Rochelle and I took our balikbayan friend, Ariel to lunch at Mesa Filipino Moderne in Greenbelt 5. I suggested this restaurant because I read a lot of good and raving reviews from other bloggers. I’m always on the look out for good Filipino restaurants to bring friends from abroad.
Mesa was quite full on a weekday lunch.
I’m sorry to say that there were more disappointments than good food during lunch. Let me count them for you.
1. The gin pomelo was a disaster. Why? I’m pretty sure it was made with instant Tang pomelo flavor with a little gin. It was very disappointing.
✖ gin pomelo P290
2. The sisig pouches were very oily but Ariel liked it. He ate it all after removing the greasy wanton wrapper.
✔ sisig in a pouch P180
3. The scallops were thankfully good. It was the 1 of 2 dishes I actually enjoyed.
✔ baked scallops w/ garlic butter P190
4. The crispy tilapia was not crispy at all. The four sauces were bagoong which was sweet, honey patis which was sweet, soy & vinegar sauce and sweet chili which was sweet of course. So 3 out of the 4 sauces were sweet. That didn’t make me happy at all. The crispy tilapia at Recipes in Greenbelt 3 is so much better.
✖ crispy boneless tilapia w/ 4 sauces P290
5. The ostrich was tender and tasted like beef but it was SWEET! Why o why did they ruin the poor ostrich? It took a liberal douse of soy sauce to save this dish and make it palatable.
✖ drunken ostrich P290
6. The chicken wasn’t sweet despite the name chicken bbq in honey patis. It was just plain blah, boring, bland and ordinary. Any chicken from your neighborhood inasal stand would taste 10x better.
✖ chicken bbq in honey patis P150
7. The duck basil rice was the best dish of all. It was very fragrant and the flavor was just divine. This was the only dish worth going back for.
✔✔✔ duck basil fried rice P180
8. We were lured by the name- barako coffee jelly. What a way to end lunch with another disaster. It was lukewarm and tasted like intstant coffee gelatin from a box. No way did it even resemble the flavor of barako coffee.
✖ barako coffee jelly
I’m sorry but I really didn’t like the food at Mesa. It wasn’t because it was modern Filipino which wasn’t really too far off from traditional Filipino fare. They actually had several creative dishes in the menu. We actually ordered majority of their specialties. The bottom line was the taste just wasn’t up to par. For Filipino food I’d stick to C2 Classic Cuisine, Bangus and Fely J.
Mesa, Filipino Moderne
Ground Level, Greenbelt 5
telephone: 728-0886
Shoot First Eat Later 