GREAT FOODIE FIND : MADISON COMMONS FOOD PARK

I have been working in an office sandwiched between Pioneer St. and Brixton St. for several months now and I never knew that a food park is just a few meters away from our parking lot. Thanks to the great food hunter - my sister - for giving me a link to a website about this hidden food spot.

Let me introduce to you - Madison Commons. This food park is along Brixton St., just behind Pioneer Center. Once you exit from Pioneer Center, cross Brixton St. then turn right. After passing the Overruns Store, you will see the food park (first stall is Persiana). It is not very visible if you are in a car along Brixton so it is better to keep a close watch if you are using Waze for direction and you might miss it. There is also a parking lot beside the foodpark but has limited slots. This is open from 4pm up to I think about midnight.

Since my sister had a seminar near our office, we decided to have dinner here tonight. Since it was our first time here, we decided to buy a variety of food from different stalls to get a taste of what this food park has to offer. So after going around the whole park, here is what our dinner looked like.

Let me take you one by one on what we ordered and on what food stall.

Pipa House
Will Smeat Fried Pizza (All Meat)
PhP149.00

Since we agreed not to order rice tonight, definitely something heavy is a must. Pizza is definitely in our radar and once we saw the store, we agreed to get one. We ordered the all meat pizza - Will Smeat (a witty name and a play on Will Smith - most of their pizza are actually named this way). The service was quite fast since I was expecting a longer waiting time for pizza. It is a very thin crust pizza but it has a generous amount of sauce and toppings. It was very filling and was definitely worth its price.

Rating this 4 out of 5 spoons.

Chicas Amigas
Chicawings (1/2 pound) - Salted Egg
PhP180.00

Wings is not really my favorite chicken part but is definitely a finger food in tonight's food spread. The stock we received was 6 pieces and was cooked just the way I like it - very crispy and just on the verge of being overcooked. The salted egg sauce definitely complimented the chicken and was definitely the best dish on our table tonight. Unfortunately, waiting time was really long, it was the last dish to make our table. But it is definitely worth the wait.

Rating this 4.5 out of 5 spoons.

Smoke and Barrel
Chacho Nachos
PhP150.00

Nachos will definitely be one of our favorite appetizer and this store offers it with barbecue tacos, pulled pork, tomato salsa, home made barbecue sauce and cheese sauce - a combination really worth ordering. Service was great and food was on our table in less than 5 minutes. Nacho will always be good food - but this was a bit disappointing, maybe the sauce is quite tangy for my taste.

Rating this 3.5 out of 5 spoons.

Meat at Stake
Crispy Pork
PhP145.00

Anything pork, crispy and deep fried to perfection is just heaven. So let's meet - Crispy Pork from Meat at Stake. It is a bunch of thinly sliced pork, deep fried and served with vinegar. I think I would not expound further but this is highly recommended and really worth trying.

Rating this 4.5 spoons out of 5.

Taking everything into consideration, we really had a great first experience at Madison Commons. With its proximity to our home and my office, we will definitely be back to try some other stalls in the food park. Will I go bak for anything? I will definitely go back for the Crispy Pork and the Wings with Salted Egg and try another Pizza flavor.

Good night with good food - a good way to end my day.

GREAT FOODIE FIND : INDUSTRIE FOOD LOFT

For someone who loves eating out very much, to find new places to eat out is like finding a gift under the tree on Chrsitmas Day. My sister told me about this food park in Pasig for the longest time and we only had time to visit the place last weekend.

Industrie Food Loft is located in the complex of City Golf Plaza along Julia Vargas Ave. in Pasig. It is open from 10am to 1am. We went there on a Sunday afternoon, around a little before 3pm after a long discussion on where to eat. We were quite fortunate that the parking was almost empty since the my sister said the last time she was there with her officemates, the parking was full.

The Industrie Food Loft is composed of different food stalls - just like your typical food park. The ambiance was very nice despite the place being quite small.

So we looked around and gravitated towards Prime Shack MNL since we were craving for shrimps for so long. We ordered the Bag of Shrimps with Salted Egg Sauce - which they said was once of their best sellers. The wait was quite long, which made us quite impatient since this is our very late lunch and our tummies are already complaining.

The presentation was quite a let down - it was literally a bag of shrimp in an oval shaped yellow plate with a wedge of lemon beside it. But who cares, right? The shrimps really tastes good but the hint of the slated egg is only a faint back tone to the shrimp. I would prefer a stronger salted egg flavor but it is still good. This costs PhP400 pesos for 400grams which we already shared. Rice costs PhP35 per cup but would be a great pairing with the shrimp, as we all love.

Of course, what is a good meal without a sweet dessert? We cannot resist the gelato of Manila Creamery which is just beside Prime Shack MNL. I got a scoop of Kinder Bueno gelato and here is how they served it:

Presentation wise, it is so nice to look at - with a touch of triangular shaped waffle cone on top of the gelato scoop. It also tastes good - the Kinder Bueno flavor is like hazelnut flavor and was so good. Also, you can take a sample bite so you can choose the flavor you like. The single scoop costs PhP100 for regular flavors and PhP120 for premium flavors which is all worth the money.

All in all, I had a great time at Industrie Food Loft and will definitely be back to try the other stalls real soon.