Restaurant Review: Focaccia at A. Venue Mall

Last month, our family celebrated my younger brother’s birthday by having dinner in one of our favorite restaurants – Focaccia. Years ago, my brother could not stop raving about this restaurant in A. Venue Mall. We finally got to try it last year, and we came back once again simply because the entire family fell in love with it.

Focaccia serves Italian dishes, but what made them really popular with the foodies is their wide array of mouth-watering panizza. Though the restaurant is a bit small, the hanging lamps, bright red walls and quirky fixtures gave the place a cozy vibe.

Aside from their panizza, the next thing that made us really excited about our return to Focaccia is their complimentary bread! This freshly-baked focaccia bread goes really well with the olive oil and balsamic vinegar dip! Try it with Parmesan cheese for another dimension of flavors.

While we were waiting for Abes and Kate, my parents decided to get a plate of appetizer. We had a serving of their Calamari Fritti. We were just expecting it to be just an ordinary plate of calamari, but we were dead wrong! The calamari is fried to perfection. We didn’t get any rubbery pieces of squid. Plus, the aioli sauce is to die for! Until now, I’m still not convinced that this should pass as an appetizer. Gusto ko sanang mag-rice e!!!

I was tasked to choose among the different variations of rolled pizza from their menu. If there is Quattro Formaggi in the menu, then I would definitely be getting it. I was planning to get it, but I saw Sette Formaggio in the menu! Four cheeses vs seven cheeses?! It’s a no-brainer!



This panizza may look plain and unappealing at first glance. But topped with 7 different kinds of cheese – feta, mozzarella, cheddar, romano, gorgonzola, ricotta and cream cheese, each slice of this panizza will surely bring your taste buds an extraordinary treat! I definitely loved the texture of the mozzarella, the pungent taste of the gorgonzola and the richness of feta. I also sensed a hint of sweetness which is probably from the ricotta cheese.

Wanting to have more protein, I suggested we also get Slice of Italy.


Loaded with ham, bacon and salami, this will certainly be a hit for all meat lovers. It’s also topped with onions, mushrooms and cheese, of course! Though the Sette Formaggio is undoubtedly packed with more flavors, the Slice of Italy has better texture because of the different kinds of meat and the slight crunchiness of the onions.

Wanting to provide my family a balanced meal, I also got a panizza with seafood – Frutti de Mare. This one has salmon, shrimp and squid. I don’t really like the taste of salmon (with the exception if it’s sashimi), but this has got to be an exception.


Suffice to say, we all loved the three kinds of panizza. The crust is perfect. It’s not that crunchy making each slice easy to roll, but it’s also not mushy. Guests also get to have an unlimited serving of arugula and alfalfa. But during our last visit, we were informed that they ran out of arugula so they served us lettuce instead. The arugula would have been a better choice, but the lettuce proved to be a good alternative. I was just missing the slight bitterness of the arugula because the lettuce was too subtle.

Aside from panizza, we also had two kinds of pasta dishes. These two were the same pasta dishes that we tried during our previous visit.


This tomato-based pasta dish is infused with different kinds of herbs. Don’t underestimate this. It may strike as a plain-looking pasta dish, but its hint of spiciness will leave you with an unforgettable kick.

But this has got to be everybody’s favorite! The Lasagna con Ragu is the bomb! Its meaty sauce is oozing with cheese! Each melt-in-your-mouth bite gave me that distinct symphony of rich flavors that brought me unexplainable joy. Ang OA, pero ganun talaga kasarap! We were all literally scraping off the sauce out of the plate. Kulang na lang dilaan namin! :p


Just when we thought that we were already done with dinner, Mama suggested we try their ice cream. It proved to be an excellent choice! They carry Fog City Creamery ice cream. We tried the ensaymada flavor, and everybody loved it! It’s not that sweet, and it has that distinct salty flavor from the cheese. I bet they didn’t use ordinary cheese. Mama thinks it’s queso de bola. E ‘di Merry Christmas! Haha! But kidding aside, super sarap!!! Promise!

I tried so hard to resist this because I am still recovering from sore throat, but I failed big time! Mama got this after dinner at @focacciarestaurant. Grabe! Super sarap!!! This costs PHP300, but we got this for free as part of their Valentine promo!!! Sakto, today's my brother's birthday! :-) Promise, @fogcitycreamery is not your ordinary ice cream. Review on the blog soon! :-) -> jerelltabenoja.com

A photo posted by Jerellt Abenoja-Andrade (@dahwanderer) on Feb 25, 2015 at 6:08am PST

Focaccia
Ground Level A. Venue Mall,
Antonio Luna St., cor. Makati Ave,
Makati City


* All photos were taken with a Nikon Coolpix S3600