They say
Bonifacio Global City is one of the best gastronomic destinations in Metro Manila, but if you're like us who work in a building located in the outskirts of BGC (read: isang tumbling na lang to C5), then I dare say you have some pretty limited options. This, of course, is true when 1) you only have one hour for lunch and 2) you basically just don't have enough money to burn at fancy restaurants (and since we're talking about the BGC, prices can get unreasonably high). Or...we just really have too many excuses :p But there are times when we get tired and fed up (pun intended! teehee) of the P55-meals we order from koya, our always reliable lunch boy. This is especially true during payday, when our taste buds would suddenly feel this inexplicable need to take a rest from the regular adobo/menudo/mechado/sinigang rice meals. Lels.
So! Let's talk about
Unless the "world famous tapa" costs P275. Nope! No can do, sir. It's just too much for a glorified breakfast meal. So we ended up ordering...
Gram 's Diner , the location of choice for our once-in-a-blue-moon lunch out sesh. Admittedly, this is one place we just ignore when we go to the Crossroads Building across our office. It's only either Yellow Cab or Army Navy that we visit. But this time we didn't want pizza and burritos, and then I didn't really want a repeat of my horrible experience at SuZhou, then there's Recovery Food's space that's too cramped for my liking, and then Kuse is already out of the question because duh, it's Pinoy food, and then I didn't think I was ready for New Bombay. So in the end, we just chose Gram's Diner because, uh, we didn't really have a choice! It sounded like the safest place to eat, i.e. minimal risk of not liking the food = minimal risk of regretting having to spend on food we didn't like. Besides, nobody could go wrong with tapsilog, right?Unless the "world famous tapa" costs P275. Nope! No can do, sir. It's just too much for a glorified breakfast meal. So we ended up ordering...
Silver Dollar Pancakes Breakfast (P210) + Hash Browns (P35) - ★★★☆☆
Okay, so I ordered this because it has two strips of bacon! Now nobody could go wrong with that. Aside from bacon, the meal consists of 12 pieces of bite-size pancakes (yes, I counted them) and egg cooked exactly to your liking (I had mine scrambled). It would be an unforgivable crime to mess up bacon and egg, really, so I don't think I should go into detail yeah? How's the cute pancakes, you ask? They're fine. Not dayum-girl-you're-so-fine fine but this-is-exactly-like-McDonald's'-hotcakes fine. It's a very basic meal, to be honest, but this isn't the Pancake House we're talking about so don't expect out-of-this-world pancake and waffle varieties.
Grilled Chicken Salad (P250) - ★★★★☆
My friend ordered this because this was the thing he used to eat at Gram's Diner ABS-CBN branch.
Tried and tested na, kumbaga. And why not? The vegetable was perfectly crunchy, the generous serving of chicken was perfectly grilled, and the dressing was divine. With enough Parmesan cheese and bacon bits to complete the perfect, healthy salad! But why only 4 out of 5 stars, you ask? It's due to the presentation of the chicken strips - they were not arranged like sun rays, unlike the photo on the menu! I know that sounds so shallow, but we are a visual species so you can't really blame us :p
Bottomless Iced Tea (P105) - ★★★★☆
Truth be told, there was really nothing special about Gram's Diner's iced tea. I actually think it's overpriced! But why the 4/5 stars, you ask? It's because of the
Mason jars ! They're quite the fad these days and why the heck not?! They look so awfully cute and fashionable and just...just! I told you we are visual human beings.. ;) Besides, the bottomless iced tea was our only chance to make ourselves feel full..because the pancake breakfast meal and grilled chicken salad didn't really sate our enormous appetite. So! Gram's Diner = food was generally okay but a bit expensive, aircondition was weak during time of visit (lunchtime + floor to ceiling glass windows so it was uber warm inside), and service was a bit slow (not the food, but the refilling of iced tea LOL). The place was packed toward the end of our stay so it was good that we were there as early as 11:30am. But overall, we still enjoyed our time at Gram's Diner thanks to the travel stories shared over jars of iced tea :)
Total cost for 2pax: P767.95 (inclusive of 10% service charge)