RED GARLIC AND CONTI’S IN KATIPUNAN

After getting home from Shang at 3 pm, I was not in the mood to think of what to serve for dinner. Well, I did think of kaldereta because I bought buy one, take one kaldereta meat yesterday. But that would take a while to tenderize, so I asked husband and son where they wanted to have dinner. Son said REGIS Center and then he thought that could be our Friday habit. Then he suggested, Red Garlic. I wanted that. So it was.

I called RG at around 6:45 and reserved a table for three. Aware of how difficult parking is there, I hopefully asked if that could be guaranteed. The girl who took my call assured me the guard would provide assistance.

And he did. He led us to Metrobank where parking was readily available. Hurdle, though, was how to get inside RG as the cars parked in front of it were not too far from each other, ergo not enough space for the wheelchair to get through. Especially the cars by the door. Luckily, to the side was space enough, except that there was an inverted u shaped metal brace meant to designate up to how far a car could park. My wheelchair and I had to be lifted to be able to cross that bar.

The staff of RG was welcoming, very pleasant and knowledgeable. Nice. As I had googled reviews on RG earlier, I had an idea of what to order: Angus beef short ribs – P285 only, served with garlic parsley rice. Husband ordered spaghetti with meatballs, son ordered fish and chips and devil’s sushi (no, that’s not the exact name, but you get the drift).

My order was okay, the amount of beef almost equal to the amount of shiitake mushrooms. Son’s fish and chips came with mayo that had truffle oil. Yummy. The devil’s sushi was huge and plentiful. Husband enjoyed his pasta, me not really.

The pasta, sushi and fish and chips came in huge servings, unbelievably so. Total bill was less than P1200. No dessert, though, as we were full.

Note that R in Red Garlic stands for READ, and in keeping with that, it had lots of magazines and books on the shelves. Son counted 5 copies of Isaacson’s bio of Steve Jobs. Magazines all looked new, he said. We will be back, RG. Just you wait.

When we had finished dinner, I saw that the space in front of the door had no car parked. I rejoiced. Then a car came. As it was about to park, I called the waitress to ask if the car could be requested to prove enough space. The one driving the car, a young lady, did better than that. She moved out and waited for us to pass through before parking. As we thanked them, she and her companion smiled warmly at us. Thank you, both, whoever you are.

*****

As Conti’s is but a few establishments away from RG, I told husband, let’s take a look, anyway we have parking, so let’s maximize. There, another hurdle, the same hurdle. Space between cars. Could we pass through? Nearest the wall where the ramp was, was enough space, happily. And as with all Conti’s branches, personnel were warm, even the security guards, so that just so we’d not leave it empty handed, I bought a box of 8 cheese puffs @27 per. Also got a copy of their menu as Conti’s now delivers. Delivery charge is P80. That’s such great news considering how difficult it is to park along Blue Ridge and how many good choices one would miss if one couldn’t shop at Conti’s.

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