Amici Offers New Dishes in Celebration of Their 6th Year Anniversary

Amici is one of the restaurants in my foodie bucket list. For years, my sister and I have hoped of dining there, but we just couldn't find the chance to do so. Last week, I was finally able to fulfill a dining wish - when I was invited to taste the new dishes at their Venice Piazza branch.



Amici started as a humble canteen put up by Fr. Gianluigi Colombo, a Salesian Italian priest in charge of overseeing the operations of the Don Bosco Makati Printing Press. During lunch break, he noticed that employees had to leave the premises, so he put up a canteen serving Italian coffee and gelato, as well as wood-fired baked pizza and homemade pasta. In 2001, Amici di Don Bosco (meaning, "Friends of Don Bosco") was established as a business that also serves the dining needs of the students studying in Don Bosco. Word of mouth about the great tasting, authentic, and affordable Italian food spread, and soon people flock to the Hole-in-the-Wall store in Makati just to taste what Amici di Don Bosco has to offer.

In 2007, Danny Moran planned to open a business and thought about opening a gelato place. A meeting with the priests made him learn about Amici di Don Bosco, and a few meetings after, he took over the business, with the promise of partnering the food business with the Tuloy Foundation.

Today, Amici has eight establishments, one located at the Venice Piazza in McKinley Hill - Bonifacio Global City.



I love the homey ambiance of the restaurant! Decorations look posh, but I personally love the mis-matched chairs. To give the impression that the restaurant is an extension of our own home, the owners included framed pictures - which are their own personal pictures.

Amici is celebrating their sixth anniversary this week by offering ten new dishes - two of which I shared yesterday (please check my other post).


Mediterranean Blue Cheese and Walnut Salad
At first, I was apprehensive in trying this one. With ingredients having different flavors - bitter arugula leaves, tangy sweet grapes, sweet candied walnuts, and the blue cheese - I didn't know how the flavors would blend, but it did taste good! I loved how the flavors fight each other, and the red wine vinaigrette binding the ingredients together just made it such a unique salad.


Asian Chicken Salad
I did like the other salad, but if I have to make a choice between the two salad servings, I would choose this, maybe because I love that slightly tangy flavor in my salad. It was lip-smacking good, and the fried wonton strips provide more crunchy texture.


Prosciutto & Artichoke Cream Cheese Pizza Roll
Unlike the panniza, this one is already rolled and cut too pieces when served. The artichoke cream cuts the strong flavor of the prosciutto, while the reduced balsamic vinegar drizzled at the top provided an interesting kick in the flavors.


Prosciutto Portobello Pizza Roll
I wasn't able to taste this (wasn't served at our table), so I cannot make a comment about it, but this pizza roll contains prosciutto, portobello mushrooms, cream cheese, and arugula... served with roasted garlic dip.


Garlic Chorizo Spaghetti
I love oil based spaghetti, and the aglio olio has got to be my favorite! I was so happy when this was served, but I found it a little salty for my taste.


Penne Rosa & Bacon
A combination of pomodoro and bechamel sauces were enough to make this a winner for me. Adding bacon and mushroom to the mix, it was one of the nicest pasta dishes I have tasted.


Pork Marsala
Such a tasty dish - I loved that the pork was cut thinly and rolled with ham and cheese, making it easy to eat. The reduce marsala wine was a little overpowering, but I liked it.


Chicken Parmigiana
The chicken in the image looked dry, but in reality it was tender and juicy. The contrast between the crunchy breading and the juicy chicken meat combined with mozzarella cheese and tomato sauce made this dish my overall favorite among the dishes I tasted.



Amici offers desserts, but to complete the Italian fare, we were served gelato! We were given three flavors to choose from - Sans Rival, Ferrero, and Pistachio, and we decided to get one of each so we could taste and compare. What I loved about their gelato was that it tasted the same as what the flavor was. Sure it was cold and had the ice cream feel in the mouth, but if you are to eat a Ferrero Rocher chocolate and have a taste of the Ferrero gelato after... you wouldn't taste the difference in the flavor.

Amici is all about celebrating good food and good friendships, as well as good family ties. If you fancy to eat some Italian cuisine, please do visit one of their eight branches - Don Bosco, Tomas Morato, SM Megamall, Greenhills, Alabang Town Center, Ayala Triangle Gardens, Venice Piazza, and UP Ayala Technohub.

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Modern Shanghai - Glorietta 2, p2

I wasn't able to blog yesterday because I was out, but as promised, here's the second of the three-part post about my dining experience at Modern Shanghai located at Glorietta 2. For this post, I will share five of the new dishes you can try at Modern Shanghai.


Steamed Shrimp and Pork Siumai
My mom's favorite food is the Siomai, and because she always choose this whenever we eat at any Chinese Restaurant, she somehow influenced me to love the dish, too. I won't say this is the best I have tasted, but it was really good... and tasted delicious even without the dipping sauce, but of course, dipping siumai in chili toyomansi made it more delicious.


Deep Fried Fish with Spicy Fish Sauce
I love breaded cream dory fish, and this was no exception. The breading is unlike the typical "fish" in Fish and Chips - it was light and airy-fluffy, which reminded me of my favorite fish dish in King Bee. The sauce is indeed spicy, but just right. Personally though, I prefer to have the sauce on the side and not poured over the fish because I just loved the crispiness of the fish and the sauce softened the breading. It's just my personal preference, though.


Crispy Yellow Noodle with Seafood
On my last post about Modern Shanghai, I showed a picture of the staff making hand pulled noodles. I learned that this is one of the dishes that uses freshly made noodles. At first I was a little apprehensive with this one because the first time I ate crispy noodles (at a Chinese Fast Food), it was so difficult to eat. This one had smaller noodles, and even without the sauce, the noodles were a joy to eat. The sauce was great. It was thick, flavorful... and the seafood were cooked just right.


Sliced Marinated Pork Knuckle
I love pork pata! When I saw this on the menu, it was the dish I most looked forward to tasting, and when I did, I was a little disappointed. The pork was cooked good - it was firm but tender, and it was a good thing that the fat wasn't that much (at least one could still eat a good serving of meat if one isn't into fatty part of the pork), but it just lacked taste. I actually dipped my pork into the dipping sauce provided when the Shandong Style Shredded Chicken was served.


Native Hong Kong Crispy Chicken
The word "native" is the same when we used it for native Pinoy chicken, so I expected this to be a bit on the tough side. People from Modern Shanghai told us these free-range chickens were imported from Hong Kong, and can be a little tougher from the local kind, but to my surprise it was cooked really good! True to what we all know about native chickens, the flavors just seeped through and through, and the toasted garlic bits provided more goodness to the dish. It was different from the usual Chinese fried chicken I've tasted, and this was one of my top 3 dishes from that food trip.

Next five dishes will be shared tomorrow.

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Razon's of Guagua (SM City Fairview)

When Razon's of Guagua opened at SM Fairview, mom and sister have wanted to dine there. There was the curiosity to taste their ever famous Halo-Halo, but brother was teasing us because he was able to dine at Razon's in Pampanga... therefore he felt what he tasted was more authentic. Actually, if I was given the choice, I sure want to dine at any of their branches in Pampanga (like the way I went to Deco's in La Paz, Iloilo just to eat their La Paz Batchoy), but because a trip to Pampanga was very hazy, this will do for now.


The size of this branch may just be okay... but every time we pass by during lunch and dinner, the restaurant is always jam packed. We were quite lucky to have entered at the right time, because in just 30 minutes, the place was filled with hungry diners.

What we had:


Pancit Luglug
My choice. This is my type of pancit luglug (or palabok) - with slightly fatter noodles. This may look simple, but it was really good. There's something in the sauce was quite different from the other of its kind I have tasted, and I wouldn't mind eating this again and again.


Sisig
Pampanga is a province known for its delectable dishes, and one of the dishes that originated in Pampanga is Sisig, and that's what my sister chose. I think this is one of her favorite dishes because in the many food trips we've had, she would always choose this (if available).

This has been the simplest Sisig we've tasted. As you can see, it's all chopped pork (and calamansi) - no chicharon, no egg, no other extenders... but it was very tasty and satisfying!


Chicken - Pork Asado
Brother's choice, and he was very happy when this was served to him because it was a very hearty serving! A big chunk of pork and one big chicken leg, cooked to asado perfection. The pork, even if it was thick was tender and juicy, and very tasty, too. However, between the pork and the chicken, I preferred the chicken more.


Sizzling Bulalo
Mom's choice. Another hearty serving of a dish, which we all shared. Actually, because it was our first time to dine here, we shared all our choices. At first we were a bit apprehensive if this one would taste good, but it did! The beef was very tender and the sauce was great as well.


Halo-Halo
Us three girls had a glass of Halo-Halo for dessert. True to what people say, the ice was the one that sets this apart from other Halo-Halo. It was delicious alright, and I loved it, but I personally prefer my Halo-Halo to be packed with different ingredients. My sister loved it very much because there are a lot of the usual Halo-Halo ingredients she doesn't like, but even if I loved this Halo-Halo tasted, I would still choose the one with tapioca pearls, sweet potatoes, ube, and even pinipig.


Silvanas
Since brother didn't go for the Halo-Halo, he went for a piece of Silvanas for his dessert. Nothing exceptional as this tasted like any other Silvanas we've tasted.


San Nicolas
This we bought to take home because this is uniquely a Pampangueno cookie. It is called San Nicolas to pay homage to St. Nicolas Tolentino, the patron saint of bakers. I truly love this one. Tasted a little bit like uraro and puto seko, but quite different as well.

Razon's of Guagua still has so many dishes to offer, something we will come back for next time.

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