The system we’re using at work got upgraded a couple of weeks ago, which was unfortunate, because the launch date coincided with the start of our peak season. Kill me now. The powers that be had no other choice but to open up slots for over time to help ease up the backlog. Since the only thing I had planned for that Saturday was for IHKA’s preventive maintenance service (PMS) for 30,000 kms, I decided to help out for the first half of the day.
Anyways, it wasn’t until half-past noon when I checked in at Kia Alabang and it was well past four in the afternoon when I stepped out. I was also infinitely poorer; stupid naïve little ol’ me thought that five thousand pesos would be enough but the lady at the counter didn’t even bat an eye when she quoted “ma’am mga nine to ten thousand po”. My car was already parked inside their garage and I was already a few hundred kilometers overdue so I just did a quick computation of the cash I had on hand and mutely nodded yes.
I remember being vaguely hungry before I got to the service center, but the prospect of shelling out ten huge ones made me lose my appetite. It turned out that the whole thing was only for 8,500php (I have this theory that they seriously overshoot the estimate so that customers would even end up being grateful that the bill is significantly lower than the quote), which meant that I had monies to spare to feed myself.
N was around the Alabang area as well doing ninang duties that ended around the same time I finished so we agreed to meet up in Molito and eat. I was craving for rice and I wasn’t in the mood for French food (La Petit Cheri) or Japanese (Omakase or Yushoken) so we decided to check out Buona Vita’s Spanish offerings.
They started us off with a basket of bread varieties, with salsa and a pesto dip. Both of the dips were tasty but I personally didn’t like the different type of breads; I wish they just stuck to regular small chunks because I’m not a huge breadstick fan.
Since I was starving, I immediately went for their Tagliata di Manzo, which was their beef fillet with mushrooms and white wine sauce, served with a side of mashed potatoes. The beef was tender and super tasty! It almost didn’t need the gravy, but the gravy was good as well that I couldn’t not smother the meat with it. I couldn’t taste the white wine in the sauce but maybe people who have more evolved taste buds than I do could. The mashed potato wasn’t anything particularly special but it didn’t taste like it came out of a box, so that’s a definite plus.
N, who just came from a kiddie party herself, just chose to get dessert in the form of a chocolate flavored panna cotta with strawberries. It was good, but it tasted a lot like those chocolate pudding cups one buys from SnR.
It was the Saturday pre-dinner crowd, so it was just us and another group inside the restaurant. The ambiance was a little too dark for my tastes, because I picture something light and airy when I hear Spanish, but maybe the place looks different when it’s dolled up at night? I hope so. Service was nice and snappy though, with the waitresses being very observant of our needs – refilling our glass waters without prompting, clearing the plates when we were done.
All in all Buona Vita was a nice place to hang out and catch up (which N and I did a lot of; in a few short minutes I was up-to-date, lol) on a Saturday afternoon. I would definitely go back to try their other dishes.
