Fort Bonifacio Culinary Guide: I've been meaning to post about the resto scene in the Fort, but I lost a bunch of my pics so I decided not to, but Fisto is there now so I figure that I'll give him some pointers on the food scene. All of these restaurants and cafes are in the Fort Bonifacio area, from Burgos Circle all the way up to Market Mall, I'll start with the ones in Burgos circle, which are 30 second walk from Fisto's condo:
Burgos Circle is the most exclusive, high end area of Fort Bonifacio:
Its All About Living The Good Life in Burgos Circle
This is the view of Burgos Circle from my condo window, there are restaurants and cafes all around the circle:
Cafes:
UCC Coffee Cafe: This is a chain with locations throughout
Manila, its Japanese, the food is good and coffee as well, good sandwhiches and fruit platter there. Lots of upper class people in there, often you'll see people doing business deals or full on business meetings with several people.
WIFI: good connection but weaker upstairs
Cost: quite pricey, especially the coffee (90P for a small Americano), I prefer Coffee Bean for the coffee but UCC has better food.
Coffee Bean: Another chain, similar to Starbucks. Good large coffees, food is okay, good Greek salad but I'd rather eat elsewhere.
WIFI: Good when its working but a couple of times it was down, wasn't an issue as you can pick up the signal from Gambino's next door, although you'll need a password.
Cost: Reasonable, large Americano for 115P.
Restaurants
Gambinos: I ate there once, very nice interior and ambiance, the maitre d' is a young Italian guy and the chef is an older Italian guy, prices are reasonable, I had the chicken cacciatore, it was around 350P but it wasn't really that good.
WIFI: good connection
Prices: Cheapest plate would be about 300P and goes up to about 1200P with most entrees falling in the 500-800P range.
Chicken cattiatore at Gambino's:
Chicken and Beer: I went there often because they have the fastest WIFI but usually only had drinks because the food sucks. The chicken ceaser salad isn't bad but the other dishes I had were terrible, its main food selections are Korean.
WIFI: Very fast
Prices: cheap, but you get what you pay for.
Johnny Rockets: This is a 1950's style American burger diner, the food is okay if you want a quick burger. The last time I ate there the salad portion was so small that I decided not to eat there again, although it tasted good, paid 300P for it, way too much.
WIFI: Good signal, password is oreoshake16 as of last week.
Prices: Burgers are cheap at 200-250 for a combo but other items are overpriced.
Website:
http://www.johnnyrockets.com.ph/
Shitty overpriced salad at Johnny Rockets:
Marcos: This is still in the Burgos circle area but not directly on the circle, about 30M away. Its a Spanish inspired Filipino joint, I had a chicken plate and wasn't impressed, it was very greasy and I didn't eat there again. The restaurant itself is small but nice.
WIFI: very good
Cost: Fairly cheap, I paid about 300P for the chicken plate.
Food Lab: One of my favorite places, I ate there several times. I recommend the clam chowder, corn chowder and the pork chops are the biggest pieces of pork I've ever seen served. They also have a Canadian salad that I had to try and it was also very good.
WIFI: Shitty, it sometimes works but mostly doesn't, only bad part about this place.
Cost: reasonable, most entrees between 300-600P, soups were about 150P.
Massive pork serving at Food Lab:
Bugsy's: Near Marcos and Food Lab, this is a sports bar but its actually pretty good, its quite large and gets full at supper time. Mostly pub style food, not many healthy options. I had the steak kebab and it was tasty but small, I also had the biggest steak they served (450 grams), it was decent but nothing special and cost about 600P.
WIFI: good signal, never had problems.
Cost: reasonable, most appetizers are about 200-300P and most entrees 300-600P.
Menu at Bugsy's:
Chicken wings at Bugsy's:
Steak at Bugsy's:
Rue Bourbon: One of my favorite watering holes, this is the first bar I went to in the Fort back in February with
THC and 20nation, the night of extreme drunkeness where our local hosts bought us a bottle and several shots including liquid cocaine and tequila, also the night that 20nation stole a girl I picked up, Fisto, you will meet her soon if you haven't already. Anyway, as the name suggests, its Louisiana style. I only ate there once and it was pretty good. I mainly went there for beers, they have draught there.
WIFI: None
Prices: I only ever drank beer there and a San Mig draught is 90P, I forget how much the shots were because I didn't pay.
Facebook page:
https://www.facebook.com/RueBourbonPH
Kebab factory: Arab style place, I had the chicken kebab plate with hummus and pita bread, both very good. Its located right next door to Rue Bourbon.
WIFI: None
Prices: fairly expensive, I think I paid about 500P for my food there.
Chicken kebab and hummus at Kebab Factory:
Barcino: I didn't eat here but this is a great date place, very nice place run by a Spanish guy, huge wine selection, I lost the pics I took of this place and too bad because it is nice.
WIFI: Not sure
Prices: A bit pricey but they have daily wine specials and that what we got, I think each glass was about 220P.
Website:
http://www.barcino.com.ph/
Okay, so that's about it for the places I ate in Burgos Circle and I didn't even eat at half of them, plenty more options to check out. All of these places are within a 45 second walk from where I stayed, right at the circle. Rue Bourbon and Kebab Factory are on 29th street and Barcino is on Rizal Drive, all very close to the circle.
Next is
The Fort Strip, I didn't eat much there as its mostly clubs and bars but I did eat a few times at a nice place call
Keg, I ate the nachos, wings and pizza. Its mostly pub style as you can imagine, this palce gets crowded on the weekend, its where Tobasco did a promo event and I rode the mechanical bull as I wrote about in the OP.
WIFI: Not sure
Prices: Most of the pub style food I ate was in the 250-400P range.
Website:
http://thekeginc.com/