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Gino's Brick Oven Pizza in Salcedo Village, Makati |
Gino's is probably something that may already ring a bell because it's getting more popular now as an awesome pizza and pasta place. Some would even say that it's
one of the best! Now, being adventurous when it comes to food, I wanted to put that on a test, and since I've been a huge fan of pizza and pasta for all of my life, I got pretty eager to try it out.
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Gino's Brick Oven Pizza Interior |
With all the rave and fame it gets, Gino’s
usually operates under a full house, and with more or less
40 seating capacity, you need to compete with all other foodies to get seated immediately. To help you out,
you need to be there by 11:30 am (during lunch time) and 6:00 pm (during dinner time) for two reasons: (1) management still accepts reservation until that time (2) even without reservation most seats are still available during this time.
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Gino's features a simple almost-homey ambiance |
Interior here in Gino’s is pretty much simple yet cozy enough to let you feel comfy. Well, I’m not sure if you’ll agree with me but I admire the simple beauty of the place. It lets you shift your attention to the dishes served which is nothing short of spectacular.
The spicy honey condiment was the highlight of the dining experience. It was so incredible as it added more emphasis on the flavors of the pizzas.
Strawberry Burrata || P395
Burrata, strawberries, crema di Balsamico, extra virgin olive oil and basil
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Strawberry Burrata of Gino's Brick Oven Pizza |
For appetizer, we had this cheese which I found
fantastic with its velvety smoothness and light taste. It reminded of a kesong puti but only smoother, and maybe better.
Salted Egg Pasta || P190
Fettucine, bacon, salted egg, cream, parmesan
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The salty-creamy Salted Egg pasta! |
This salted egg dish featured a
thicker bunch of pasta that were too filling with its creaminess. However, this undeniably made the pasta tastier! Also, the pasta used were not as moist as I usually encounter in other places, but this added a different character to it. Small serving (which goes for all the pasta) but definitely tasty, meaty and creamy!
Lemon Mushroom || P285
Fettucine, cream, fresh mushrooms, lemon, parmesan
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Lemon mushroom pasta of Gino's |
This lemon chicken pasta was nice and creamy. It featured a more familiar taste that resembles a carbonara. The primary difference came from the lemon which you’ll freshly squeeze on the spot.
Buffalo Pizza || P395
Tomato sauce, mozzarella, buffalo chicken, blue cheese
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The hot Buffalo Pizza of Gino's Brick Oven Pizza |
This pizza was nicely prepared and presented! The ingredients was noticeably fresh and the
thinner core allowed us to focus on the goodness. nothing really wildly extraordinary but eating it made me feel really warm (as in literally because of the spiciness) and fuzzy.
SMEGG || P420
Homemade sausage, mushroom, eggs, gouda, cream
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Signature SMEGG pizza of Gino's |
The SMEGG was also incredible with
its subtle saltiness and roughness from the salted egg. You may think that the flavors may not jive, but they actually did! It’s something that you may look forward to.
BOMB || P380
Balsamic onions, mozzarella, mushrooms, blue cheese
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The BOMB was surely a bomb with its incredible flavors! |
The bomb was something I appreciated due to the mild sweetness from the caramelized onion as well as the potent yet amazing cheesy goodness from the bleu cheese! It was
surely a bomb with flavors exploding inside the mouth!
Chocolate Chicharon || P150
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The unique Chocolate Chicharon - something you may want to explore! |
This chocolate chicharon was something we ordered for something unusual. Since, I am mostly game to try something new or even weird, I urged the group to give this a try.
It was nice and indeed chocolaty, but it tasted indeed weird. I may not order this again, but it was really cool to taste it just once.
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A Not-So-Popular Kid with some of the FSRM berks colleagues |
There you go! I hope you enjoyed that one. Let me share with you pictures of the group. As you may infer, I went there twice already, which may suggest that this place is really something I like!
Gino's - Overall Ratings and Summary
Note: Unshaded stars are equivalents of half-stars. The ratings apply solely to this dining experience.
Place ★★★☆
Taste ★★★★
Service ★★★☆
Value for Money ★★★★
Budget: At least
P250 each for a group coming in at least 4 to try an appetizer, pizza and pasta
Overall, I would say that Gino's soared above decent, and in fact made its mark on my books. Unfortunately, it didn't seem to break my expectation, in order to beat my best choices as of this writing. Yup,
My Kitchen (read more) and
Mama Lou's (read more) still retain their respective positions at 1st and 2nd.
Will you be checking this place out?
Gino's Brick Oven Pizza
Location: Bautista Street, Salcedo Village, Makati City
Contact No.: (02) 779 8192
Service Charge: None