Tony Roma's Revisited

I love ribs and I've always loved Tony Roma's. The last time I had dinner in Tony Roma's Glorietta was six years ago (really, that long already ) but even before they moved to Glorietta, we used to visit the original branch in Greenbelt 1 near the old San Mig whenever we craved for great tasting ribs.

So after six long years , with a craving for ribs and curious to see if Tony Roma's is as good as I remember it to be, we had lunch and ordered a half slab or ribs with fries and a Thai Peanut salad to start.

Thai Peanut Salad P375

The Thai Peanut Salad was ok. It had strips of grilled chicken breast , when combined with the asian peanut sauce tasted like a chicken satay. I'm a fan of chicken satay so it was good for me. The greens, the julienned carrot strips with the diced tomatoes were ok.

Original Baby Back Ribs Half Slab P680 

The half rack /half slab of ribs were as good as I remember it. Falling off the bone meat with that smoked barbecue sauce..yum!! I was transported back 10 years ago if not more, because they were able to sustain the taste and quality of their ribs.

Service was great too, the staff friendly and efficient and not too over eager. They still give you that complimentary house bread with herbed butter.

happy campers..

All I can say is , Tony Roma's, you still have it after all these years. Still the best ribs in Manila.

Spaghetti Factory

I thought this was the Hongkong based Spaghetti Factory so we were pleasantly surprised that Spaghetti Factory in Glorietta 5 is a home grown establishment. The place is quite small but it must have quite a following already because they're constructing in the adjacent space to accommodate more diners. The first thing you will notice once you step inside is the huge poster of the different kinds of pasta noodles.

When you order a pasta dish, you can choose the kind of noodle you want to go with it. We got the meatball with angel hair and linguini ala vongole. 

    The angel hair pasta with meatballs(P179)  is ok. The meatballs were just a bit salty for me but the sauce is good and the bread tasted fresh.

The linguini ala vongole (P179) was almost perfect for me , I just tasted a bit of sand in 3 to 4 pieces of clams. The mixture of olive oil, white wine and a hint of garlic was just right. 

We got a combination pizza, one half seafood pesto and one half barbecued chicken for only P180 or P190. 

The seafood pesto is good. It had shrimps, mussels, squid in a bed of pesto sauce and cheese. I was disappointed with the chicken barbecue because the chicken flaked easily, it wasn't the chunky type and you can barely taste the barbecue flavor. The crust isn't the thin crust type, it has a bit of a sweet after taste and it reminds you of the store bought varieties. But still, I enjoyed the pizza with their homemade bottled hot sauce. Pizza is comfort food after all and for its price, it was OK. 

We'll be back for sure , to try the other interesting pastas like the spaghetti ala mafia or the raviolis (my favorite filled pasta) . Service is great also by the way.