Thursday, March 12, 2015

Love at Third Bite: Green Pastures

My preferences seem to be different from my colleagues. Whenever we vote on something, I usually end up choosing the option NO ONE votes for. Just like when we were deciding where to have our celebratory dinner, I chose Kettle or Brotzeit; both chosen by nada. Curious which one won? Green Pastures.

Okay, I have a love-hate relationship with this one. I recall that I ordered the wrong dishes on my first visit and I had yummy pasta but a weird drink on my second visit. This time around though, my boss, M, ordered for the team and got Ricotta (PHP225), Stracciatella (PHP325) and Autumn Surprise (PHP430, small | PHP595, large) for appetizer; Scampi-Chorizo (PHP500, solo | PHP700, sharing), 80/20 Burger (PHP550), Roasted Organic Chicken (PHP650) and Tap-Caulisi-Log (PHP600) as our mains.
First served was the bowl of salad.
I truly enjoyed the mix of greens, nuts and fruits. There were a lot of flavors and textures going on making it very interesting. My favorite was the candied walnuts.
Stracciatella
Ricotta and stracciatella were served next.
Ricotta
Almost everyone liked the stracciatella cheese more but I prefer ricotta cheese as it had a tangier flavor. The scracciatella needed a bit of salt for taste while ricotta tastes even better with the onion jam. Then again, the arugula made scracciatella delightful.

Now for the main dishes…
The Scampi-Chorizo is love. With a bit of spice, this red sauce based pasta was a winner! The shrimps used were fresh and the chorizo’s taste wasn’t overwhelming (or too salty).
The 80/20 burger was a bit difficult to divide amongst ourselves but the meaty 80% grass fed beef and 20% double smoked organic pancetta did not disappoint. 
It was so succulent and flavorful. Even the fries tasted… organic in a good way!
I also loved the roasted chicken. It was tender and far from being called “dry”. Roasted in konbu (kelp) brine, it helped bring a more interesting flavor.
But the most memorable dish that night was the cauliflower rice. It felt like you’re eating rice but it was bits of cauliflower topped with wagyu tapa and egg. Healthy without tasting like it. I love it!

P.S. You can ask for extra bread for the cheese. We thought we’ll be charged for extra bread so we were trying to eat our bread “wisely”. But you could get more for free.

Green Pastures is located at 4th Floor, East Wing, Shangri-La Plaza Mall, Mandaluyong City.

Green Pastures Menu, Reviews, Photos, Location and Info - Zomato

2 comments:

Comments or other recommendations? :)