Hello, Salvatore Cuomo!
We were greeted by a black, white and red facade and a small waterfall-like fountain by the entrance. It further established that I was about to enter a not so casual restaurant.
The inside interior design is more of elegant industrial with the restaurant's leather upholstered wooden furniture pieces and bare ceiling with exposed pipes. There are some lovely drop lights which made the ambiance classy.
We went for lunch and it sure was packed! We were asked by the host if we made reservations. We didn’t. I didn’t know that it would be this packed given that it is fairly new. But never underestimate the pull of Salvatore Cuomo’s name. We were lucky though that there were two vacant seats by the bar. Since we were already there, we settled with those high stools.
Given that Salvatore Cuomo is known in Japan as “The Pizza Man”, it just makes sense if we order pizza. We got Margherita (PHP680). We also ordered Zuppa di Funghi e Gamberetti (PHP390) and Tiramisu with Pistachio Gelato (PHP380). I wanted to try its reasonably priced steaks (prices range at PHP800-1,500) but we decided to stick with a few dishes as we weren’t that hungry.
It was expected that service wouldn’t be at its peak as the place was very busy. All servers were on the move. But our soup arrived within the 15 minute mark. I had to ask for the noteworthy complimentary bread basket though as they didn’t serve any before our soup. (It arrived after serving the pizza and after following up thrice.)
The soup may be expensive but they sure did not scrimp on the ingredients. The soup was thick and the mushroom taste was strong. I loved that there were bits of mushroom to bite on instead of it being too grainy causing my throat to itch. The sautéed shrimps were good too. It was fresh and complemented the thick soup. I also liked the drops of sour cream giving the dish a tinge of tanginess.
