Rivalry: Ateneo-La Salle Musical

"Rivalry" is a play that puts the famed blue-vs-green pissing contest between two of the top private universities in the Philippines on-stage in a musical.

Blue vs Green, since 1939.

Cav Wine Shop and Cafe

With 2011 ending, PJ and I decided to give ourselves our last splurge of the year. During my last run in Bonifacio Global City (BGC, or what used to be known as just 'The Fort'), I passed by an interesting looking cafe, and so we went there.

Let's get this out of the way early in this post: Cav is a pretty expensive place for dinner. There. To their credit, the wine selection was a list of an entire folder, and I had quite a conversation with our server, who more or less knows his wine. We had the three-course set (two appetizers, one entree, and one dessert) and a bottle of Taylor's Promised Land shiraz, '09 vintage.

Our wine and wholemeal rolls.

Mushroom shooters and foie gras.

Beautiful :)

Young Arugula Salad.

Duck Confit Ravioli.

Angus Beef Tenderloin, medium-well.

Creme Brulee.

Good night out :)

The menu was a little hard to understand, and we actually spent the first ten minutes listening to our waiter as he explained the various courses they have plus the wines that go well with those. We went for the 'prix fixe' course menu to keep things simple. Since PJ's a pesco vegetarian (that means seafood items are allowed, but still no red meat) she had the two appetizers while I had the beef to myself. Good choice, with the shiraz that I picked for us.

The ambiance was gorgeous, and the service excellent, but for all of Cav's finer points, it's very difficult to say with a straight face that it is a true value for money establishment. The wine - which is sold within their premises - is still slapped with a PHP 300 corkage fee, something that I find very illogical and unreasonable. However, with bottles priced above PHP 1,500, the corkage is 'waived'. I think this is a ridiculous system since they are selling their wines in the first place. Also, the Brussels sprout on my Angus beef? Four pieces of the small green things were considered a PHP 700 'add-on'. Yes. Four pieces. Seven hundred pesos. Go digest that for a minute.

It was a beautiful date, and we did leave the place very full, but it was not exactly a dinner justified by the final bill. We've eaten in some of BGC's and Green Belt 5's higher-end restaurants, but this has to be the most expensive one yet, and I'm not sure it was totally worth it. Don't be too shocked by the rating below, especially with Value for Money :)

Food: 8/10
Service: 10/10
Ambiance: 10/10
Value for Money: 2/10
Minimum Budget for Two: PHP 3,000.00 - PHP 5,000.00

Jay~

Christmas Eve 2011

I'll be spending tonight with PJ's family, both immediate and extended.

This should be fun. And very, very interesting :)

I gotta say, I'm real excited about this. So long!

Jay~

Pre-Christmas Celebration

PJ and I wanted to start off Christmas a little early, so we had a simple celebration plus gift exchanges. Simplicity always brings out the best in us, and I am so happy we got to spend some nice, alone time with each other, having a couple of drinks over cake :)

Cake!

PJ, the cake, and some wine to go with it :)

With the tiny Christmas tree.

Lights and presents.

Cheers to a happy Christmas :)

Merry Christmas indeed! :)

Jay~

Out and About One Weekend

PJ and I decided to have some quality time together and we went out for a nice, quiet weekend evening. Hit up California Pizza Kitchen (GB5) for dinner and then we watched New Year's Eve, one of those seasonal films that are usually sub-par, but we actually enjoyed it.

Potato leek soup.

Thai crunch salad (chicken on the side because PJ's a vegan).

Spaghetti bolognese.

Spinach artichoke dip with tortillas.

Washing it all down with a glass of shiraz.

Haha.

This was my first time at CPK and it wasn't too bad at all. The servers were a little frazzled by the number of patrons (but that's a good thing, right? A full restaurant.) but otherwise, our orders were served well within the ten minutes promised. We've learned many lessons from our eat-out adventures so we usually just get a couple of appetizers and an entree and we're good. PJ's soup was her favorite, so she got that. I had a taste and it was okay, could have been a bit hotter. The Thai crunch salad was a winner for me, and with grilled chicken, it was pretty much a flavor- and texture party for the taste buds. Unique, is what I'm saying. Spinach dip was tasty as well, and it was fun eating colored tortilla chips. Haha.. My spaghetti was okay, though it could have been so much better.

Their wine was, in a word, delicious. One really gets what one pays for in places like this, and absolutely no regrets on the drinks :) The place was just a tad too noisy though, and it was a little warm. Other than that, another good dining experience :)

Food: 9/10
Service: 9/10
Ambiance: 7/10
Value for Money: 9/10
Minimum Budget for Two: PHP 1,200.00 - PHP 1,800.00

California Pizza Kitchen

Greenbelt 5, Makati, Philippines

(02) 401-7160

Then we went to our movie, but that's another post :)

Jay~

MoMo at Ayala Triangle

 Another food post!

We initially wanted to go to Ayala Triangle a couple of nights ago to see the Christmas lights, but unfortunately, the light show would only begin on the 16th of this month. We ate instead.

MoMo Cafe is a very interesting contemporary Italian restaurant serving seemingly strange but very homely dishes that taste pretty good. We sat outside, and with the light rain, had a casual albeit cold atmosphere.

Mushroom Soup "Cappuccino".

Making faces.

Melted Crab and Spinach Cheese Dip.

Close-up of the dip.

Hehehe :)

Blue Marlin Kebab = awesome.

Big fish stick!

I really, really like MoMo.

So much so, that instead of the restaurants in Serendra, I might just bring my grandma here for her birthday dinner. The serving sizes were really just right for a full meal (we finished our food!) and was served relatively quickly. I was very impressed with the soups (I ordered something else but wasn't able to snap a pic) and the exact not-too-hot temperature in which they were served. 

Our appetizer was very interesting, and it was easily one of the best starters I've had. The crab and spinach combo was good on sourdough bread (I tried) and even better on plain tortillas, which came with it. Not so with the vegetable sticks that it came with. Our entree, the fish, was absolutely humongous. It was four slabs of blue marlin, in two kebab skewers, and served with stir-fried rice (at least, I believe it's stir-fried). I paired it with a superb glass of Stamp Reisling, making for a pretty foodgasmic night. Haha.. Now if only it wasn't raining..

Food: 10/10
Service: 9/10
Ambiance: 8/10
Value for Money: 10/10
Minimum Budget for Two: PHP 1,200.00 - PHP 1,500.00

Jay~

New Orleans at Resort's World

We seem to be eating out a lot lately :) Good company makes for good food, and good food makes for a happy blogger! Haha..

This time, we had dinner right before catching The Sound of Music (the theatrical play) at Resort's World's Newport Theater last night. We didn't know where to eat, and New Orleans looked like a good place, so we went there.

Sourdough Bread.

Crab and Corn Bisque.

Not very clear, but this was Pork Belly.

PJ with her massive Cajun fish (I forgot the proper name).

The place was quite crowded but we were lucky to get a nice table at the side. Food servings were huge and for the price, one of the most worth-spending-on we've ever had. The pork belly went okay with the house wine, though they could have had a better selection (the waiter only mentioned 3-4 bottles). Pretty decent, and the service is quick, if a tad hasty. Even though the servings were heavy, it left a little bit (not enough to stop me from going there again, mind you) of a greasy after-taste.

Food: 8/10
Service: 8/10
Ambiance: 8/10
Value for Money: 9/10
Minimum Budget for Two: PHP 1,200.00 - PHP 1,500.00

Jay~

Balducci Dinner Date

Balducci Ristorante is a pretty Italian restaurant at Serendra, at The Fort, and it is currently my new favorite restaurant. Good food, good wine, very good service = recipe for a good experience.

Appetizer.

PJ with her seafood soup.

Minestra di Pesce alla Balducci, or as I like to call it, "seafood soup".

Spaghetti alla Pescatora, or "seafood pasta".

A glass of Chianti to cap the night off. But no liver, Mr. Lecter :)

I cannot stress enough how much I loved the food that night. It was really good, much better than the many (commercialized) Italian places around Manila. I could be going to too few places, but for now, Balducci is a decent place to have a meal. The ambiance was very nice as well, but the music choices were strange for the place (pop and some heavy R&B?). Well worth whatever you spend.

Balducci menu courtesy of munchpunch.com, if you're curious :)

Food: 9/10
Service: 9/10
Ambiance: 8/10
Value for Money: 10/10
Minimum Budget for Two: PHP 1,000.00 - PHP 1,500.00

Jay~

PJ is 21

It's your birthday today, and you deserve the best :)


I wish you great health, happiness, academic excellence, and an even stronger faith. You have taught me so much, from dressing a lot better to praying more often. You are the best, the most beautiful, and the a person who inspires other people, myself included, to be much better.

Happy birthday my love :)

Jay~

One on Seven-Six

It's amazing how one of the things that set human beings apart from other creatures is the ability of humans to love, to genuinely care for each other. Protectiveness, territoriality, possessiveness, these are all animal traits in my opinion. Compassion, affection, and of course, love, are all very human, and it is made doubly better when one has someone to share it with.

Happy anniversary to us, for making the seemingly impossible a reality, and making our dreams come true. Thank God we found each other; no one else would be able to handle our individual craziness except each other :)


Yes, that is our favorite picture of us, and I believe it has captured our one year so far. Affection plus laughter has been our formula, and the compound produced is a strong and solid relationship. I am so happy and thankful to God for the blessing that is you.

Happy anniversary Pat Juat :*
The best companion, partner, lover, and bestfriend any man could ask for.
I'm just really lucky I have you :)


Jay~

Sakae Sushi

It was yet another disappointing reservation attempt at Yakimix (both branches!), so PJ and I decided to go with some other friends to another Japanese place at SM Mall of Asia, Sakae Sushi. The best part about the place was that it had this pretty decent sushi conveyor belt. We went for the sushi and maki buffet, and Good Lord, we left the place full :P

Here comes the food!











Yes, we love to eat :)

The supposed last plate.

The look that says "I committed the sin of gluttony.

PJ a little woozy from the food.

Our last plate! Note that we reached the top of the conveyor :P

Yes, we had fun.
The food at Sakae was never going to be of the same quality as Nanbantei or Kai, but for sheer value for money, it was really good. The buffet we availed of was only PHP 399.00 per adult (or about $10.00 only!) or PHP 199.00 for kids under 12 years of age. Choices were very unpredictable, with long stretches before anything new passes by (or others were simply taking them before reaching us, but I doubt it; we sat near the conveyor exit). Service was a tad slow, with requests for water and tea taking up to five minutes, and the place did not look understaffed at all. The sushi and maki selections were decent, though they could decrease the rice a little, since many of the sushi - the ika and tuna especially - had huge rice pairings. Other than that, it was quite the good experience.

The total sushi destruction - our table, two persons - we wrought was 21 plates of sushi and maki, with estimated savings of PHP 700.00 for the both of us :D A really good deal, if you think about it. If you will not be going for the buffet, the prices are thereabouts on the standard scale, roughly PHP 200.00 to PHP 300.00 per dish (roughly $5.00 to $7.00). There was also no service charge, so please leave a tip.

Food: 7/10
Service: 6/10
Ambiance: 7/10
Value for Money: 10/10
Minimum Budget for Two: PHP 400.00 - PHP 800.00

Sakae Sushi is located at the 2/F of the SM Mall of Asia (main mall), Pasay City. Landmarks would be Complink Computer Shop (across) and McDonald's (across and below on the G/F). You may reach them at +632 5560150 for reservations or inquiry, but walk-in was perfectly fine.

Oh, and Happy 11th Month to us :)
(Had this lunch 2 days ago, on the seventh.

Jay~