Mesa Filipino Moderne

We were driving around Tomas Morato looking for a nice place to hang out and eat dinner.  We were choosing between Mesa & 2 other restaurants which were on the same area.  We stopped for a moment as we were all undecided which one to choose.  We ended up dining at Mesa and we were so glad we did!

Mesa just opened their branch at Tomas Morato.  They had other branches in the metro but I still haven’t tried their dishes.  I was curious to find out if they are good.  It was nice to see more choices for Filipino food.  I wondered what would make them different from the rest.

I was in awe when we entered the restaurant seeing those big light decorations on the ceiling.  I also liked that most of their seats are couches which people prefer all the time.

I was just a bit uncomfortable walking around the place as the walkway is only good for one person.  Other than that, the experience was great.  I really, really noticed the awesome service from the staff.  If I’m gonna rate their service, it would be a 5/5 score.  Very impressive!

The food is another thing worth raving for.  See the list of food we ordered from our dinner last saturday:

• Fresh Buko Juice (Php 60)

Fresh fruit juices has always been my favorite.  Since Mesa is a Filipino restaurant, I ordered for a fresh buko juice.  It was very refreshing.  You can ask them to open it up after you finished up all the juice inside.  It was nice to eat those tender buko meat after a heavy meal.

• Chicken Binakol (Php 235)

We ordered the ones with “must-try” label as it was our 1st visit to Mesa.  For the soup, it was chicken binakol.  It’s basically chicken soup simmered with young coconut and green papaya.  That explains why the excess soup was placed in a coconut shell.  As an FYI, the one in the picture was the extra soup.  Our order was put in a big white bowl and was poured already into our individual bowls.

By the way, do ask for “patis”.  You’ll enjoy the chicken better if you dip it to patis 🙂

• Duck Basil Fried Rice (Php 250)

We initially didn’t plan to order any meat dishes, that was why we ended up getting the duck basil fried rice.  It was basically fried rice with duck flakes & basil.  It has chili too but we asked if they could separate it.  The rice was alright, it was tasty but I wouldn’t go back ordering it again.

• Boneless Tilapia (Php 290)

We were definitely in heaven with Mesa’s boneless tilapia!!!  Mesa’s tilapia was definitely satisfying to our taste buds.  Not much effort also in taking off the meat as they already did it for us!  Mind you, it was boneless too!  There were 4 sauces to choose from: sweet chili sauce, honey bagoong sauce, mesa’s special sauce & vinegar sauce.  Definitely, a great twist to a Filipino dish right there.

• Sigarillas (Php 180)

Wing beans with coconut milk & shrimps.  I noticed Mesa loves to put coconut milk into their dishes.  Well, it worked.  This dish was good too but not exceptional.

• 1/6 CrispChon 2-ways (Php 999)

Now, this is what Mesa is known for: Crispchon!  We ordered 1/6 which was perfect for the 4 of us.  They told us we’d be served with Crispchon in 2 ways.

First, they wrapped the meat & skin in pandan wrap.  They did it right in front of us.  Boy, it was definitely yummy!  There were 3 sauces given but I enjoyed the sweet sauce the most.

Lastly, they cooked the rest of the lechon in chili & garlic.  The dish looked so sinful!  If you care for your body, you wouldn’t eat too much!  But hey, it’s okay to let go once in a while and enjoy good food.

As a side note, we ordered stuffed squid but changed it to crispchon at the last minute.  When we saw them serve crispchon at the adjacent table, we decided that it would be such a waste if we didn’t order that hehe 😛

We initially planned to have desserts but we were too full to eat more haha!  Our dining experience at Mesa was definitely a pig-out!  Not complaining because it was great to discover new food places.  Glad we discovered Mesa.

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Mesa Filipino Moderne
291 Tomas Morato Avenue corner Scout Fernandez, Bgry. Sacred Heart, Quezon City, Philippines
(02) 441-5197