St. Nicholas Restaurant – Santa’s Gift to Foodies in Mandaluyong

If you are looking for an affordable resto to dine, drink and even wine in Mandaluyong, there is one hidden gem  I would recommend: St. Nicholas Restaurant.  Located at #1 Fatima St., corner San Rafael St., Barangay Plainview in Mandaluyong. It serves Asian Fusion food in a cozy semi Al Fresco style.

My wife and I were invited with fellow bloggers to try out the resto last June 28, 2015. Here is our experience.

The Food

Here are the dishes we tried out:

We started with this crispylicious Okoy Gulay (Vegetable Fritters). I love it’s crispiness on the outside and a thin layer of softness inside.

The Okoy of course must be dipped in vinegar. The great thing here at St. Nicholas Resto is they have 3 types of vinegar dips:

For soup, we were treated to different tinola, the Tinolang Chicken sa Pakwan! The delicious a bit sweety soup  countered by bites of ginger bits really redefined the familiar tinola experience. The basil leaves instead of the typical sili leaves gave the dish another color in the palette.

Starting on the mains, we started with another fusion of Filipino favorite adobo. The Adobong Manok at Baboy sa Dilaw. Cook with tumeric giving it the “Dilaw” or yellow name, the dish fused Filipino and Indian cuisine. My favorite part is eating the fried cubes of potatos. Look also for the fried garlic bits for additional enjoyment.  This is definitely one of my favorites.

The Butter Garlic Prawn was next.

Their sizzling Pork Sisig at Php 99 is a steal. Great for pulutan and also as ulam. They also serve solo versions of sisig with rice and egg (optional).

This Paru-parong Tilapia in Sweet Tamarind Sauce has a hint of Thai cooking to it. Deep friend butterfly styled tilapia with a light sweet & sour sauce from tamarind base.  I would prefer the sauce to be more stronger in the tamarind blend but will be right for those you want it less sour.

Then there is the Ilocano favorite Poque Poque, a eggplant based salad which is great side dish with bagoong!

For the more adventurous breed, St Nicholas serves excotic foods. We tried the Adobong Crocodile.  The crocodile meat is something in between chicken and pork in texture.

They also server Tapang Usa (deer) and Tapang Baboy Ramo (wild boar).

For desserts, we were treated to the following heavenly desserts:

The Place

The resto is a bit hidden in a subdivision. You have to go by car or take a tricycle to take you from the main road to inside the subdivision. It’s a great place to dine away from the crowd.

Here are some photos of the place:

Definitely a great place to dine, wine, drink. It’s a great cafe as well because they serve sandwiches and great coffee while you use the FREE Internet or just play the boardgames they provide there. For only Php 135 a cup, you can enjoy the most expensive coffee in the world, the Civet or Alamid coffee. My wife loves it!