Our big Sunday lunch group tried out Stella one of the new restaurants in Bonifacio High Street. It’s the newest baby in the Raintree Restaurants group which also owns popular restaurants Museum Cafe, Chelsea Market Cafe, Mr. Jones and Momo Cafe.
The landscaping of Bonifacio High Street was very pleasing to the eyes and senses.
Their website described Stella’s cuisine as “Wood-fired bistro that offers a full array of delights peppered with tastes true to the West Coast, the Mediterranean & South America. Stella provides sustainable handcrafted cuisine, fresh & simple.”
This is the interiors of Stella. They were fully booked due to a children’s party so they sat us at the Rocket Room next door.
The Rocket Room is a bar & lounge that shared some of Stella’s menu items plus their own hot and cold small plates perfect partners for cocktails and wine.
The dip was some kind of mixed butter compound topped with paprika. Quite tasty.
raspberry echinacea iced tea P95
The Stella salad was made with sundried tomato bits, candied rosemary pistachios, buttermilk chive-ranch dressing and malagos percorino cheese. It was a bit ordinary for me. There was just a little pistachios which didn’t even taste caramelized. The highlight was the crispy bacon.
the Stella salad P295
Stella should be more careful with the food they serve. What would you feel if you had to pay P320 for a salad with brown lettuce leaves? If they didn’t have fresh lettuce then they shouldn’t serve this salad.
Caesar California P320
The soup was served barely warm otherwise it wasn’t that bad. It reminded me of canned cream of corn.
fire roasted corn & shrimp scampi soup P195
I love bone marrow but this was over baked making the marrow dry and almost burnt. There was very little we could scrape out. Too bad since the presentation was fabulous.
bone marrow P395
A little bone marrow with rosemary sultana compote amd gremolata on herbed garlic focaccia crisps. I did enjoy the bread with the condiments.
I didn’t like the merguez sausage meatballs at all. It had a VERY strong and overwhelming cumin flavor which I call “kili kili” smell.
melted merguez sausage meatballs P295
We ordered the next two appetizers from Rocket Room’s menu. I liked them both better than the ones from Stella.
chile lime fried chicken wings P395
seafood ceviche “verde” P295
I wasn’t able to try the clam pasta but I heard comments like “so-so and not so good” from my lunch companions.
Stella’s steamy clam pasta P350
I like my pizza’s crust as thin as possible. When the pizza arrived I already thought I wouldn’t like it since the crust was so thick. When I took a bite I was surprised that it was actually good. The crust was just like good bread with a crunchy crust and edge. It reminded me of the crust of Pizzeria Delfina in San Francisco. If you love bread then you will definitely enjoy their pizzas.
straight up pepperoni pizza P295
They need to SEASON their non-meat pizzas. Bland, bland, bland.
roasted tomato “Margherita rustica” P350
I had high hopes for the truffled mushroom pizza but it was just too bland. It needed a stronger cheese and at least some salt on the mushrooms.
fire roasted truffled mushroom pizza P350
This was their classier take on the Filipino favorite ham and pineapple pizza – jamon serrano & grilled pineapple.
jamon serrano & grilled pineapple pizza P350
My first slice of pizza I ate the everything. I even put some butter on the edge of the crust. But after that I left all the thick crust behind.
The ribs were a bit tough but the taste of the sauce wasn’t bad at all. The others thought it was too sweet.
US baby back riblets P395
The best part of lunch was dessert. For a big group of 15 we only ordered one and I think I ate most of it. Warm, sweet, chewy cookie filled with pistachios and topped with mantecado ice cream. I was in cookie heaven.
Stella’s wood fired chocolate almond cookie dough P195
Can you say yummmmmm???
Overall I found the food just satisfactory. Maybe there were other dishes we should have tried instead of so many pizzas? If ever I go back it will be with a different group since most of the people in this lunch group vehemently hated the food.
Stella’s menu
drinks, snacks, panini, salad, soup & pizza
pasta, fire & smoke, rice & vegetables
sweet stuff, dessert wine, coffee & tea
wines & beer
Rocket Room’s menu
pizza, panini, pasta, salad, wines & beer
hot & cold appetizers, cocktails
Stella Wood Fired Bistro
7th Ave. corner 29th St. South,
Ground Floor, East Superblock
Bonifacio High Street Central, Bonifacio Global City, Taguig
telephone: +632 621 3222
website
Facebook
Shoot First Eat Later 
Leslie, too bad for the bone marrows dish it would have the best ever. Many restaurant fail not from bad chef but badly not so well train workers in kitchen and dinning area. The Gerry Grill in Daly City near San Francisco lasted only less than a year. Bad staff in kitchen and dinning area.
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Jollibee in San Francisco lasted less than a year also. Workers does not seem to know how run a fast food place orderly.
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I’ve always been curious about Stella, guess I shouldn’t have high hopes when I’ll finally pay it a visit. And now I’m more eager to try Rocket Room’s menu than Stella’s 😀
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I was supposed to try out Stella but I guess I’ll try Cue’s Bone Marrow instead. Thanks for this very informative blog post!
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Yes Cue’s bone marrow was a lot better!!
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You’re right Rocket Room has more interesting ‘tapas’.
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ate dinner at stella a month ago and we were satisfied with the food, especially the salt baked gindara fillet. you should try that on your next visit =)
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are you kidding? it was like eating pure salt, it was soooo salty, the waiter even saw me scraping off the salt and whispered sorry sir medyo maalat talaga yan
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