P45°

Hubby took me to Parallel Forty Five (P45°) at 871 Samat Street, Mandaluyong City (Samat is off-Shaw, at or near the flyover running to Pasig) for a much-deserved birthday dinner. According to a chef friend who recommended the place, P45°would be finest “fine dining” experience.

My choices from the menu were:

• Oysters baked with duck liver Hollandaise and quatro fromagie
• Tomato and fresh buffalo Mozzarella cheese with prosciutto, rocket pesto, and basil salad in “aged” balsamic vinaigrette
• Lobster and prawn bisque with poached oysters
• The Best-selling “Cowgirl Steak”, all 350 grams of Certified Angus choice rib-eye steak with herb butter, Merlot-braised onions and grilled seasonal vegetables
• Cabernet 2003 (California)
• And for dessert, Trio of Sorbet – raspberry, dalandan dill (particularly yummy) and lemon

The waitstaff must have been scouring the papers the next day for a review. I asked our inarticulate waitress, you see, to list down the dishes we had (and she did so quite efficiently) – for this blog, I have no shame (no, actually, you will appreciate that I didn’t whip out a camera) – which may have given the false impression that I am a food critic of sorts. But I’m a gourmand, you see (fairly obvious probably from the unimaginative choices I made from the menu for the evening) and do not “dine” in the manner gourmets do. But there were no gourmets in the place, thank god – no other diner in fact – to blow my cover.

So will this phony food critic go back to P45° to sample its other menu offerings?, you ask. The food was, well, satisfactory (with the exception of the sorbet, which was truly delicious). The wine was excellent. Problem is, I asked for a medium-rare steak. I was served rare. Hubby preferred his steak cooked medium-well. He got it medium-rare. But the real problem is, the prices on the carte du jour were almost shocking. The Cowgirl Steak cost a whopping Php1,900++ per plate (comparable in price but maybe not in taste to Red’s, if my memory serves me right), the oysters Php700++, and my salad about Php600.

The answer to the question then? I will try anything once (and P45° is a good choice on a special occasion such as your 36th birthday). For P45°, I may in future find good cause to go back for seconds. But then again maybe not. Not if I have to pay for the meal anyway.

[To sample ParallelFortyFive yourself, go to www.p45.com.ph or call (+632)718-1777]