Wednesday, November 16, 2011

Delizioso! C' Italian Dining

The morning after arriving from Florida-Texas-Japan (too many connecting flights so I’m not really sure which one to mention), I had yet another food trip. This time, an out of town food trip… for the second time this year.

A friend invited me to a Pampanga food trip and I got excited with the thought of eating lots of exotic dishes (as for some reason, I have started to be fascinated and addicted to trying weird and plain exotic delicacies). 

However, Mother Nature was against my goal of eating a lot of bugs that day. It was one gloomy Friday. My friend suggested that we go to this place where the guests eat in nipa huts but that idea was deemed "not feasible" since it was raining. T.T
He was raving for C' Italian Dining and I heard from some of my food loving friends that it serves really good food so I decided to give up my I-will-eat-lots-of-crickets-and-what-else-Pampanga-will-offer and we headed to C' Italian Dining instead. 
The place was pretty cozy and it reminded me of one of my favorite places in Manila… Intramuros. Upon entering, I noticed a lot of plates on the wall with greetings from celebrities and perhaps restaurant patrons. 

The place was almost empty (most likely because it was a gloomy lazy day) so we were able to sit right away. The restaurant also has an ample sitting capacity so I’m sure that even on busy days, you will not have a hard time getting a table. But do reserve to be sure. :)
I noticed that the prices of the dishes were pretty expensive compared to other Italian restaurants (it was almost at par with Itallianis, or even more expensive for some dishes). It made me wonder if this place is really that good. Well, I just have to wait for a few more minutes to find out.
I let my friend do the ordering but I suggested that we get a bowl of soup since it was raining. After a few uhms and ahs, our order list was this: Cream of Tomato Soup (PHP200), Kristina Panizza (PHP810) and Spaghetti con frutti di mare (thank you Charmaine Pineda for pointing that out and to the amazing sous chef Cathy and her team Kim and James).
They served some complimentary bread first with a plate of pesto with olive oil and a bit of cheese. Since it was already past lunch time, we sort of attacked the poor bowl of bread.
Next served was the tomato soup.
It was very creamy yet you could still taste the tomato. It was quite different from the soup I had from other restaurants that serve “watery” tomato soup. The tangy taste was there but there was the subtle sweetness of the cream as well. It was one lovely tummy warmer.
As for the Panizza, it was pretty good. It somehow reminded me of Dear Darla of Yellow Cab thus I couldn’t help but compare the two. The Kristina Panizza of C Italian was tastier though I hoped that they had the chili oil of Yellow Cab to add more taste. My friend even decided to put some tomato soup on his panizza to add taste (and no, I didn’t try it too).
Spaghetti con frutti di mare arrived last and it was then that I remembered that I had to be careful with swirling and slurping down the pasta. (Confession: I tend to make a mess when I eat pasta or ice cream thus as much as possible, when dining, I wear black or any dark colored tops to make those nasty spills less obvious—girly moment, I know. Now back to my cricket-loving self.)
The pasta was quite good. It had this tangy taste from the tomato sauce that I love (hey, that’s how Italian pasta should taste) and the seafood used were fresh.
Overall, the lunch was pleasant. The ambiance was good and the food was great. Plus the servers were really friendly and attentive. 

C' Italian Dining is located at 1210 Don Juico Avenue (Friendship Road), Angeles Pampanga.

4 comments:

  1. It was pretty tasty. :) Do try when you get to pass by Pampanga. For now, Dear Darla will do for me. :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thank you for your generous compliment. The pasta is called spaghetti con frutti di mare. The sous chef is Cathy and her team Kim and James :) Grazie. - Charmaine Pineda

    ReplyDelete
  3. Thank you so much for the comment Charmaine! I updated the post already.

    ReplyDelete

Comments or other recommendations? :)