3.5 stars: Off the beaten path in Los Banos you'll find this hidden gem. It's quite the drive but if you happen to be in the area, I'd give this place a go.
The service is quite typical of the local scene, friendly, but somewhat inattentive. I'm not saying the service was bad, I'm just saying it's typical as most places you go, servers don't tend to stop by and check on you once the food has been served.
First off, I noticed the prices were extremely reasonable. I imagine the same meal in Makati or BGC costing double or triple.
For starters: the salad was quite good it was crisp, and mixed with other greens. The Parmesan on top was pleasant, a bit of a Caesar salad feel going on, although it was cheese from a shaker rather than grated, it was certainly manageable. The edible flowers were an awesome aesthetic touch! There's just something classy about having edible flowers on a plate of greens.
The Sirloin Steak was also good, not extremely tender, but it wasn't dry or tough, I would say around average to above average as far as tenderness goes... Spices were on point, so the meat had a good flavor. I don't like sauces on my steaks so I opted to ask for it on the side. The sauce was a tangy sweet A1-ish type 'gravy' it was decent if you're in to that, but again, I'm not big on sauces when it comes to steaks. Overall, well balanced and we enjoyed it.
Lamb Shoulder: The dish was very tendonous, not a whole lot of meat. I believe I may have read the menu wrong, I was expecting a lamb shank or maybe lamb chops, that's on me... my bad... my bad. Otherwise still, the meat was tasty and seasoned with herbs, and the best part, not overly gamey... That's the drawback on lamb for me on most occasions, it's usually really gamey. We did enjoy this as well. Besides the fact it was mostly tendon and not a whole lot of meat, it was still quite tasty.
The fruit pavlova was pretty awesome!! I'm no expert when it comes to pavlova, but I can say this... It looked like it was going to stick to my teeth when i started in to it... But it was great! It kind of melted in your mouth as you ate it and though the texture might make you think otherwise... it didn't get stuck in my teeth!! The texture was perfect for me, I would imagine this is what a pavlova would have to taste like. It was layered and packed with sweet mangos throughout and dressed with kiwi and mango balls on top and despite all this fruit and cream... not crazy sweet... SUPER DUPER! Loved it.
The portion sizes are quite large, I imagine 2 people could certainly share a dish. I do believe the temperature of the food should be hotter as well because the AC is kickin' in there and it sucks to have stuff just start solidifying on the plate as you're going through it... kinda makes it hard at the end when you have those last couple bites.
Overall, I'll be back, looking forward to sitting at a table with less cold air blowing on my plate :)
Stay Hungry my Friends!
a La Cuisine! read more