Finally Chinatown has opened up a restaurant that blends East and West cuisines. La Mesa Filipino restaurant. This is their second restaurant as the other restaurant is located in Dee Why. Since I like to try new restaurants, I thought I give this a go. By the way, La Mesa is next to Mamak and it is where the Sichuan restaurant used to be located.
I hope that most of you are physically fit as you have to climb up the stairs to get to this restaurant. I am not sure if they have lift facilities.
Anyway after sitting down, I decided to have a look at the menu and see what they had to offer. Mum and I decided on Lumpiang Shanghai which is spring rolls with sweet chilli sauce. The spring rolls took about 10-15 minutes to come but it was well worth the wait. It was delicious but I found it a bit greasier than what I was used to. I'm a spring roll lover don't get me wrong.
Lumpiang Shanghai
The next meals to arrive were the Pork Adobo and Sinigang but it took a long time and we were hungry. I don't think the service was necessarily unsatisfactory but it was certainly understaffed. Other patrons also waited a while to receive their meals.
The Pork Adobo was the first to arrive. I did take a photo but unfortunately the photo did not upload successfully on my iPad, grrrr!! Nevertheless it was delicious but I wonder if that was my hungry self talking. It certainly did not lack flavour.This version of Adobo is a bit different from Latin America by the way as it uses soy sauce. However, it lived up to its name of using peppers.
After a while, the Sinigang also arrived. It is a tamarind based soup by the way. Similar to the Pork Adobo, it did not lack flavour but was cold as the chefs must of have forgotten to notify the waiter.
Sinigang
Wow, the food certainly filled us up. I was hesitant to order dessert as I could not eat anymore but mum decided we would order dessert anyway as we may not be back at the restaurant for a while.
The dessert was Halo-Halo which may look similar to the Malaysian/Indonesian Es Cendol. I had one sip of the dessert and it was creamy. I didn't get to taste the beans though but oh well can do that next time. Again, similar to the Adobo, the photo of the dessert did not upload.
Overall, the restaurant experience was good but here is a detailed analysis.
Positives:The food was delicious as it did not lack flavour, the staff were polite and the restaurant was clean.
Negatives: Although the service was great, unfortunately it was slow. The restaurant need to hire more staff but as I think this is a family owned business, that may not be possible. They also may want to consider facilities for those with disabilities unless it was hiding from me and I didn't see it.
Do try it if you can!!!
Until next time,
Laura xx
