Mesa Grill - Greenbelt 5

My cousin Butchie just arrived here in Manila from the US and a business side trip to Hong Kong. He stayed for about a week.

The first order of the day was to eat Fiipino food, for that was one of the reasons he came to Manila. We are a family of foodies so we were game to try different things. We’ve been wanting to eat at Mesa Grill for the longest time, but it’s always fully booked. By the stroke of lady luck, I was able to get a reservation for a table for four. Butchie, Mom, myself and hubby.

Since all four of us haven’t eaten there yet (I know, like, really?) , we ordered quite a substantial amount of food fit for maybe say… eight persons. Ha ha ha.

For starters, we ordered the Crispy Tawilis with Mango served with Bagoong Sauce. This was very light, sweet with just a hint of salt from the bagoong sauce. This is a great starter for the cholesterol extravaganza that we were about to devour. Nice presentation too. I am totally stealing this presentation style.



Next, we had the Shrimp, Tofu and Century Egg Sald in a Teriyaki Sesame Dressing. This was such a hit, hubby ordered another one. This appetizer is so light and refreshing. I highly recommend this dish.



For one of our our main courses, we ordered the Baby Squid Sauteed in Olive Oil. This was also delicious and light and the baby squid were tender and easy to chew.



We also ordered Sisig in a Pouch. Succulent sisig, wrapped in a lumpia wrapper and deep fried, served with local vinegar. I'm not sure if the vinegar was Paombong, but the vinegar was not the commercial kind so it was sooo gooood. A word of warning though, this dish is very high in fat and probably has no nutritional value, so eat sparingly. Butchie loved this dish.



For the main attraction, and a staple in any Filipino home during festivities, Lechon! We ordered 1/6 Crispy Lechon Served Two Ways. One way is, Pritchon. The skin, and the meat of the lechon was cut, diced and wrapped in pandan tortilla, served with three choices of dipping sauce – garlic mayo, hoisin and liver sauce. THe pritchon is prepared at your table, just watching it, made me so hungry.









The second way that they prepared the lechon was to fry up the rest of the it in sweet garlic sauce. Yummy yummy yummy. Fatty fatty fatty. Again, share and eat sparingly!



All the hype and the good reviews that I’ve read about Mesa Grill were true, so far. Mesa Grill is good eats. No wonder it’s always full!



For dessert, we made our way to Café Breton for some crepes. La Pinay Crepe is the favorite there. La Pinay is a dessert crepe with ripe mangoes and chocolate sauce, topped with Mantecado ice cream. Yummy! I had the similar version of dessert crepe, mangoes and condensed milk.



Hubby had Fruit Parfait which has ripe mangoes, Mantecado ice cream, chocolate sauce and whipped cream.



No, we did not eat healthy but we had so much fun!

We burned off the extra calories with laughter and a long massage after, he he he, which I think is the absolute best way to burn calories.