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Mom’s B-day Celebration with Spanish Tapas at Las Flores

Pandie Rating: 👍👍

Odd how as a former Spanish colony, we hardly get any good tapas restaurants around here. Casa armas has been one of the more reliable and delicious restaurants that offer tapas but when a friend recommended Las Flores to us, my mom immediately quipped that she wanted to go here for her birthday since you know, French is too mainstream already for special occasions. Spanish cuisine is one of my most favorite cuisine because of its diverse and rich flavors and its tapas seem to be a lost art in our country where everything is judged by serving size.

Las Flores is tucked away in a little corner of BGC near Burgos Circle (you may almost miss it if you go out at night!) and its exclusivity (and probably beautiful people) is what draws the “crowd”. The restaurant tries to rev up its “authenticty” by having customers served by a mix of beautiful and handsome Spanish people. The Spanish manager was also very hospitable and approachable to all the diners. We were quickly seated as we have already made a reservation 2 days before for my mom’s birthday.

By this time, I had a HUGE expectation for the food because I was famished and was drawn by the menu which boasts of exotic dishes with fancy Spanish titles. We were warned of the small servings (these are tapas after all) so my parents decided to order the following:

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1. Patatas Bravas – PHP195
– Potato wedges in spicy sauce. These were probably the best potato wedges I had in a while and the serving was generous. But i kind of regret ordering this dish because… They weren’t the Spanish tapas I imagined that I had in Barcelona. I didn’t need to spend 195php for potatoes, right?

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2. Buñuelos de Bacalao con Salsa Romesco y Piñones – PHP395
– Codfish fritters. For those not familiar with Bacalao, it’s the main ingredient of Portugal’s famous dishes (not sure how it’s used in Spain) and my brother LOVES cooking bacalao and i know how a great Bacalao dish tastes like. I guess the word “fritters” should have warned me already but still I tried. I felt like eating potato and veggie fritters only. The essence of bacalao absolutely disappeared in this dish. Disappointing. The presentation was fancy though.

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3. Gambas al Ajillo Picantes, Por Supuesto – PHP345
– Shrimp Gambas in short. Gambas has to rank as one of the Spanish greats in my opinion. By this time I wanted to be overwhelmed already. Heck we had 2 dishes that messed up already but how can one go wrong with Gambas? But this dish… The shrimps just tasted bland! I couldn’t find the spicy kick of the shrimp here and I was again left disappointed.

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4. Some dish with tuna and a tortilla chip. I swear this dish was so forgettable despite again the fancy serving that I forgot its name O.O tumblr_inline_n1rjbnkMzl1qzu0uu

5. Chicharrones de Panceta Fritos – PHP250
– LECHON KAWALI! Come on, how… is it possible that this dish which we can find even in fast food restaurants… Disappoint here in this almost fine dining restaurant? I’ve had better and juicier lechon kawali elsewhere with bigger servings. How can I leave the restaurant with this disappointing feeling?
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6. Zarzuela de Merluza y Marisco – PHP795
– Fish stew with seafood. FINALLY we ordered 1 main dish and it desperately saved our dining experience here. The stew was cooked to perfection and the seafood flavor was exquisite! I couldn’t have enough of it.

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7. Pastel de Queso con Naranja – PHP196

– Cheesecake with Orange. This was just so so for me as there had been better cheesecakes. But the presentation here is succulent.

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8. Chocolatisimo – PHP185
– Dessert thank God they didn’t screw this up! Really what a wonderful chocolate fondant. Reminds me of Chef Gordon Ramsay’s favorite dessert. I guess this is how it should taste like.

You would have thought I would never step foot in this restaurant again after such lackluster dishes but I am still willing to give it a shot. My mom’s birthday dinner was not a complete bust as it was still a pleasant experience and I believe the novelty of a fine dining tapas bar had something to do with it. I think though that if I ordered the more traditional tapas, maybe I would have had a better dining experience. I also love the ambiance (service was a bit hard to call but there were a lot of people). Next time I would also try more main dishes 🙂 Tapas, I have found out, is sadly not their specialty which is really disappointing! But tapas are meant to be enjoyed not in upscale restaurants but in everyday friendly restaurants. Not saying this isn’t a friendly restaurant xD

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Prepare to shell out money though if you’re only going to try the paella and main dishes (please order other tapas like trying the traditional iberico ham or etc and let me know how it goes.).

Visit them at

Address: G/F One Mckinley Place, 25th St., Fort Bonifacio, Taguig City

Telephone: +632 552-2815

 

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