A New Fave Resto

I lost a stupid bet with H, so I had to treat him to dinner. We'd been planning to hang out at Serendra, so I decided to treat him to Conti's, which is probably the cheapest resto you could find in the area.

We had never eaten there before; all I knew about Conti's was that 1) they made a mean mango tart, which I attacked when Tita Grace brought it to one party, 2) they seemed to have a great selection of desserts (cakes and pastries are their specialty), and 3) my mom would order stuff from there when she'd have some pot-luck party. It's actually been around in Parañaque for about a decade, but it's only in recent years that us QC folks gained access to it via its Greenhills branch.

We decided to have an early dinner on Sunday, but at 6:00 pm there was already a queue! So we had our names listed and headed to A Different Bookstore to kill time. It didn't take long before we had our own table (though there were probably five or six other groups on the list), so yay!

Mental lapse: I wasn't able to take pics, forgetting that H actually had a high-tech phone. (Since my phone got stolen, I'd forgotten that cameras actually came with phones. Haha.) But anyway...

H ordered the roast beef over mashed potatoes, while I opted for the chicken marsala with potato salad. Both were less than P200. And I'm totally ravin' about the chicken marsala! It's pieces of chicken breast and mushrooms cooked in this white sauce with marsala wine. Divine! I actually looked forward to every bite, and each one was still as surprising as the last. It's rare that I would get that excited over eating something--I wanted to just gobble everything up, but at the same time, I had to restrain myself because I wanted the experience to last forever! I just didn't expect it to be that good, and was kind of sad when we polished the last bits off my plate. (H loved it as well. Give him anything cooked with wine and he'll sing praises.)

The roast beef was quite tender, but the serving was too little for my carnivore. (I learned that he's actually gained about 20lbs since we got together. I wonder if I had anything to do with it.) Our mouths watered upon seeing the baked salmon served to a table nearby, so he made up his mind to order it after finishing his roast beef. The baked salmon, about P250 more or less, is one of the bestsellers. On top, it had melted cheese and hints of garlic--sort of like what you'd put on baked tahong. And the best part was H paid for it. Hehe.

There are loads of other stuff on the menu--paella, lengua, Pinoy favorites, I think even pasta. He was too full for dessert and, sadly, I was still off the pastries, so all I could do was look longingly as the bestselling mango bravo was served to others. It's this HUGE slab of frozen cake for only P85! We were actually surprised at how reasonably priced the desserts (and everything else) were. I'm guessing this is one of the main reasons that the resto had a queue! It's found a place in my list of favorite restos, so I am definitely going back! In fact, I can't wait til my next birthday (a good nine months away) just so I'd have a reason to take my family there!

Note: The Serendra branch has gotten a lot of smack, supposedly because of bad service. But the servers were attentive and we got our meals promptly. It took a while for us to get our bill though, but after that good meal, it was no big deal. I dunno if they've improved or if we were lucky.

Conti's has branches at Shops at Serendra, the Fort Global City, Taguig; 61 President Quirino Ave., BF Homes Commercial Center, Parañaque (tel. 850-5852); and 53 Connecticut St., Greenhills, San Juan (tel. 744-4184).