MANILA, Philippines - Who doesn’t like Italian food? With the popularity of this well-loved cuisine, the opening of one more Italian restaurant in the metro cannot possibly mean one too many. In fact, the new Balboa restaurant at Greenbelt 3 in Makati is already the second, as it opened on the heels of the first Balboa restaurant at the East Wing of Shangri-La Plaza Mall in Mandaluyong City.
Balboa in-house head chef Giorgio Bucciarelli’s responsibility is to see to it that each dish in the restaurant is done exactly the way it was prepared and cooked while he was growing up in Italy. He relates that he was only eight years old when his grandma taught him how to make pasta. When he was 15 years old, he apprenticed and went to school in Milan. He has worked in the kitchen ever since. It’s his passion, he says, and he does not see himself retiring anytime soon.
Comfort food influenced by Italian cuisine is how corporate chef Nikki Nicholas describes Balboa’s offering, which is characterized by fresh ingredients that are easily available in the market, simple cooking techniques, hefty servings with lots of flavor, and attractive presentation. Some American, French and German influences are also thrown in, making it truly international.
Chef Nikki belongs to the family of restaurateurs behind the famous Red Crab Alimango House. A graduate of CCA Manila, she also took some culinary short courses in New York.
For starters, the menu at Balboa’s press launch had kale and romaine salad with prosciutto figs and walnuts, followed by two kinds of pasta: Spaghettini Boscaiola and Fresh Lemon Tagliatelle with shrimps, spinach and roasted cherry tomatoes.
Two kinds of pizza were served: Fennel Sausage and Spinach Truffle Prosciutto — still piping-hot from the brick oven. The pizza crust has been reformulated, a cross between a crispy thin and chewy crust.
For the main course, we had Buttermilk Roast Chicken with a side dish of mac cheese drizzled lightly with truffle oil, and Dry Aged US Rib Eye Steak. The Buttermilk Roast Chicken is the newest addition to the Balboa menu, an original recipe that involves marinating the chicken in buttermilk before roasting, chef Nikki explains. They dry age their steaks themselves using a chiller. There is no need for an aging room, chef Nikki says, since they like to keep it simple. Chef Giorgio makes their sausages and chorizos. The sauces, pastas and pizza dough are handmade fresh daily from scratch.
The dessert, with its interesting name, St. Honoré, was flown in direct from Italy. Named after the patron saint of bakers and pastry chefs, the layered cake is laced with whipped cream and topped with a small cream puff dipped in caramelized sugar — great to enjoy with a cup of cappuccino to cap off the meal.
The restaurant can comfortably seat from 60 to 70 people inside with an additional 20 outside. Dining is casual, with the interior tastefully decorated with reproductions of Italian paintings on the walls. These were personally chosen and shipped from abroad by marketing director Sheryl Laudico, together with her husband, Ricky Laudico, co-owner of the Sumo Sam Restaurant Concepts, which includes Balboa, Alqueria, Dekada, Marciano’s, Banzai, Akira, Mr. Kurosawa and Teddy’s Bigger Burgers, among others.
It’s good to know that the people behind Balboa come with a solid background and experience in the food industry. Before Sheryl joined her husband fulltime in the business as marketing director, she was a marketing executive in a multinational company. And as if she did not already have her hands full with three young children, she also has other businesses on the side designing and sewing clothes and uniforms as well as baking cakes and pastries with a business partner under the name “Martha and Marquesa.”
Sheryl brings her creative spirit and enthusiasm into their restaurants, which you might say is like one big happy family. And it shows. At Balboa, the ambience is just like the dishes they serve — nothing fancy or fussy but simply honest-to-goodness good food.
Why, it almost feels like home.