Mary Grace Ensaymada

From Cardinal Santos Hospital I wanted to go to Rustan’s Supermarket to pick up a few food items for my daughter. She was complaining about Antonia’s paulit-ulit and limited dishes. My two companions asked if I was going to Ford EDSA, when I said no, their faces began to look worried. Sgt. Pepper said it’s going to be a long holiday. Okay I get it, so I asked them to drop me off at the new Unimart in Greenhills so they could go to Ford EDSA to pick up their respective salaries. Qtips said “Mam, giniba na ho yung Unimart, wala na dun”. No he was wrong, Ortigas opened a new Unimart in one of the new condos there. I’ve seen it many times before when I went to Virra Mall.

I was right. There’s a new Unimart and as soon as I entered, I noticed a big Mary Grace restaurant near the entrance. It’s a full service restaurant. Since I haven’t had lunch I decided to eat first.

Mary Grace Ensaymada used to be at kiosks only. After only a few years, they have grown leaps and bounds and are now competing toe to toe against more established cafe and bake shops. The owner’s residential neighbors told me that the family now owns around 30 – 50 houses in their neighborhood. Wow. Wow. Wow.

Nice decor, fancy, quaint and cute. If you are the interior designer, call me maybe.

Ceiling lights

I sat down at the table near the entrance so if there’s some crazy guy who would come in and start shooting, I can quickly throw the chair at him, if it’s too heavy, there’s the glass flower vase. Sapol sya sa ulo. Tok!

It took me a while to choose from their expansive menu. I was not craving for any particular dish although when I was in the US I wanted to have a good pasta. There were several pasta choices in their menu but none appealed to me. I asked the waiter if they have vigan langgonisa pasta, wala daw. I was pressed with time so I just settled for the seafood pasta.

Here it is. I am not a food blogger so don’t take my comments very seriously. And I travel a lot and is very exposed to different dishes so my tastes are a bit complicated. To say that my taste is sophisticated is too pretentious and is not true. I have very simple tastes and I am not picky when it comes to food. I am matakaw kasi kaya lahat masarap sa akin.

Mary Grace’s seafood pasta in my opinion is good. I will rate it a 7 on a scale of 1-10. The shrimps were overcooked. It lacks the wow on first bite. Alam mo yun, yung pag subo mo eh sasabihin mo wow sarap. Eto hindi. I started sprinkling lots of chili and parmesan to give it some kick. I finished every strand of the spaghetti pasta ibig sabihin masarap din sya. But remember, what could be a 7 to me maybe a 10 to you.

I wanted a dessert to cap my meal but I didn’t want a slice of cake. I settled for a little piece of lemon square. I have tasted lemon squares from Valle Verde 5 and they were great. In comparison, Mary Grace’s lemon square is a 7 just like the seafood pasta. That is only my opinion.

My total food bill. Merienda pa lang yan. Nung magboyfriend kami ni Edmund, grand anniversary namin P250 lang total, kasama na ang pang taxi, gift, fresh mango juice, movie, and sizzling steaks.