Nolita (Bonifacio High Street)

Beloved and I had dinner at Nolita. This Japanese-sounding restaurant is apparently an Italian restaurant named after a portmanteau of "North of Little Italy". We ended up here after a recommendation from a friend on where to eat at Boni High Street, a place we rarely frequent, that is up to our budget. We soon learn that it's not really a full-fledged Italian place, but rather specializes in pizzas. Big pizzas.

Because their pizzas are big, they offer them by the slice, and a slice easily filled up an entire plate. While they do offer the entire pie, we thought three kinds would fit both our budget and bellies. One downside was that they weren't really fresh-from-the-oven, and all laid out for the communal customers. With plenty of choices to choose from, we opted for the most curious looking (or sounding) ones. We got a slice of each of their Vegan Eggplant Melange (210 Php), Sausage, Pepperroni, and Mushroom (250 Php), and their Steak and Egg (290 Php) pizzas.

Amici (Tomas Morato)

Beloved and I ate at Amici a couple of times over the past couple of months. The first time was dinner on a whim, looking for what's open. Amici happened to sound satisfying as I was craving pizza that day, and so we went.

For those who don't know, this Italian place serves genuine Italian dishes not limited to pasta and pizza. They also carry risotto, isalata, zuppa, and their own gelato brand among other house specialties, or il favorito dela casa. I wanted to try out their Artichoke and Portobello Flatbread Pizza, but they were out. Instead, we settled for their Truffle Mushroom Pizza (435 Php). Because it felt like it wouldn't satisfy the two of us, we also got their Mediterranean Blue Cheese and Walnut Salad (205 Php) from their selection of insalata. Finally, Beloved ordered their Cafe Mocha (125 Php) because she wanted to.

Aveneto Pizzarea Ristorante (Trinoma)

Yesterday, for lunch, beloved and I ate at Aveneto. This is one of the more overdue nomnom adventures we've had, since we've been here more times than I can accurately remember. And if you're a mall-goer or live in the vicinity of Visayas Ave., you've probably at least heard of this resto, if not have eaten in it. If not, well, you can probably assume from its name that it's Italian, and it is. Being an Italian restaurant, they specialize in pizzas and pastas, but also have some nonstandard Italian fare ranging from their appetizers and their hero sandwiches (then again, maybe the latter is also Italian). This restaurant has a lot of branches, and I've been to most of them. The particular one we ate at yesterday was their Trinoma branch. When we go here, it's usually full because it's dinner time. Their lunch hours are the opposite of that, and we were practically the only table when we came in.

Aveneto is a place you don't go alone, or even on a date. You go here in groups of maybe at least four simply because of the serving sizes. This is one of the places me and my friends go to when there's an occasion and have no particular place in mind because it's a pretty good value if you're in a huge group. Their pastas are good for at least two, and their pizzas, even the smallest, can be shared by four (assuming you ordered pastas on the side). A good thing, though, is that like most Filipino franchises, they allow taking home of your leftovers with no extra charge. That thought in mind, we decided to order a pasta, a small pizza, and a couple of appetizers. Beloved wanted their Deep Fried Crabsticks (190 Php), and I wanted their French Fries (55 Php). Because their appetizers platter, which contains cheese balls and chicken wings aside from the aforementioned, has less crabsticks than she wanted, we just ordered them separately. As for our pasta, we ordered their Seafood Pasta Parmigiana (250 Php) on thick noodles, which is basically seafood pasta in red sauce. Our pizza of choice was their small Vegetarian Pizza (240 Php), because it was basically the only choice we had that has mushrooms, no seafood, and sounded complementary to what we ordered. Their Refillable Iced Tea is priced at 65 Php, and we ordered one for each of us.

Friuli Trattoria (Maginhawa Street)

Beloved and I ate at Friuli Trattoria for dinner. Yes, I know I said it'll be a while before our next nomnom adventure. But because Starcraft II's Southeast Asia server lags like hell, it didn't really take plenty of my time. Anyway, Friuli is an Italian joint found in Maginhawa St., one of the closest pizza places from home. It's also our family's restaurant, so I might be a bit biased. I hope you trust that I won't be despite saying that this is my favorite Italian place, as I'll try to back that claim up. I've basically tasted everything on the menu, but recently, they've renovated and added a lot of brewed coffee-based drinks on the menu. It's also been a while since we went here, so we did.

Friuli boasts an affordable menu with some not-so-common varieties of pizza. There's also pasta, which basically comes in two white, two red, and one green varieties. I'm not really big into pasta, and when I do order pasta, I just get the Pesto. But they say they're good as well, especially the Putanesca. I'm digressing, so I'll just say it straight: you go here for the pizza. While we usually order the more affordable ones because of the mantra I follow: pizza is about the crust and not the toppings; we decided to order one of the more premium ones: Spiced Romano (229 Php) because I sort of missed it. Because we're not ordering pasta, we just got their Mozarella Sticks (130 Php) as a side. For our drinks, I had Italian Soda (50 Php) and beloved tried the Iced Caramel (75 Php), one of the newer coffee-based ones. That's it for our meal, and if you add it all up it comes less than 500, which is quite affordable comparing it to our usual food adventures.

Bigoli (Trinoma)

Yesterday, beloved and I ate at Bigoli while doing my errands. It certainly wasn't the first time we went here. In fact, this is one of the most frequent places we eat at in Trinoma. Not that I fancy Italian food that much, which is what Bigoli specializes in. And even for an Italian place, it's not among my favorites. However, for the fact that they offer unlimited bread sticks and bottomless drinks for a very affordable price just makes it somewhat impossible to just shun this one away. Beloved also likes this place due to the fact that they serve cream dory.

Obviously beloved ordered Cream Dory with Italian Rice (130 Php). As for me, I wasn't really feeling for pasta, and I usually order their pesto just for their bread sticks. This time, I ordered their Bacon Stromboli (120 Php) because it's been a while since I had bacon and I was feeling bacon deprived. I also ordered a slice of their Shrimp Bianca Pizza (85 Php), which I always get after discovering it with whatever others I order. Of course, we also ordered their Bottomless Drinks (55 Php). No sharing!