Chef Carlo Miguel chatting with Aidan 🙂
What is the probability of having 4 tables celebrating birthdays at the opening night of a restaurant which also falls on a monday? A slim chance perhaps, but it was indeed a blessing when Mezzaluna opened last Sept. 25 on such rare circumstances. On my mom’s birthday, we again decided to check out Piazza @ Serendra, and we were fortunate enough to eat on Mezzaluna’s 7pm opening night. Also, Baby Lopez with all the owners were celebrating his wife’s birthday and there were two other birthday celebrants on that night. We were fortunate enough that the owners decided to give each table 10% discount and 2 free complimentary desserts! Amazing night, indeed 🙂 Happy Happy Birthday to Momsy and to all the birthday celebrants!
Finally, I was able to taste the culinary delights created by Chef Carlo Miguel. The Chef Miguels (Carlo + brother, Anton who is now in Australia), are famous at one time for catering to special events/ occasions and they usually cooked at the venue itself (could be your own home). I had many failed attempts in the past to schedule such events with these Chefs, and that is why I was so curious to check them out when they opened Mezzaluna in Serendra. This is already their second restaurant and a more upscale version of their first one located in Legaspi Village. Have you been there? It would be nice to know what you think of this restaurant. If this is your first time to hear of this restaurant then let me share with you our experience at Mezzaluna last night.
( P.S. Finally, I got to blog again and get back to the blogging grove. I’m happy that I don’t have any more business trips until December — yahoo! )
The place is small and it can accommodate, I estimate about 50 people. I love the high ceiling and the lovely sentimental music that plays in the background. I also like the fact that the kitchen is open and you can see how your food is prepared. The owners are very nice and I think all of them came to visit our table and greeted my mom, a Happy Birthday.
This is an upscale version so at first you’ll be shocked at the prices but this is definitely a special place for dating or celebrating special occasions.
Check out their menu: Mezzaluna Appetizer and Main Course Menu. (Take note of the “Introductory Prices Inclusive of VAT”.)
Tournedos Rossini (P1150). Roasted USDA Angus Bistro Fillet side by side with potato gellete, sauteed foie gras and truffle jus. A Mezzaluna Favorite!
The benchmark for fine dining restaurants these days is how well they cooked the foie gras. This is definitely melt-in-your-mouth foie gras! My wife can’t get enough of it, but we have to be extra careful of the calories that comes with it 🙂 The Angus beef was OK and I had a mistake of ordering medium well which turned out to be well done.
Fish Of The Day (P530). Seated on Linguini Pasta, Cream Fraiche, Snow Peas and Mussels
The fish of the day was the Lapu-Lapu and this tasted ordinary. Nothing special.
Rosemary Chicken (P600). Together with Pumpkin, Mustard Braised Spring Onion and Asparagus
It reminded me of Andok’s Lechon Manok and I could have ordered 3 full chicken with its price 🙂
Crisp Skin Salmon (P600). Topped with Roasted Tomato and Onion while seated on crushed lemon oil potato
This is a must try! Crispy skin with very tasty textured meat with saturated (norwegian?) salmon color. Oh, we loved this, and you will completely forget how much it costs.
Also, it was funny that the chef asked me if I was taking pictures for a publication and I told him it was just for personal (blog) purposes. He said that if it was for a magazine, he would style the food differently. But see, I love my food photography to be true and honest. Frankly, I love the way it was styled when they served our food.
We loved the Desserts and I know this should have been served first 🙂 If there is a reason to go back to Mezzaluna, it would be the desserts!
Caramelized Banana Tart Tatin with Hazelnut Gelato (P225).
Can we have more of that hazelnut gelato, please? Ang sarap! This dessert is a perfect combination of Banana, Caramel and Hazelnut taste.
Valrhona Dark Chocolate Marquise (P250). Surrounded with Vanilla sauce and Topped Cotton Candy
When I saw the cotton candy, I suddenly reminisce my childhood days when I get to have my own cotton candy stick (which made me fat when I was a child). Another melt-in-your-mouth dessert that you gotta have especially for those who want to be awake all night long. Its dark chocolate’s richness is so addicting that you’ll be surprised that it’s gone in just a few minutes! Bravo for this innovative creation!!
Yoghurt and Honey Panna Cotta (P180). With Spiced Oranges
Nicely done. The spiced orange gave a new twist to the panna cotta. Minimalist both in design and taste.
Meet Chef Carlo Miguel and his chef protege, Aidan. Too bad, his brother, Anton is no longer here to share the limelight with his brother.
Wonderful restaurant and wonderful owners!! Thank you very much for a memorable birthday celebration for my mom!!
Mezzaluna @ Piazza, Serendra!
(oops, I forgot to ask their phone number in case you want to reserve.)
Mezzaluna
U-1C-01-02 Ground Floor, Serendra Piazza, The Fort, Makati City
Ground Floor Value Point Executive Apartment
227 Salcedo St. Legazpi Village, Makati City
Tel# +632 818-01-06
Opens on Monday-Friday 12nn-2:30pm, 6-10:30pm; Saturday 6-10:30pm
Oohh I wanna go if only for that yoghurt and honey panna cotta! I love the combination of yoghut and honey, and have it very often on my cereal. Those pictures of Aidan with Chef Carlo are adorable!! 🙂
Hi Anton–
Been wanting to text you to thank you for some leads I got from your blog, but I seem to have misplaced your number. If you can, please email me your cellphone number, either through the mailing list or through kristine.fonaciergmailcom. Marina Schroeder also wants me to pass on her thanks to you–I think Lemuria got a lot of business from your entry. 🙂
How are you doing?
I attended a dinner cooked by the brothers Miguel last year. Glad to hear they are doing well with the Mezzaluna brand. One the best dinners I went to last year, the duck breast was superb.
The pictures of the food are all impressive but the picture of Aida with the chef is PRICELESS!
i have to try their desserts! since i’m really into eating and making them too. =)
Anton,
For your file and reference, the phone number at Mezzaluna Serendra is 8560718.
been in Serendra. really, dishes are superb. Specially the tournedos…
I love the interior of this place specially the part with the open kitchen. For appetizer we had the Arugula Salad which was simple but very nice and fresh, though quite expensive since it was just a very simple dish. The Margheritta Pizza was awesome, the crust was thin and crunchy, with a very generous amount of good quality Mozzarella cheese. Yummy! For the main courses, we had the Salmon wrapped in Pastry served with Saffron Mashed Potato, the salmon was good though a bit overcooked in my opinion and lack of salmon flavor, the mashed potato was pretty good specially the crispy Salmon Skin on top. The Fish of the which was the Barramundi served with sauteed peas, leeks and lobster in a basil sauce was outstanding, I had my cousin raving for this particular dish. The Beef served with Foie Gras ravioli and Truffle foam was pretty interesting and it tasted pretty good as well. For the desserts, the Moscato poached Peach Creme Brulee was just ok, but the biscotti serced with it was too soft. The Pavlova with Vanilla Mascarpone Cream and Balsamic strawberries was excellent, it was not to sweet and the flavors and texture worked in a perfect harmony! I will go back to this restaurant just for the Pavlova!!!
i miss the old resto in legazpi vill. the pasta were home made and it was realy really good. the flavour was just right, everything was very light. we used to walk there from AIM during lunch and the place was always packed. the food was soo much cheaper too.
oh well. good memories to keep 🙂
im enjoying your site. I was born and raise in Manila, now in US (portland, oregon) this makes me want to go back and visit. well thats all for now, im going back to these pics and continue to drool over those yummy deserts. Salamat!
This was my second visit to Mezzaluna in a span of three months. I went there with my cousin and my brother and we had the 5 course degustation menu for PHP 1500++ per prson. The first course was a small cup of Crab meat and potato soup with truffle oil, it was pretty good but was not something that I would say fantastic. The second course was a Seared Prawn salad with corn and some tomato, unfortunately all three prawns came to us raw, the middle part was still gray!!! We returned it for the kitchen to recook it but apparently they didn’t change the prawns they just cook again what we had returned which dissapointed the 3 of us. The third course was a fresh Straci pasta with braised duck which was so so. The dalandan sorbet was pretty good, not too sweet and not too sour. The main course was a beef tenderloin with red wine sauce served with mushroom custard and creamed spinach, it was clearly the winner among the dishes that we had savored earlier. The beef was very flavorful and it was tender, the mushroom custard was realy fantastic, warm, smooth , and creamy, full of mushroom goodness. The dessert was a chocolate tart served with vanilla ice cream and a shot of espresso, the ice cream was really rich, smooth and it was really awesome, the tart however was good but the crust was soggy and a bit undercooked. Overall it was a nice place for date and for me they served some of the best pizzas in town.
I ate at Mezzaluna on my graduation night. Although I wanted it to be a gourmet Japanese restaurant, I was kinda nervous about the food because I never heard of the restaurant (because it just opened on September), but my parents insisted because the Miguel brothers were their personal friends and patients as well (yah, they are doctors). But unfortunately, I caught the flu on my graduation night due to the rigorous practices that we had to undergo. But my parents did not want me to skip my grad dinner. And I must say, although I could barely taste the food due to my intense cold, I was still able to taste the excellent pizzas. I also ordered the Wagyu rump and it was superb but too filling because I had shrimp with salad. The dinner set my dad to P9,000 but I guess it was worth it.
P.S. The service was very good and the waiters were very courteous and entertaining.
The Legaspi branch was also one of my favorites. It helped that Bingbing Santos, one of the owners is a close family friend. I told her a few weeks back that I missed the old menu…the one with the standard pizzas, pastas and risotto and she told me that it was all back at the Serendra branch. Good news for everyone who misses the old Mezza Luna flavors!
Hmm, how true is it that Carlos Miguel has resigned from Mezzaluna to moved to an upscale resto in Makati whose four-letter name starts with an S, for a lower position in the kitchen?
Interesting….
Been there last month and i liked the margherita pizza. Freshly made seafood pasta is and the steak were also okay to recom. Kinda pricey for a regular pinoy. Their PHP1,500 dinner special is almost the same price for a Paseo Uno (Mandarin hotel) buffet dinner. But if you are kinda sick of dining at the same place, this place will be provide the acceptable ambience and service.
Been there last month and i liked the margherita pizza. Freshly made seafood pasta and the steak were also okay to recom. Kinda pricey for a regular pinoy. Their PHP1,500 dinner special is almost the same price for a Paseo Uno (Mandarin hotel) buffet dinner. But if you are kinda sick of dining at the same place, this place will provide the acceptable ambience and service.
hi anton,
i just wanted to acknowledge mezzaluna’s par in friendly and well trained waiters, and the menu’s astounding selection … including it’s wines…
the place will always have a special place in my heart for this is were my fiance “officialy” set our engagement. (just last tuesday… 2months before our 8th. anniversary.)
and i’d like to thank you for sharing with us the magnificent posts on dining in the philippines. we surely should not miss out on this.
wishing you and your family the best of health, love and safety.
-mithz dantes