Dinner at Lombardi’s, Robinson’s Magnolia

We were supposed to have our Christmas dinner at Greeka Kouzina but it was full that Saturday night so we went to Robinson’s Magnolia and chose to eat at Lombardi’s.

I was with the same group of friends and kiddies who ate at My Kitchen where we had an excellent meal that we still had a pizza and pasta hangover. We were dreaming of recreating some of that joy in Lombardi’s.

You can see their faux brick wood burning oven from the dining area. They used gas. Well, it did look nice.

We will tear down your ice cream plant but we will give you an excellent location for your ice cream house. Indeed it was a prime location.

Chef David Lombardi

bread & olive oil

Quite costly for a few pieces of squid. Not my favorite.

Calamari Fritti with Aioli Sauce P365

This was in the appetizer category in the menu so I was surprised when a grilled cheese sandwich came out. We did enjoy it specially with the tomato dip.

Mozzarella in Carrozza P230

I guess their pizza was authentic in the sense that there was LITTLE toppings on it just like most of the pizzas I ate in Italy. The basil wasn’t even worth 1 leaf. When the pizza was hot it was pretty good. Even though the crust wasn’t as thin as I like I managed to eat 1 an entire slice edge included. When it cooled down the crust became hard and I basically just ate half the slice and left all the parts without sauce and cheese behind.

Rustica P440 – pancetta, salami, mozzarella, basil

You have to look really close to find the teeny weeny pieces of salmon. I think ordering their cheapest and simplest pizzas would be a better deal since paying a premium for better ingredients was not worth it.

Salmon Affumicato P420 – salmon, mozarella, basil

The penne was ok. It was al dente and the tomato sauce was pretty good and NOT sweet.

Penne Pomodoro Fresco P210

I also liked the lasagna which had a balanced amount of ground beef to sauce ratio. I dislike too much ground beef in my lasagna.

Lasagne della Casa P290

Spaghetti Ai Frutti Di Mare P310

While the other food we had could be called ‘authentic’ with a stretch of imagination and wasn’t too awful I just have to rant about their risotto which was one of the side dishes offered with their meat entrees. The other alternatives were baked mashed potato or salad.

If you’re old enough you would probably remember the Star rice commercial. Well this risotto is it! I don’t think anywhere in Italy do they use margarine in their risotto. For heaven’s sake only a little butter is used for risotto. If you can’t afford butter then skip it. But to use margarine? It was beyond awful!!!  The pork wasn’t bad at all but the piece below was contaminated with the margarine so we couldn’t eat that anymore.

Scalloppa dela ‘Milan’ with risotto a la Milanese P390

Lombardi’s menu (click to enlarge)

I couldn’t help but compare the food of Lombardi’s with Amici since they have a similar price point. Amici’s pizzas also have few toppings but it just tastes better. I also like their pasta much better.

Since the 5 adults in the group weren’t full or happy we decided to go to Manda Centrale for shawarma but when we got there it was closed. I forgot they were open from Wednesday to Friday only.

Lombardi’s
2nd Floor, Al Fresco Robinsons Magnolia
Aurora Blvd. cor. Dona Hemady St. Quezon City
telephone: 623-6901
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