Tucked in a quiet corner in the second story of
SM Mall of Asia is a small restaurant with the very catchy name of
Abbondanza. The menu makes very interesting reading and although the place has a non descript decor and an air of fast food Italian about it some items on the menu suggested that they were above being called fast food Filipino-Italian food.
The serving sizes are good, most of the items on the menu offered 2 sizes, the piccolo, which they say is good for 1 person (I thought it was good enough for two, especially the pasta) and the regular size. We first ordered the first two items on the menu that we thought would be interesting, the rissoto funghi (procini mushrooms, no less) and the risotto osso buco. Next we tried the baked chicken, with the interesting name,
pollo arrosto. The chicken was enormous and came in just one size, half a chicken. It was very tender and was plated with generous slices zucchini, eggplant and young green beans. It was delicious. We had a more difficult time deciding what pizza to order so we settled for their most unusual one, the
pizza con polpette, half without cheese. It was very good and amusing because of the small meatballs adorning each slice of the 12" pizza. The crust was excellent and reminiscent of the stone-baked pizzas of Giorgio, the very talented pizza master behind the success of Amici when it was still a "secret" place in Don Bosco. Aside from the whimsical tiny meatballs the other toppings included slivers of artichoke, black olives and a small amount of half cooked egg in the middle. We also tried their house specialty, the
pasta montanara composed of fusilli pasta, sausage, bell peppers, cheese sauce and pepperoni, salami and a generous amount of thickly sliced mushrooms. It was deliciously spicy. I didn't get to try the cocoa focaccia that went with the pasta, but I'm sure it was also delicious. Last, but certainly not the least, we couldn't resist the
zuppa rustica which one of the wait-staff assured us was the most popular item on their menu and a favorite of the son of H
enry Sy. It was slightly spicy, loaded with mushrooms and spinach. We shared one order and I was still not able to finish all of mine, definetely value for money.
Just as we suspected, the chefs at Abbondanza trained under Giorgio hence the excellence of their pizza crust. Abbondanza at Mall of Asia is only 2 months old but shows great promise. Next time I will bring more friends so we can try their monster 24" Abbondanza pizza.
