Conti's Pastry Shop and Restaurant

Specialty: Pastries, International, Filipino, Pasta
Location: unit 1c-17 Serendra Bonifacio Global City, Taguig City
Phone Number: 8562352 to 53
Price Range (Meals): php 135 - 265
Rating: ★★★★

Conti's is one of the relatively affordable places to eat at Serendra. Hence, it will probably be full and would be best if you reserved a seat or arrive early. Their specialty are mainly pastries and cakes but they are also a restaurant and they do serve other things than cake and pastries.

Menu
A little too varied here. Entrees, pastries, pasta, sandwiches... they probably have a little bit of the more popular menu entries.

Frothy Iced Tea
Price: 45 Rating: ★★
Take some regular iced tea, add some shaved ice, put both in a blender and blend away. Not much difference from your regular iced tea. Just get the bottomless iced tea (php 60).











Chicken Roulade + Saffron Mushroom Risotto
Price: php 145 + 25 Rating: ★★★
I was craving for a bit of chicken and I had my eyes set on the first item on the Entree section but alas, it was not available. So I settled on another one of their most popular dishes (or so the waiter says). And with that, the chicken roulade was chosen. Roulade of chicken with spinach, cheese and caramelized onion served with either garlic rice or with saffron mushroom risotto (additional php 25). Do NOT get the saffron mushroom risotto. You are better off with their garlic rice. The saffron mushroom risotto was as boring as rice with star margarine. That was truly a sorry excuse for a risotto. But given the price of the rice, it was (I hope I'm right), forgivable. The veggies on the side wasn't too smashing either. But, as if to redeem itself, the chicken was definitely scrumptious. The spinach was embedded into slices of chicken meat and it was topped with a mouth-watering sauce. I'm a bit confused on how to rate this one. The meat was good while the risotto, abysmal. It wasn't that filling either. 3 stars. Get the garlic rice when you order this one.

Parmesan Fish Fillet with Parsley Sauce
Price: 195 Rating: ★★★★
Fish fillet served with buttered vegetables and garlic rice. The fish was the melt-in-your-mouth kind. Very delicious and soft. The parsley sauce was great on fish. The side dish, however, was about the same as on the chicken roulade. Not bad; Not good either. Plain buttered vegetables. Having tasted the risotto, I was half expecting this to be better than the risotto. I wasn't disappointed. At least this garlic rice tasted like garlic, although a bit on the oily side. The rice cup was shinier than a Florsheim after emptying the cup. Muchos grasa senor.




Linguine in Pesto
Price: 135 Rating: ★★★★
After having eaten the chicken roulade, I was stilling feeling a bit empty. So I opted for some pasta. It looked interesting enough and sure enough, I had my fill after having that dish. Famous rich green basil sauce served with linguine. You also have an option of having it served with seafood (additional 180).








Mango Bravo
Price: 85 Rating: ★★★★★
The place is called Conti's Pastry Shop and Restaurant. Pastry did come first there, so it seems imperative that we eat some form of pastry. Mango Bravo is the cake pictured in front of the menu so we opted for that one. It was HUGE! 4 layers of cake. 2 of which are embedded with mango bits and 1 layer with dark chocolate tasting stuff. I couldn't figure out what that last layer was. It was devoured before I got to it. Delicious!

Conclusion:
The place is indeed a pastry shop first then a restaurant, second. There are LAN ports underneath the tables but I didn't ask if they were functional. Good for the geek heads out there. It could seat around 35 people comfortably but if you want to take a group there, better call before hand. The place is usually crowded since it's one of the few affordable places at Serendra. The others are just plain overpriced. The ones where you think the food should taste great because it's so damn expensive. Going back to the topic, the food is good but it seems that at Conti's, rice was an afterthought. Putting a lot of attention to the viand and almost none to the rice. An option of plain rice would have been nice if they don't pay much attention to it anyway.

Chaikofi

Specialty: Coffee, tea and sandwiches
Locations: Sunset Avenue, Mall of Asia; Robinsons Place; Robinsons Galleria; The Block Level 4, SM North EDSA
Telephone: 8912559
Rating: ★★★★

This place certainly knows how to specialize. No qualms about not trying to satisfy everyone's preferences. This cafe knows what it serves and does a good job of doing it. They are certainly all about coffee, tea, sandwiches and a bit of pasta. It calls itself a "concept cafe" according to its website. No arguments from me. It's certainly different.

The Menu
Consisting mostly of sweet, cold coffee and refreshing iced tea complimented by sandwiches and few pasta dishes. Very little on the menu but each one is definitely worth checking out. I have a feeling that this place doesn't like conformity and before I forget to mention it, they also serve wine for those special occasions. Just ask at the counter.

Jungle Bungle
Price: php 125
Rating: ★★★
Coco flakes, milk tea and vanilla ice cream with whipped cream on top. Contrary to what I expected, this drink was also light on the stomach. Chocolate is usually heavy but this drink is mostly milk tea even if it does have that chocolate flavor. The mouth of the glass is coated with coconut and was a nice surprise since I was expecting chocolate.

Raspberry Green Tea
Price: php 125
Rating: ★★★★
Cold, sweet, refreshing and light with just the right amount of whipped cream. The cream is just right and doesn't have that heavy cream flavor. The light sweet raspberry flavor was stronger than the green tea and tastes a bit artificial. The tip of each glass on the menu is coated with something different depending on the item. So don't forget to lick the mouth of the glass. Perfect for the lick and sip manuever that is advertised on their posters.






Chaikofi Melt
Price: php 145
Rating: ★★★★
This is their star sandwich. So special that it bears the name of the store. Lettuce, ham, tomatoes, onions and a nice big helping of mozzarella cheese sandwiched between buns with green bits (I have no idea what they are. Tell me if you do). It also has a nice helping of potato chips on the side. The sandwich melts in my mouth so nicely and blends the flavors of the veggies and the ham into a single unit. It definitely merits the name Chaikofi Melt. One caveat though, no matter how amazingly flavorful it is, it's still a sandwich and it's still too expensive so minus 1 star.

Conclusion
Great for groups of 2 to 4. Nice and cozy place to just hang around or to read a book or magazine (they have a few lying around). I would recommend this place to have afternoon snacks or maybe even breakfast. I wouldn't recommend it if you want dinner though. There just isn't enough in the menu to satisfy varied tastes for a group.

Grams Diner

Specialty: American style diner cuisine
Location: Ground floor, Seaside Boulevard, Mall Of Asia.
Service charge: 10%
Rating: ★★★★

Grams Diner serves American styled food at a decent price. While diners are not normally located beside the sea, this diner has chosen it's location well. Near enough the sea so you could see its beauty while you dine and yet far enough so you wouldn't smell the filth of Philippine waters. But enough of the location. we are here for the food.

The Menu
The breakfast menu is decidedly non-American besides the set breakfast that they have. Somehow, English muffins layered with ham and topped with hollandaise sauce doesn't sound too American to me. They should have added more waffles and coffee in the menu if they want to be called a diner.

We couldn't decide on what to eat, so we settled on the set lunch package. Says so in the menu. "Can't decide? Here's our list of..."







The set lunch comprises of the following:

• main dish
• a choice between soup or salad
• a choice of mashed potatoes, fries, steamed rice or garlic rice
  
• iced tea
• a choice between coffee and tea

That's a lot of choices for a list of 4 dishes. We settled for fish fritters with mashed potatoes and camomile tea and the roast beef with hot coffee. That way, I get to try a lot of food.

Iced Tea
The ice tea in itself was not spectacular but what was interesting was the fact that men and women have different glasses. Men have sexy curvy glasses and women have straight no-nonsense glasses. Why? I have no clue. And I didn't bother to ask because they only have 2 waiters to serve a place capable of handling roughly 25 to 30 people.

Cream Soup
The cream soup was... well, soupy. Plain chicken soup. Nothing in it but soup. I didn't bother to post pictures of it here.

Roast Beef
Price: php 235
Rating: ★★★★
The roast beef didn't look roasted at all. looked more like grilled if you ask me. But I'm not a cook. I just eat a lot. It may not look roasted but it was scrumptious indeed. Nice thin slices of red, kill-yourself-softly, meat with a huge dollop of rice. A veritable concoction of cholesterol and carbohydrates. It wasn't oily too.

It was served with sauce, steamed rice a few bits of string beans, some corn kernels and a pathetic slice of carrot. It was a high dose of cholesterol and carbohydrates and I loved it.

They also placed a few bottles of other sauces if you might like them (a very nice addition for those who are spoiled for choice). It included a bottle of A.1. steak sauce, Lea & Perrins Worcestershire sauce and oddly enough, Knorr seasoning.

Fish Fritters
Price: php 205
Rating: ★★★★
A set of 5 to 6 pieces of fish fritters with soft tender white meat that melts in your mouth with a delicious coating of batter. The batter was uneven in some places though. they could use a better way to coat the fish. The mashed potatoes were soft and a bit on the creamy side as one would expect a mashed potato to be, even if its a bit on the bland side. The secret sauce could be none other than mayo and ketchup. Although I couldn't say for certain.

As with the roast beef, it was also served with a few pieces of string beans and a few corn kernels. But unlike the roast beef, this had 2 slices of carrots. Talk about healthy living.


Conclusion
All in all, a great dining experience. The food is good, the ambiance and setting is good for a medium sized gathering. They even have a section where you can scribe your moment of celebration on the wall to remember the good times. To finish off, here is their list of reasons why you should dine there. Personally, I think number 8 should be number 1.