Making Each Day Count

The last five weeks had been quite hectic at work, but D and I made sure to make time to try out something new within our city as our way of unwinding. After doing a mini food crawl at Poblacion weeks ago, we tried out restaurants and cafes closer to our condo. My favorite response when D asks where we would have brunch/lunch/dinner is “let’s be adventurous.” So today I will recap the different food we’ve tried out over the last weeks.

I’m starting off with restaurants in Salcedo Village, a neighborhood that brings back good old memories as D and I lived here more than a decade ago. We still go here when we feel like stretching our legs for a longer walk, and my favorite Saturday open market is held at the Salcedo park.

Two brunch places that we tried out specialize in crepes: La Creperie located at Soliman St; and Crepe Glazik located at Tordesillas St. I like crepes – both the sweet and savory ones to go with a good cup of coffee. I still haven’t tried making crepes myself, so until I learn how to successfully make homemade ones, I’ll frequent these places in the meantime.

The Ayala Triangle Gardens’ restaurants recently opened, and we headed off to Italianni’s for lunch. Though Italianni’s is not new to us, we could never go wrong with their pasta and salad. The main reason we went here was to check out the new building where it’s located as it is quite eye-catching. The Ayala Triangle park surrounding it is a good place to meet up, jog, or stroll. In December, this park is flocked by locals as its trees are adorned with Christmas lights and the light show is quite spectacular.

Now for our new found favorite: Ikomai Tochi, a modern Japanese restaurant located at H.V. Dela Costa St. I first saw this restaurant when we went cycling on a Sunday afternoon, however they open only from Mondays thru Saturdays so I’ve made a mental note to go back soon. And when we had our first lunch here I was immediately blown away by the presentation, the food taste and the service. I had the salmon poke lunch – the best poke I’ve had in the Philippines so far. It came with soup, side veggies and dessert. We’ve been back thrice since then.

Now let me take you to the restaurants of Legazpi Village, where our city home is. We have many favorite restaurants here, but for this post I will share some of the places that we’ve just recently tried out that made a good impression.

Nanbantei of Tokyo located at Greenbelt 3 is an izakaya-style restaurant. They have several options for their skewers, and we tried baby squid and salmon balls. I also tried their udon which was what I enjoyed most from this restaurant. Now when I am craving for udon, this would be my go to.

Green Bar, located at Aguirre St, is a vegan and vegetarian heaven. This restaurant offers a wide variety of meat-free yummy food options. I had chickpea omelette and D had quinoa bowl.

When I had a craving for Thai food, we headed to Mango Tree Cafe at Greenbelt 3. We had a not too spicy seafood tomyum (we asked to customise the spice level) and chicken satay. While the food was tasty they were at the pricier side. It was good to try it out but I think I would go to other Thai restaurants in the area for my future cravings.

These last two places are Spanish restaurants. Spanish cuisine is something D and I will be having more of very soon with our upcoming vacation, so we acquainted ourselves early on. Bar Pintxos at Greenbelt 5 was a delight to find – we quite enjoyed their paella mixta, pollo al ajillo, pulpo a la gallega and empanada de pulpo. We forward to trying out tapas when we go to Spain this month.

Lastly, a few hops from our condo is Txoko Asador Restaurante along Esteban St. This place offers fine dining and we brought family friends here for a Sunday lunch. Their service was good and we got to try their Ensalada de Gulas y Campinones, and a couple of different paellas (Paella Verduras and Paella Negra). D and our family friends enjoyed their meat dishes (Grilled Lengua and Chorizo A La Parilla).

And that, folks, wraps up our series of food adventures within our city neighborhood. I am getting the hang of these food blogs so there will be more to come.