My Plates and Palettes : Balboa - Italian Restaurant, Gellatisimo and Need for Speed with fambam

Sunday movie date and mirienda at Balboa

Like any other Sunday, I spend today with family. A date with my grandfather, brother and a few cousins. It's movie day, I scheduled the 6 of us to watch Need for Speed at 3:20 at Shangrila Cineplex and since we are a bit short of time, we just bought snacks and off the movie house we go (Happy Lemon, Popcorn, Nachos). After the movie, we usually go to Tratoria Gourmet for some pasta and pizza since my cousin Jullian doesn't eat any meat. I had to suggest and beg him to try a new place. So there we are, the first store I saw was Balboa, my cousin checked if he can order something on the menu and hooray, he found one.

At the door, we were greeted by the receptionist and was lead to our seats. First I noticed was the place looks a little fancy, well that's expected as it was on the East Wing. I was welcomed by the nice design on the floor, the lighted chairs and somewhat I felt I was in another century. It was nicely designed comfy couches, wooden table (a little bit shaky thought, it being a new restaurant.) There was a big clock and a painting to most of our conversations over while waiting for the food went to.

Okay, so now the menu. It was plain and simple, Salad, Pasta, Pizza, sweets and ofcourse, the drinks. My cousins ordered the squash soup and it was a 2 out of 5 rating for me for taste, my mom's squash soup is way better (creamier and thick). This one was a little thin but was okay. For the price, 279 if I remember it right, it's kind of pricey.

We ordered a Four cheese Pizza and half of a Porsciutto Spinach Truffle pizza (16 inches) to share, which I would like to point out that was gone in a breeze as soon as it was laid on the table. The cheese was very good, the pizza crust was very thin but brick over cooked and fresh, toppings were okay and taste was just right but for my liking was a little bit bland (needing more salt). My rating will be a good 3 out of 5 for this and the cost is 700 pesos, hey pricey again!

Now, on to pastas. My grandfather did order some Italian Sausage in Pesto Sauce, nothing fancy, just okay. For the Penne Arabiatta, it was the normal tomato sauce pasta with spices.

Lastly, I did order the Truffles Linguini with mushroom sauce. Since I love mushrooms and truffles, I liked this pasta and I would rate it a low 3.5 out of 5, not that super wow factor for me but it's something that I would eat for sure. My cousins and I shared this family (for sharing) dish. Then, mama ordered the Pomodoro pasta, again, nothing spectacular but all of the pasta dishes were kind of pricey for the serving and taste.

We ended up the meal with a Eggs Benedict Burger with Panchetta (in the picture had 3 pieces of panchetta but only had one on the serving). I love the taste of the bread, and the patty itself, this tasted like a curry burger/taco burger alike for me. We ended up the day with Gellatisimo scoops, I had choc mint, I was able to taste the other flavors too at the counter.