A Taste of Italian Passion at Piadina

“Italian passion food”

This is the phrase that the store boldly places on their menu, flyers and even on their store to describe their food.  Piadina Italiana, or simply, Piadina, is an Italian restaurant inside Greenbelt 1 in Makati.   Offering pasta, pizza, and of course their piadina bread, Piadina prides itself of their freshly and healthy prepared Italian food.

Their name, Piadina, comes from the piadina bread which was, according to the excerpt found in their menu, a flat, round & unleavened bread that became an inexpensive substitute for the common bread during the famine.  Dubbed the “poor man’s bread” back then, piadina is now a popular choice among Italians and has become part of the Romagna Culture.

Upon surveying the area near Qoola (yes, we reached here since we wanted to try a yogurt place for the first time), my love and I landed here in Piadina for lunch.  Attracted by their large menu posted near their entrance, we browsed through their selection of Italian food.  Apart from a couple of special items on the menu, their prices ranging from 140 – 300 Php making Piadina one of the more affordable places to enjoy Italian food.

Attracted by the photo in their menu, we decided to order Grissini di Pizza (Php 140) for our appetizer.  For lunch, my love ordered the Pizette Set (Php 170) while I picked Pollo al Forno Limone Set (Php 200).  Don’t worry about not knowing what you’re getting due to the Italian names as they have English descriptions on the menu. These sets also came with a glass of iced tea and their pasta of the day.

Pizza Breadsticks, aka  Grissini di Pizza

Grissini di Pizza, according to their menu, is garlic bread sticks served with Piadina’s special cheese dip.  Translated in English as pizza breadsticks, our Grissini di Pizza arrived first in a medium-sized plate.  True enough to the name, their bread sticks looked like pieces of thin pizza crusts.  I liked the way that they actually took time to arrange the bread sticks in a square-shaped wall enclosing the secret cheese sauce. 

The pizza breadsticks were very crisp and tasted like actual crusts used in pizza.  We could not tell what is in the secret cheese sauce, but it complemented with the light taste of the breadsticks.  I felt like the sauce can actually be used as a topping for an actual pizza.  They should have included more sauce though as we were already scraping the small container for whatever flavor despite having around 5-6 sticks left.

Chicken pasta combo

The Pollo al Forno Limone set (baked herb chicken with pasta of the day) and Pizette set (round mini pizza with pasta of the day) arrived together around ten minutes after.  The pasta of the day was Checca.  I liked how the waiter asked us if we wanted any parmesan on top of our pasta.

It was quite challenging cutting the chicken down to smaller pieces using a fork and spoon.  Although it still had a light, herby flavor, it was dry on the inside leading me to believe that this piece was a bit overcooked.  You can actually knock the edge of your spoon on top of the skin and not make even a light indentation.  I found it easier to tear it down with my teeth. 

In contrast, the pasta was flavorful and cooked to perfection.  The light tomato base found in the Checca Sauce went well with the herbs and parmesan cheese and this saved the Pollo al Forno Limone set for me.  Considering that this was a “pasta-of-the-day” normally reserved for basic, normal stuff, I never imagined that this would be the star of the dish. 

According to Wikipedia, Checca Sauce is an uncooked tomato sauce made from fresh tomatoes, basil, fresh mozzarella, extra virgin olive oil, garlic, salt, and pepper. Piadina’s version of this sauce is two-thumbs up.

Pizza-pasta combo

The Pizette set combined their pasta with a round piece of pizza.  We’re not sure what the pizza was, but I believe it was the basic ham and cheese variant.  I had a small bite of the pizza and found nothing distinct about it to differentiate it among the rest except it was less oily compared to other well known pizzas.  I believe they used olive oil as it tasted a bit different from the everyday pizza in Yellow Cab, Pizza Hut and Shakey’s. 

Overall, we enjoyed our lunch here in Piadina.  We were really full after eating as the servings were bigger than usual. Expect Italian staples (pasta, pizza) to be better than ordinary.  I also strongly recommend their pasta. 

If you need to enjoy Italian cuisine without breaking the bank and with great service, Piadina is your place.

Piadina

Ground Level, Greenbelt 1, Makati City

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* Captured with a Nokia N82