up for dinner with my cousin (and amazing young woman) Vicky Herrera who was up for a "pig out" session with me. She was starving and had already ordered when I arrived but I managed to get her to share an order of Sisig with me. I'm not really one to immediately order sisig. In fact, it took years for me to finally even try it and I am still VERY picky when it comes to Sisig and through the years have only eaten the one at Aysee's near Ultra and Ken Afford along Katipunan.

And then this came into my life. See, the thing is with sisig is it needs to be crunchy- no excuses and no other way to eat it. This is the same reason why I can't get into chicken or fish sisig- they completely miss the entire point of the whole dish. They can't get the crunch, or even the exact flavor of real sisig. This one at The Balcony is pre-marinated, super crunchy and gets ten million extra points for its addition of AIOLI that is mixed into the dish. Say what you want about fat content and heart attacks, but I say if you are gonna eat sisig, you might as well go all the way.

I have also heard a lot about their Twin Mac n' Cheese. Being a sucker for anything with carbs and O.D.-worthy amounts of cheese I had to order this. Pretending it was for my daughter, I knew I would be able to eat some because there was no way she would be able to finish the two bowls by herself.

The Balcony's Twin Mac n' Cheese consists of a bowl of macaroni with cream cheese, truffle oil and bacon bits, and another of macaroni with cheddar and fontina. It's good for sharing as it is VERY rich and the price is pretty nice also at only over P300 for both bowls. Vicky and I ate some of this when Ananda was done eating- and I STILL brought home left overs. Not because it wasn't THAT good, but mostly because I ordered this too...


Sheperd's Pie. I was so famished, and when I'm hungry, I just want uncomplicated things I can shove in my mouth (don't even go there- I know what you're thinking) This particular uncomplicated thing consists of beef, mashed potatoes and cheese. I mean seriously, how can you go wrong with that...ever? This dish has a strong oregano taste from the beef and I managed half of it before I threw down the towel (or fork) I was so full from this, the sisig AND the mac n' cheese. They made awesome next day left overs, by the way.


This is what Vicky had. I didn't get to try it but she seemed to finish it in all of 30 seconds so I'm guessing it was good. To quote her: " I love chicken. Any kind of chicken. I'll eat any chicken."


Visit The Balcony at 110 C.Palanca street, Legaspi Village, Makati

Restaurant Rave: Shang Palace

I love Chinese food. Something about it is always comforting to me. It's probably the familiar tastes of my childhood and memories of my late grandmother Alicia, who I was so close to, I named my daughter after her.

Shang Palace at Shangri-la Makati has been a regular place for family get-togethers on my mom's side. More often than not, we order the same food and enjoy it each time like it's our first time there.

Here are some of my favorites:


Hot Prawn Salad. Incidentally, this was also my grandmother's favorite dish. I used to hate it when I was young but now I take pleasure in each crunchy bite.I can't eat more than two in one sitting though. The prawns are huge and the oil can sometimes be overwhelming, especially for someone with a delicate tummy like mine!


Pan Fried Cod Fish in Barbecue sauce. I love Gindara in all forms, but this is a particularly good one. Be careful not to eat too much thought because Gindara is already a very oily fish. Pair it with frying and they become little fat bombs. Delicious ones though ;p


Who doesn't love Buchi? When I was younger, I used to scoop out all the filling and eat only the shell. I've since learned to enjoy eating even the bean paste but my favorite buchis are the kind with the black sesame paste filling and peanut.

Other things on the menu that night:

Minced Seafood and Crabmeat soup with Coriander. They had me at Coriander. I like anything with it.It was a simple soup that because special because of that little addition.


Deep Fried Pork Ribs with Fragrant Garlic. Only had a bite of this, not a big fan or pork unless processed or cured (Read: Bacon, Spam and Prosciutto) Meat was tender and anything with garlic is always a win.


Braised Broccoli with dried scallops and black mushroom. Because we need our veggies. I can appreciate nice, big, green broccoli though. Sometimes the ones in the supermarkets here look sad.


This was the only weird thing on the menu. It was mango pudding shaped like a fish with vanilla ice cream. The ice cream was fantastic, the pudding not so much. it wasn't horrible, but it wasn't great.

Tomorrow is margarita and grill night with my mom, some relatives and friends. Can't wait!