The Mango Tree Bistro (Trinoma)

Beloved and I had dinner at The Mango Tree Bistro, which is a newly-opened restaurant at Trinoma, taking part of the floor area of Powerbooks at the third floor, last night. This is a Thai restaurant with a dimly-lit interior making it not the coziest place, especially for solar-powered bouncing cow bearing denizens. Of course, I doubt you'll be one, and if you go here, you're probably craving for a rarity in the Metro that is Thai cuisine, or are just curious. We happen to be the latter.

The only Thai food I know of and have tasted is Pad Thai, or the stir-fried noodles, and their Satay, or grilled skewered meat similar to the Pinoy barbecue you can find in almost every other corner on highly-populated streets in the metro. I believe Thai food is similar to Filipino food—just substitute white rice to rice noodles. Honestly, I'm pretty much in the dark, so I thought it would be an eye-opening experience despite seeing the menu beforehand and learning of the extravagant prices.

Anyway, their menu is hard to pronounce, but they were described in a way that is easy to understand. My suspicions were half true, as there were plenty of dishes similar to Filipino food and a lot of rice noodle dishes. The other half shown that they still have a lot of stir-fried rice variations and curry. Because I thought it was a safe choice, we ordered their Pad Thai Goong (350 Php), which is stir-fried noodles with prawns. Our main viand choice is their beef curry—the Gaeng Ped Nua (380 Php). Finally, we also asked for a plate of their Pad Phak Ruam Mitr (180 Php), or stir-fried veggies.

Bite Club (Katipunan)

Beloved and I had dinner at Bite Club last night. You know how I always mention how every other burger joint I've reviewed has a variation of the phrase "isn't the biggest burger I've had"? Well, this place offers it. I've been a fleeting customer of this place, more so when I was still living at Project 4. Mom introduced me to this place, and the first time I tried their burgers, I fell in love. Not really because of how they taste, but more on how big they were. I find it a bit sad that it's empty when we got there. The reason probably is they happened to be located at the wrong side of Katipunan Extension with their sign blocked by a tree when you're coming from the University Belt. Being on the way to Libis at a somewhat obscure place doesn't really do justice to the sheer size of their burgers. Ah, but I digress, on to the nomnom.

Their smallest offering are your usual quarter pound sized ones priced reasonably at around 100 Php. The next one is a third pound, almost twice the price, but with melted cheese inside. This second one is my particular favorite. Their third and final size is a huge pounder. I've only ever tried this once while it was still priced at a bit more than 200 Php, which tells how long since I've first tried this. Now, this XXX, which is what they call the said pound burger now (used to be Burger-X), costs at a somewhat pricey 325 Php. Then again, maybe not. This is a pound of meat, four times more than the regular ~100 Php burger. In addition to that, you can top your burger with choice toppings. You get a non-premium one for free, and you can add them for 10 or 25 Php, depending on what kind of topping. We topped ours with caramelized onions for free and added blue cheese for 25 Php. Because I know how big it was, that goes for it for our meal. Oh, we also ordered their House Fries for 65 Php. Also, we had their Strawberry Shake for 60 Php to push it all down.

Gelatissimo (Trinoma)

After our wonderful dinner at Cyma, Beloved wanted to have dessert, so we passed by the newly opened Gelatissimo at Trinoma, just a small walk away from Cyma. Because I said this was a dessert and its name pretty much says it, perhaps I don't need to say what this store specializes in. But I will. Gelatissimo is a gelato cafe. And it's not just the usual small-stall gelato shop or ones found within an Italian resto. This really is a cafe. This is the Starbucks of gelato. Of course, being the Starbucks of gelato, I expected this to be pretty expensive as well. However, since we did spend a bit on Cyma, I guessed spending a bit more on Gelatissimo wouldn't hurt, so I let Beloved have her way.

My suspicions were correct. This was indeed an expensive cafe. Their smallest serving of gelato—a small single cup—costs 110 Php. Luckily they offer a 15% discount to students, which we were, bringing the tab down to 93.50 Php. That's still plenty lot, though. They do offer a lot, and I mean a lot, of different varieties. Their selections were basically twice from your usual gelato places. If I counted right, there were at least seven different chocolate-related flavors, and that's barely a third of their menu.

Anyway, Beloved had their Green Tea Gelato. The server asked if she had tasted it, and she said no. They then gave her a plastic spoon to try it out. After tasting it, she confirms that it was the flavor she wants. Shame, I thought, because you can practically try out all the flavors before choosing the one you want. And there's my smart nomnom tip for this entry.

Cyma (Trinoma)

Beloved and I had dinner at Cyma last night. This Greek-specializing resto is located at the fourth floor alfresco area of Trinoma where pretty much all of the expensive high-end restos are located. We went here because Beloved wanted salad. Yeah, I know. Anyway, I was really reserved from going here because I have no idea what Greece cuisine is all about. The only Greek food I know of is gyro and the only other Greek-specializing restaurant I know of is Go Greek!, which I haven't yet tried but heard praises from their salads. I assume that this place has great salad, so we readied our wallets hoping for the best.

As expected, the menu consisted of pretty expensive items. What I found interesting was these Greek specialties, apart form the salad, seemed similar to the usual Persian/Mediterranean fare. They have gyros, which are basically Greek shawarmas, and souvlakia, which are Greek Shish-kebabs. Because the latter was at least a hundred and fifty pesos more expensive, I ordered the former—the Mixed Meat Gyro for 200 Php. Beloved wanted fish, so she had their Roasted Cedar Planked Mahi-Mahi for 250 Php. As for the salad, which are available in solo, sharing, or family sizes, we ordered their Tonnos Salata for 460 Php. Note that we had a hard time choosing the salad because everything sounded so good.