Maple

I first saw Maple restaurant at the San Antonio Plaza, and I was quite amazed at the endless stream of patrons lining up to have pancakes.  Early this year, Monique tried to get us a table at their branch at the Shangri-la Mall, and we lucked out too--the line was simply too long.  This time around, we were there early with Becca and Angie and Vicky had her wish--lunch at Maple!  The food is done American country style, and be warned--it is quite rich and you can walk out feeling giddy.

The cream pasta was made with truffle oil (or maybe truffle-infused olive oil), and the prosciutto and aged cheese made it very rich.  We had boiled Chilean mussels; the soup was full of flavor and the lemon wedges gave it a neat touch of tartness.

The burger was soft and juicy, and strangely enough, I was particularly happy with the dill pickles.  If I'm not mistaken, Vicky ordered what I think was an egg omelette with mushrooms, but somehow it looked like an oyster cake from Sincerity in Binondo (sorry I do have a hard time recalling what it actually was).

I wasn't too happy with the blackened chicken strips, which was tough and dry.  The chef tried to play catch-up with the sauce, but even that failed to uplift the dish.  The T-bone tapa was a unique take on the ubiquitous breakfast dish; I still prefer my T-bone to be cooked like a steak though, and I'd keep my beef tapa boneless, thank you.

We finished our meal with pancakes.  Yes, the girls had it dripping with lots of maple syrup!  Oh, simply too sweet for me.  Our total bill came to around P700 per head, but you guessed it right--we pigged out!