streetsmartgirl: Secret Recipe and Mercato Centrale on my birthday

Tuesday, October 18, 2011

Secret Recipe and Mercato Centrale on my birthday

So last Sunday, your dear streetsmartgirl celebrated her 2xth birthday. This year, I opted to celebrate it in a simple way with my family.

I purchased five Secret Recipe vouchers from Ensogo and I used them to treat my family to a dinner J I called up Secret Recipe for reserve a table only to find out that the only branch that can accommodate us is in Fort Bonifacio Anyways for a change of location, I gave it a go.

Secret Recipe is café chain in over nine countries mostly in Asia. Its menu consists of Asian, western, pasta, chicken, and vegetarian dishes. They are also popular for their fresh cream cakes and beverages

One thing I liked about the restaurant is the ambiance with its white and red walls. You can just dine, relax, and enjoy your food with family and friends. It gives you a feeling of comfort which makes you feel at home.

Casual dining at Secret Recipe

Here’s what we had..

Pan Grilled Dory in Lobster Sauce (Php 345)

Known as one their bestsellers; I ordered it. The dory was cooked fish fillet style with fries and salad on the side. Quite honestly, I didn’t like it. The fish didn’t taste fresh to me.

Chicken Cordon Bleu (Php 265)

This chicken dish is served with fries and salad. My sister didn’t like it but my cousin said it was average. So I’m not sure how it tasted.

Irish Lamb Shank (Php 485)

The lamb is served with mashed potato. Erick ordered an extra rice to match it. It’s one of their award winning dishes according to the menu. So I insisted Erick to order it. Well, to begin with the meat was soft and juicy. But I’m not so sure if it was really lamb or it was just beef. The sauce was okay but it tasted bland. You need to put more pepper to savor the taste.

At this point, honestly I’m not sure if everyone was enjoying his food. Off to the better dishes..

Fried Rice with Satay (Php 280)

The serving was small just enough for my sister’s pocket-sized built. Hehe I think what she liked about the satay was the peanut sauce.

Tom Yum Spaghetti (Php 220)

This tom yum wasn’t really spicy. This dish is a must try if you want to taste how spaghetti will taste with sour/spicy sauce on it.

Grilled Mushroom Chicken (Php 245)

Surprisingly, this dish is not on the bestseller list but it was actually the best tasting food of the night. The chicken was sliced proportionately with brown sauce and mushrooms on it.

Since we have a kid with us, we also ordered the Kid’s Burger.

Lemon slush, Apple Kasturi, and Fresh Watermelon shake

For our beverages, I had the Frosty Lemon Tea which is good. I’ve been craving for lemon slush since I had one in PNKY Café on my recent Baguio trip. This one’s quite a good alternative. They ordered Green Apple Kasturi which is a favorite drink in Secret Recipe and Fresh Watermelon.

Since I used five vouchers in a single transaction, we were given one whole round cappuccino cake which we all loved. Maybe the secret recipe of this restaurant is their cakes and not their entrée dishes.

with my family and my Capuccino cake

Aside from that, we also got free Secret Recipe VIP cards for discounts for card (10%) and cash (15%) transactions for dine-in and cake orders. Not bad eh? I was entitled to have 10 Secret Recipe VIP cards but since they ran out of stocks, they only gave me 6. The manager asked me if I could just return and get the remaining cards. But I don’t think I will go back there just to get the cards.

Secret Recipe VIP cards

The service wasn’t too bad at all but it can be improved. First off, I called up all the other three branches (Robinson’s Midtown, Shang, Megamall) to reserve only to get declined. They told me that the date I wanted to reserve is a mall-wide sale and they prioritized shoppers and non-voucher holders. Hokeeeey..I called up their BGC branch to see if I can reserve there. Good thing, there are available tables. Well, the restaurant wasn’t full actually; we were the only big group when we we got there J

We were told that the free whole cake specified in my voucher wasn’t available and they forgot to order it. They initially told us to return the next day to claim my free cake. It was disappointing because I reserved our table two days in advance . I told them that I am availing using the voucher which clearly stated that there is a free one whole Chocolate Cream Fudge Cake. So why are they telling me that it wasn’t available. Good thing that it was straightened out and I was given the Capuccino cake instead which wasn’t bad at all.

They are attentive to our needs but I can’t help but feel this belittled sense that I am using a voucher. It turned out that I have to tell them everytime that it was said in the voucher. Blah, blah. Blah.

The bottomline of all of these were resolved. So I give them a thumbs up for not getting us disappointed at the least. But as I said, they must improve on their service and food.

Our total bill amounted to Php 3420. I paid using five vouchers with Php3500 value in total. I ordered a slice of Chocolate Indulgence cake (Php80) to consume the value left in the voucher.

my take out which i remember is still in the fridge...remind me!

I would probably return but not for their dishes but for their cakes next time.

Since we were in the area, we decided to drop by Mercato Centrale to check the night food market. There were more food stalls now compared to our last visit.

Of course, I wouldn't miss to check if there was a milk tea store. And yes, we found one! We found Bubble Tea Chills and ordered the Sweet Black Milk tea and Wintermelon Milk Tea.