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My New 2nd Favorite Italian Place

dontcallmedude

  and I had an impromptu post-Valentine’s date last night. We were both craving pasta for dinner, but we were both sick of the usual offerings at Eastwood – Italianni’s, Pasto and Fazoli’s. I remembered passing by SM Hypermart/Tiendesitas/Silver City Auto Mall while we were on our way to Shangri-La to celebrate my lolo’s birthday, and noticing that they had a branch of Napoli Pizzeria/A Veneto and this new place called Al Dente. I figured it was time to explore this place that’s so near my home before it gets as populated as the other malls. So Mik and I took a cab to Tiendesitas and eventually decided to try out Al Dente.

It was a great decision. Al Dente is now my new favorite Italian Place, second to Amici de Don Bosco. We ordered the Angel Hair Puttanesca (Php125) because I just lurve Angel Hair. It’s even better than Italianni’s Angel Hair Pomodoro. Mik got the Fettuccine Carbonara (Php130) as his mission was to try out and then rank all the pasta places in the country according to the best carbonara. I’m not a big carbonara fan, especially since it’s made so sweetly here – like it was liberally topped with evap or condensed milk (not sure which one’s used, hehehe). But Al Dente’s carbonara had just the right hint of egg aftertaste. And they don’t stint on the bacon! XD Their bestseller, according to our kind waiter, was the Linguini with Manila Clams and Tomatoes. Unfortunately, Mik’s allergic to seafood, so this choice was out. I’ll probably try this out with my brother.

We were deciding which pizza to try when the attentive waiter told us we could get a Pizza Sampler instead. For Php300, we would get 8 slices of 4 different pizza flavors. We got:

1. Godfather’s – Pepperoni, Italian sausage, bacon, mushrooms, onions, bell peppers, olives, and mozzarella cheese. Mik loved this. It’s his new favorite.
2. Caesar Salad – Thick mozzarella cheese, crisp romaine lettuce, croutons, and homemade caesar dressing. Heavenly cheese. Mmmm.
3. Italian Meatball – Pomodoro sauce, onions, mozzarella cheese, and half of a huge ass meatball.
4. Chicken Pesto – Orgasmic! Fresh pesto yum yum. This is my absolute favorite flavor.

You can tell that we’d already made inroads to the pasta by the time the pizza came:

Funny, I ate the Godfather’s slice first, and I had an inkling that Mik would love it, while he had the Pesto first and he thought that I’d love it. And we were both right. XD

The pizza’s unique because of its biscuit-like crust. I had a slice with the crust toasted to an almost sunog state which I really, really love (I love this almost sunog state with toast, pancakes, and fried eggs).

It’s a great date place. The interior is air conditioned with wooden chairs and tables. They also have a wine buffet promo for Php299. Al fresco dining is also available. And, if you have Airborne Access subscription, you can surf while partaking of their fare. I think we’re eating there again tonight, heehee.

fruitandnut

, we _have_ to eat at Al Dente before you leave!