That arty feel at Leona Art Restaurant

When I first read about Leona Art Restaurant inside Teacher's Village in Quezon City, I imagined the place to resemble an art gallery with paintings and sculptures..and I thought, I'd like to eat there. When I had the chance last Labor Day together with the kids, I grabbed it and never let go. Haha! There was no painting in there, nor sculpture to admire, however, and I only found a country-style place that's nice, alright..and cozy too. Well, there were hanged posters here and there and trinkets for sale, which somehow made me feel like being in an art restaurant. Well, yes, somehow. Haha! But their pizza..the pizza! It got me in. Okay...I'm now an official Leona fan..except for one thing which I'll tell later. Their pizza is thin-crust and oh-so-good! No fuss, straightforward, crunchy and delicious! At just P499, we got three 10-inch pizzas. We also had chicken pesto pasta which was yummy as well, with a serving big enough to feed two persons (if you have another order, like a pizza), at P165. I had ice cream for a sweet ending and it gave me a pleasant surprise.  You see, I didn't like, almost never ate vanilla ice cream but what could I do, they didn't offer any other flavor (which made me wonder). No choice but to eat vanilla ice cream. But in fairness, it got me hooked - very smooth and creamy. Yummy! 

Anyway, take a look at food at Leona Art Restaurant:  

Pepperoni Pizza

Onion and Pesto

Three Cheese

Thin and crunchy. Yum!

Pizza party!

Chicken and Pesto pasta 

Vanilla ice cream - a cup of happiness!

Melon shake

Pitcher of iced tea

Love, love, love the sunshine in my coffee. 

The bric-a-brac here are for sale.

There's a turtle in the glass tank at left.

As I said, I loved everything at Leona except for one thing - the coffee. For me it was downright bad. Truth to tell, I stopped drinking coffee after that cup, till after more than a week. I had such a bad memory of the taste of their house blend coffee. Was it just me? Maybe..I don't know..I hope so! Despite this, I know I'll be drawn back to Leona by that delish pizza and pasta. And vanilla ice cream. Haha!

Pure porcine pleasure

Last weekend, I, together with two kids, were able to try a new foodie place that opened just this month. You see, I'm such a sucker for anything crispy and have been craving for that Ilocos specialty called "bagnet" - pork deep-fried till the skin gets a nice crisp that one eats after dipping in vinegar (spicy, please!). Thus, when I learned that a restaurant whose specialty is bagnet had just opened up in Quezon City, I didn't waste much time and hauled 

ourselves off at once!

This new place said to offer ticket to porcine heaven is called Manong's Bagnet Station - a simple, unassuming restaurant which I found out, serves really mean bagnet - a haven indeed for pork lovers! All three dishes we ordered were made from bagnet and all of them were so good! Take a look at what two of my kids and I partook of for a late lunch:

Manong's Bagnet Rice Meal, P135.

Sinigang na Bagnet, P220.

You gotta eat this before the pieces of pork swim in the soup so you don't miss 
out on the crack.

Sisig ni Manang Rice Meal, P110.

Halo-Halo with 2 scoops of ice cream, P80.

Brewed Coffee, P50.

Iced tea, P35.

Mango Juice, P40.

Inside Manong's Bagnet Station.

My bagnet rice meal didn't disappoint. On the contrary, I was impressed! You should hear that crack whenever I would bite into the skin that was so crispy I was eating noisily! Haha! I also took spoonfuls of my kids' sinigang na bagnet and bagnet sisig. I'm not kidding you, both were really delicious as well. The next day, my daughter was still daydreaming about Manong's Bagnet Station, planning to order bagnet kare-kare next time. By the way, although this restaurant had just opened, it's not really a new kid on the block in the food business as it has been a weekend market favorite for quite some time. 

Manong's Bagnet Station is at 117A Scout Lozano corner Tomas Morato, just next (or behind) to Alba Restaurant in Quezon City. 

Nice surprise at Nathaniel's

If there's one newly-discovered (for me!) foodie place that I can heap superlatives on, it's Nathaniel's Bakeshop. If you haven't been there, well, it's not just a bakeshop, it's a restaurant, too, that offers a somewhat wide range of dishes aside from being a food store that sells a variety of breads and pastries, puto, siopao and many other munchies.  I tell you this, and I assure you I'm not kidding, what we ate there were the best in their own league. Consider this: the best pancit palabok, the best pancit sotanghon and the best burger steak this side of earth. Haha!! 

I first heard about Nathaniel's from Ate Baby, one of my co-workers, last month. She wanted to buy Buko Pandan, which, she attested, was so good there. A few days later, we went to the Timog Ave. branch. There were four of us aboard our officemate's L-300 van. At Ate Baby's urging, we ordered palabok for take out. We also bought other food items including pichi-pichi and asado roll for me and a box of sans rival for Pam. Back in the office minutes later, I dug into my palabok. Mmm.. I was in love in an instant! I kid you not, this was the best palabok I've ever had in my life! Since then, I'd been looking for a chance to bring my family to Nathaniel's. That chance came on Black Saturday but alas! The restaurant was closed. Finally, last Saturday, we had the opportunity again. Two of my kids and I dropped by Timog Ave. on our way to get our organic veggies at the QC Circle. 
These were our orders: 

Pancit Palabok, P70. Definitely a must-try!

Sotanghon Guisado, P70. Very yummy too!

Sizzling Burger Steak, P135. The best burger steak I've ever tasted!

Lumpiang Sariwa, P55. 

Siomai, P55.

Buko Pandan Juice, P50. Another must-try!

Brewed coffee, P45.


Man, did we enjoy our meal! All, except for one, was very good! My daughter enjoyed her palabok to the hilt. As I write this, she's asking me to buy her palabok tomorrow. Hehe. My little boy, who eats burger steak each time we're in Jollibee, also loved it here. His ate  and I shared his leftover patty. At P135 per order consisting of two large and thick patties, a generous serving of rice and buttered veggies -  sulit talaga! Meanwhile, my sotanghon guisado left me really full and satisfied. The serving was big (I wasn't able to finish it) and it was really delicious, with lots of meat and vegetables. Even the slice of bread that came with it was good. And the siomai? Delicious too! And unlike other food places that give 3 to 4 pieces per order, Nathaniel's serves 5 pieces of siomai per order. And what did we have that wasn't so good? It's the Lumpiang Sariwa. We (my daughter and I) concluded that the sauce was the culprit - too mild in flavor, it failed to bring out the goodness of the lumpia itself. But hey, there's another thing to heap superlatives on - the Buko Pandan Juice - Nathaniel's signature drink. It's like having a drink and dessert in one. Very refreshing! Well, I liked my brewed coffee too, though it was already a bit cold when I sipped it at the end of my meal. Also, it was served in a plastic cup, which I didn't like 
(BPA, you know!)
Well, where's the surprise I was saying?
It's in the take-out bag!

See? There's a Bible verse written on it, and one of my favorites at that! Thank you Lord 

for my surprise blessing. :-)

Inside Nathaniels's Bakeshop along Timog Ave. in Quezon City.

Nathaniel's Bakeshop traces its origin to the City of San Fernando in Pampanga, in 1994. Its popularity quickly grew, fueled by its siomai, puto pao and buko pandan. Now it has four branches in Pampanga and two in Metro Manila - along Timog Ave. and in Alabang, Muntinlupa City. For more information, check out their website here: http://www.nathaniels.com.ph/index.php

Loving lunch-outs at Ninang's Pansit Malabon

My little boy and I have a new favorite foodie place - Ninang's Pansit Malabon, which has a branch near our office on Visayas Ave. in Quezon City. Two weeks ago, it was our place for lunch and it was then that my son professed love for Ninang's sinigang na baboy. Last Monday, it was our second time there but now also with us were one of my daughters and our two doggies. Yup, they were all with me as I went to work.  Talk about chaos in the office. Hehe..
Anyway, all of us enjoyed Monday's lunch. Yep, including the dogs. Haha! The first time, I learned that the dinuguan at Ninang's was delicious and on the second time, I hailed the boneless daing na bangus! It was rightly seasoned (just a hint of vinegar so not too sour)  and had a crunch to it. My son, on both occasions, ordered sinigang na baboy, while the daughter went for pork binagoongan with rice and Pansit Malabon. The three of us shared our food with the four-legged creatures and there was nary a complaint from the doggies. Hehe... With the prices of food at Ninang's, there wasn't a hint of protest from my purse as well! 
The restaurant offers combo meals consisting of a viand (choices of pork barbecue, daing na bangus, lumpiang shanghai, dinuguan), rice and Pansit Malabon, the latter being the specialty here. Some viands are served with only rice plus iced tea. There are also other ala carte dishes such as the Pinoy favorites kare-kare and crispy pata. Meanwhile, Pansit Malabon can be ordered for take-out on bilao of various sizes.  

Pansit Malabon, P55.

Daing na bangus meal, P75.

Dinuguan meal, P75.

Dinuguan is also perfect with puto (which is available at Ninang's too), for snacks.

Sinigang na baboy meal (with rice and iced tea), P75.

Binagoongan (w/ rice and iced tea), P75.

My boy makes himself sinigang rice topping.

I go after him and make myself dinuguan rice topping. :-)

Choose your bilao size. 

Various food items are for sale here too.

Good thing we were allowed to bring our minipins Odie and Tiger Lily inside.  They enjoyed
the food at Ninang's too! :-)

Other branches of Ninang's Pansit Malabon that I know of are in Tandang Sora and Fairview, both in Quezon City and on G. Tuazon St. in Sampaloc, Manila.