The time has come – Gelatissimo is now open at Greenbelt 5!

Oh gelato joy – you’ve never seen gelato flavors as yummy and as creative as this.

The place is quite stylish and yet exudes an Italian charm. Being in Makati, you’ll probably see a lot of business people eating. But don’t worry, everybody loves the gelato and all will be in equal footing.

The selection is simply amazing and can be overwhelming! 100+ gelato flavors available – who can top that?

The description form the site about their Gelato says:

Gelatissimo’s award winning gelato is made fresh daily in store to an authentic family recipe. Manufactured to the highest standards using the best natural ingredients and freshest produce, it is Australia’s most popular gelato.

With flavours to suit the most discerning palate, we offer both classic favourites like Chocolate and Mango as well as unique flavours such as Caramelised Fig and Honey Toffee Malt. Our inventive Gelato Craftsmen add seasonal varieties so that each time you visit a Gelatissimo store there’s a new flavour waiting for you to try. Whether it is Lemon Cheesecake or Berry Pavlova, every season offers up a new temptation to our customers.

And the best part? This temptation is guilt free with sorbet being 100% fat free and premium dairy between 90-97% fat free. Whether you enjoy fresh sorbets or the creamy indulgence of gelato, even the health conscious can enjoy. We also have gluten free and dairy free products to accommodate special dietary requirements.

The flavors are just so many! Check it out:

Tons of yummy Gelatissimo flavors

Bring your date here and I guarantee a sweet time!

I’ve sampled the Pistachio (generally, my usual gelato favorite) and the Mars actually tastes like Mars (with caramel). The gelato here is just div-ine.

Confused on which flavor to get? You can taste each one before finally deciding. Don’t be afraid to ask the server.

A scoop costs around P95-P110, 2 scoops at P150, and 3 scoops at P198. Sounds expensive, but a single scoop can fill you, and it will be definitely worth it!

Gelatissimo
2nd floor, Greenbelt 5
Makati City

Make your own gelato!

There is no denying it – Cav at Bonifacio High Street, Taguig is certainly a posh and snobbish wine shop and cafe at High Street. It’s not homey, it’s not quaint, it’s not cute – it’s decidedly mod, snobbish and haute couture.

The place is dark and slightly smells like an alcohol distillery. The wine bottles are displayed like trophies along the lobby. Red, white, sparkling, bubbly… you name it and Cav probably has it.

Just to give you an idea of how snobbish the place is, note that the restroom even has a doorman!

Menu

The servers will ask you for your name and will address you personally all through out the night. The menu is alright, with it’s own selection of canapes and meals.

They even offer food pairing so you don’t have to pretend to be knowledgeable about wines in front of your date. Know the basics and let the server suggest the best options depending on you and your date’s tastes.

Cav

We’ve tried a bit of their canapes and everything is delicious, I might say. The smoked milkfish and salmon tian with horseradish cream and crisp apple beet salad are to die for. The mushroom tart is something else, with the crust more tastier than the sauce on top.

Tapas and Tarts at Cav have to be tasted to be believed

The prices are quite cheap taking into account the place, actually. The three course meal costs P890, and you just have to add P490 for 2 glasses. The four course meal costs P1,100, and tasting 3 glasses of wine costs P720.

If you’re in the mood for tasting wines, Cav has a wine tasting card you and your date can avail of. They’re sort of prepaid cards that you load money into, insert into machines that drop the wine samples. The wine tasting is offered daily, and you have a selection of 24 vintage wines t enjoy with your date.

For more information, you can visit the Cav Wine & Cafe’s website. You can also download the Cav menu here.

Cav Wine Shop-Café
Bonifacio High Street
Quadrant 8,
Taguig
(near Magnet and Agave)
Phone Number: (63 2) 856-1798

If you’re going the wine tasting route, here is a video to know the basics first

For lovebirds looking for dates, activities and concerts this coming semestral break:

Music

RJ Jimenez: Soundcheck
Nov. 6, 10 pm at the Metro Bar (47 West Ave, QC)
891-9999

Visayan Music Festival
Feat. Slapshock, Up Dharma Down, Radioactive Sago Project
Nov.6-8, 6pm at the D’Family Park (Talamban, Cebu)
911-5555

Sarah Geronimo: Record Breaker
(I seriously want to catch this)
Nov. 7, 8pm at the Araneta Coliseum
(Araneta Center, Cubao, QC)
9115555

Dance

B-boy and Ballerina
The Gorilla Crew on Nov. 6, 7pm at the Araneta Coliseum (Araneta Center, Cubao, QC)
911-5555

Mir-i-nisa
Presented by the Philippine Ballet Theater
Restaged by Ronilo Jaynario after Julie Borromeo & Felicitas Radaic
Music by Eliseo Pajaro based on the story by Jose Garcia Villa, National Artist for Literature.
Nov6-8 at the CCP Tanghalang Nicanor Abelardo (Roxas Blvd)
891-9999

Theater

Kuring, Gluring, Syerap
Dyuning “Eleksyon in Nearing” (For voter… or worse) Jon Santos unveils and even more exciting tapestry of new and familiar characters on Nov. 6, 13, 20 at 8.30 pm at the Teatrino (Greenhills, Promenade)
891-9999

Treasure Island
Robert Louis Stevenson’s classic tales of pirates, buried gold and adventure on the high seas at The Insular Life Theater (Alabang) on Nov. 8, 22, 29. Shows at 3om
0917-8140223

Food

Cravings
Anniversary Promos. In the P21 Crave Deal, diners can savor their favorite junior cakes for only P21 with any order from the Cravings menu.
21 Days of Glorious Food. Dine-in customers can partake of any delightful meal for only P210. Enjoy the sumptuous entrees, rich specialty pasta, and delectable sandwiches which come with eat-all-you-can soup and salad.
Available Mon-Fri, 11am-2pm until November 8 at all outlets.
426-6681

Renaissance Makati City Hotel
Esperanza St., Makati

The Hidden Charm of Vietnam. Vietnamese cuisine highlights M2M’s daily lunch and dinner buffets until Nov. 1. Complimentary Peking Duck with a minimum consumable of P9,800 at Jasmine Restaurant for lunch and dinner until December 15

811-6888

A quaint little cafe, Classic Confections in Greenbelt 5 seems to be the best place for a nightcap after having a full meal in any one of Greenbelt’s restaurants. I would leave room for dessert whenever I dine out around the area and actually transfer to Classic Confections in case you want to have a more meaningful, quiet conversation instead of the usual noisy bars downstairs. Its quite ideal for a date, actually, to have a night cap instead of noisy banter, where you could get to know each other better with the warm feelings of milk and cookies.

Classic Confections will keep you wanting more cakes

Classic Confections at Greenbelt 5 is small and serves dessert and coffee/tea exclusively. Their dessert collection fits snugly in glass cases at the counter while comfy chairs lined with cushion sit all around, and in the middle there is a bar-like table where you can have your cakes (and eat it too) sushi bar style.

Dessert bar!

A shopful of dessert goodness

The cushioned seats are in cute red hue pastel stripes – very cozy and never pressuring you, like your grandmother’s kitchen.

Cute striped sofas

Please pardon the photos as we ate here and had the place to ourselves for a small meeting.

The cakes are nothing but fantastic and delectable. My favorites are actually the Classic Confections almond crunch (P100/100g)- almonds dipped in toffee and then cooled.

But otherwise there are a lot of things available- drop cookies in chocolate chip, mocha walnut, oatmeal raisin and heavenly walnut that are gooey at all the right places, crispy oatmeal cookies that go excellent with milk.

Drop cookies, all sweet and rightfully gooey

The Banana cream pie looks like its made of whipped cream, and an assortment of chocolate truffles that will make your mouth water. Your date will be ecstatic at the sweet things you can both taste as well as converse about.

Banana cream pie bars!

The cup of warm frappuccino comes with a piggy painted on the top froth that looks almost too precious to ruin. Get it for your date to give him or her a pleasant surprise.

Little frap piggy!

Curious thing are the cup handles – they’re pretty to look at but awkward to hold. I felt like it would snap off anytime.

See thin teapot handle that looks like it could snap

An assortment of cookies and cakes that would last at least a couple of hours can be had for around P200 each person – you can split this with your date.

Surprise your date with your wonderful choice of dessert by asking her during the main course of your dinner what she preferred, then order it for your date when you get to Classic Confections.

Classic Confections, Greenbelt 5
Greenbelt 5, Legaspi St., Legaspi Village
Makati City, Metro Manila

Opens from 11:00 am – 10:00 pm today.
* Su, M, T, W, Th: 11:00 am – 10:00 pm / * F, Sa: 11:00 am – 11:00 pm

Classic Confections, Kapitolyo, Pasig
4th Level, West Capitol Drive, Baryo Kapitolyo, Pasig
Phone Number: (63 2) 746-2773, (63 917) 524-5892

How to make your own chocolate chip cookies:

A friend has been raving about Madison at Greenbelt 5 and finally, I was lucky enough to be able to join a business lunch at the place. I guess its unfortunate also as I couldn’t take pictures of everybody’s food and I couldn’t jot down my usual notes on prices, but I’ll share with you the general idea.

Madison at Greenbelt 5 - green view

Madison is a posh posh posh restaurant at Greenbelt 5. It’s one of those restaurants you’ll be afraid to try because you’re not certain of whether the food will be worth the price. Luckily somebody else paid for my meal.

Madison looks like a place for power lunches and business meetings

The place looks and feels expensive, and its certainly not the place to give you a homey feel. The high-back chairs, thin fonts, glass casings, red tableware will confirm that you are paying for a restaurant as much for its furnishings as for its food.

The place isn’t particularly romantic either. It’s something about the stiff decors that puts me off, and for me, I really wouldn’t bring a date here. It gives off a fake feel that I don’t want my date to think of me, too.

Madison Steaks and Comforting Food

The Madison menu

Free Focaccia bread with butter is served while waiting for food and it’s soft enough.

Soft foaccia bread best with butter

We shared the Madison Vigan Longganisa, Red Egg, Shallots, Laguna Cheese pizza (P490) and it was great. You’d expect the pizza to be salty what with the cheese and the longganisa, but the chef has managed to tame the saltiness by using pure mozzarella and adding salt-absorbing, sweet flavors on the pizza such as fresh vegetables and little oil. I recommend this.

Yummy Longganisa pizza- not too salty! Split with your date

Then I got Pan Rosted Cream Dory with pineapple citrus relish and mango buerre blanco (P380), and it was so-so. It wasn’t the best dory I’ve tasted and I didn’t even finish the dish, considering how ravenous I can get specially that no carbs were served with the fish (no chips or potatoes here), but it was decent. I actually think the Fish and Chips at Fish & Co. tastes a lot better.

Pan roasted dory - strange tasting

My friends got the Crispy Spinanch and Feta Ravioli with tomato coriander sauce (P210) and the Smoked Salmon and 2 Herb Cream Cheese sandwich (P399). Photos below:

Smoked salmon sandwich with lots of chips

Crispy spinach things - don't get this

Generous servings though, I wouldn’t hide that. Madison didn’t scrimp on your plate – our boss ordered roast chicken and I swear it could have been half a chicken there piled on top of his plate.

I wish I could’ve tasted it.

Post-meal

We didn’t have room for dessert given how stuffed we were with Madison’s main meal, but we were pleasantly surprised when we requested for tea and then we were served an array of colorful, delectable-looking tea flavors. Looking at the brightly-colored candy wrappers, you’d think it’s actually chocolate!

Chocolates? No - tea!

Madison is a little pricey – expect to shell out about P500 per person for a meal, and another P100 each for splitting dessert.

Again, the food is okay but somehow, this doesn’t top my list of date places, especially when you spend P500 each in a place that reeks of business men having power lunches. I would recommend other date places listed under Fine Dining.

Madison, Greenbelt 5
Phase 2, Greenbelt 5, Ayala Center
Makati City, Metro Manila
(02) 756-9000

Created your own Dory fish fingers!

Here’s a video on how to create the perfect dory fish fingers a la Madison: