A Night in Venice Piazza

Located near the Libingan ng mga Bayani, McKinley Hill, touted as Little Venice in Metro Manila, is a relatively unknown place compared to its neighbor – the well-known Bonifacio Global City or BGC. Such reason compelled Megaworld Corporation, McKinley Hill’s developer, to promote the place through various promotions, one of which is Food Adventure in Venice Piazza.

Surrounded by Italian-inspired houses and buildings, Venice Piazza is the heart of McKinley Hill or I should say belly, or both. The Piazza, an Italian word for city square, is the center of public life in Italy . Hence, a fitting name to hold the Food Adventure as it houses gamut of palates and recreations.

The Food Adventure has been on foodie’s radar for the past few weeks. Fortunately, the management decided to extend its promo run and advertised it on Philippine Daily Inquirer. Food lovers or not are welcomed to sample 12 dishes from 12 restaurants. The mechanics is simple: one has to buy Food Adventure Passport near the Venice Piazza’s main entrance; get a schedule for your adventure; and present it to a participating restaurant. The promo is held at Venice Piazza every Saturday from May to July 30, 06:00 pm to 11:00 pm.

The Adventure Begins

We arrived too early for the Food Adventure so we resigned ourselves to picture taking, a required activity for Filipinos. One joke said that when you see a group of people going gaga over poses and taking pictures of everything around him/her, then you definitely have Filipinos in the house. After posing for the camera a la modele, my nephew and niece went hurriedly towards the playground and gazed occasionally in the sky whenever they hear the airplane’s engine passing by.

Ten minutes before six o’clock, I heard whining from my big fat nephew. He was hungry. Who wouldn’t be? Someone who spent playing for almost an hour will surely feel hungry. However, we couldn’t start claiming our food because the clock hadn’t strike 6 o’clock yet. We asked him to wait and, good thing, he considered our suggestion and waited. As soon as the long hand reached 12, I went quickly inside the Old Vine’s Grille Restaurant to claim the Salmon Carpaccio. We decided to choose this first because it is not very often that we get to eat salmon at a very cheap price, only to be told to wait because the waitress was waiting for the signal to begin. Nonetheless, we were the second group so we didn’t have to wait very long. We also ordered Kuse’s Beef Rib Adobado, another cheap find.

While waiting for our order, we turned our attention to Sol Gelato to assuage my nephew’s growing hunger. I couldn’t give any comment about the gelato because I didn’t get to taste it. Nonetheless, my nephew was satisfied so gelato passed the mark. When our orders arrived, we started feasting ourselves with salmon and beef. I’m not good at critiquing food so I could only give general remarks. The Salmon Carpaccio was delicious. If you are used to eating sushi then salmon Carpaccio will surely pass your mark. Beef Ribs Adobado, let’s just say, we ordered it again as a take home food. Do I need to add more?

Our next stop was the Red Crab Alimango House that serves Butter Ginger Crab Claws. One thing about Venice Piazza, all the participating restaurants are located at the ground floor and beside one another. I didn’t like the crab much because it tasted bland for me.

The Empire Deli Restaurant served us Baked Macaroni with Orange Summer Salad. Nothing spectacular about the dish so I share the same sentiment of Our Awesome Planet Blogger Anton Diaz who said that some participating restaurant s should have offered their best dishes because, as I mentioned earlier, food adventure is created to attract customers and visitors. What makes visitors become loyal customers? It is the sumptuous food.

Beside Empire Deli is Pinchos Restaurant and Bar that served Baked Oysters. It was my first time eating baked oysters because I am used to eat blanched oysters and dip it in vinegar with chopped white onions. But the oysters were delicious, though, a bit salty. The Blackwood Bistro presented Crab and Mango Salad. I had the same reaction from Empire Deli. I wished the organizers thoroughly check the list of dishes. We would love to see a variety of dishes.

We decided to give our stomach a ten minute. We didn’t want to suffer indigestion. Minutes later, we proceeded to Sweet Pea. They served Quesadillas and Buffalo wings. The Buffalo wings had subtle spiciness which was good and quesadillas dipped with cheese neutralized the remaining spiciness of Buffalo wings, in short, a perfect combination.

We were so full, we had difficulty walking. But nothing beats my nephew who finished the remaining serving of Buffalo wings on his own. That’s why we brought him together with us because we knew he has a big appetite.

On Little Asia, we were asked to pick either Minced Chicken with lettuce or Vietnamese Spring Rolls. Since our stomachs were sending signals to our brains that we should stop eating, we claimed one serving of Minced Chicken and Spring Rolls. We hardly touched the food that we told the server that we wouldn’t take the next serving because we didn’t want to waste food. The server made an instant choice to pack our servings and whispered to us to keep quiet because the server was not allowed to pack the food.

Then we claimed our Yo Swirl’s Ice cream to remove our “suya” and took another break. We still had another restaurant to visit. On the other hand, my nephew and niece seemed not getting tired because they immediately went back to the playground as soon as my sister exclaimed that we were taking break. After break, we proceeded to our final stop, the Ramen Bar. We were served with Kaarage (Japanese-style fried chicken) paired with Kakuni Buns or Siopao without the filling. We liked the taste. But I was hoping for a serving of Ramen. But it did not materialize because it was not the promo dish. We decided to make Ramen Bar our final stop instead of Pho Hoa because we already had our serving of spring rolls.

To cap our adventure, we got more than what we paid. My niece and nephew enjoyed the surrounding because of the playground and the airplanes hovering above us. While we, the older members of the group, were fully satisfied till the last end of this adventure. We feasted our eyes and satiated our stomachs. It was undeniably a lively night at Venice Piazza and definitely brought life back to us. Venice Piazza has not only lived up to its namesakes – the Italian City of Venice and the Piazza but also stayed true to what Italy stands for – that is life. As attested by Ms. Lavish, a character from E.M. Forster’s novel “A Room with a View”, once said, “One doesn’t come to Italy for niceness. One comes for life.”

Taken using Sony Ericsson Satio