Wine isn't a popular drink of choice when hanging out. Beer is expected. Cocktails and mixers if you're feeling fancy... but where do you go when you'd rather have a decent white or a sweet red or something a little more classy without having to buy the entire bottle? Thankfully, this place has you covered.
The Grape Escape is what I'd call a touch of what one thinks of when someone says Italy. You have wine, you have pasta, you have pizza. Couple that with a clear night on StrEAT's benches and all you need is a short mustachioed man singing opera to complete the picture. For 150php per glass, the wine is fairly decent with good flavor and a decent vintage. Not as sweet as I'd like but then again, I do like my wines terribly sweet. Their pizza isn't so bad either. Thin crust, good cheese, definitely one of the better pizzas I've had. Not something I'd write home about but a decent enough accompaniment to the wine. The only complaint I had came from an appetizer on their menu which involved home made italian sausage in tomato sauce. A good concept, to be sure. The sausage was flavorful and firm. Pleasantly peppery. But the sauce. Oh man, the sauce. There was a certain... sweetness to it. And I'm not talking about tomato sweetness. I'm talking about Jollibee spaghetti sauce sweetness. That was perhaps the one blemish on a seemingly satisfactory menu.
Of course, there's still room for improvement. With it being early in the restaurant's life, I'm sure there's still a chance to perfect that one tiny blemish. All in all, this place has promise. Cudos to them for actually making wine more accessible to casual diners. Now if only they'd do something about their tomato sauce... read more