Finding out about Petra

...after a long day...

a long day of watching Dawson's Creek that is. Hehe, and you thought I was busy all day and night working on my all important thesis, which by the way I was given another chance to finish. And which I really should act on. Because all this procrastination and mental deliberation on when to start it is really annoying already. Really.

less than a month to finish it all off. and i still am so far behind. maybe i should do an update about this every boring day of the week, just so I would feel ashamed of not doing anything. duh. doh.

okay, i've done the requisite 'thesis-whining' stuff. now on to the juicy parts of the day.

Aside from finally watching that Dawson's Creek finale (crying over Jen's death and falling in love with Pacey), my friend and I went out and ate at Brad Turvey's new resto, Petra. This is somewhere in Connecticut, right beside Vicky Belo's clinic. Hah, he must have found that resto site while waiting for Belo to fix up his face. Anyway, service that night was not good. The layout of the resto was all wrong, making it difficult for the waiters to greet any new customers. In fact no one opened the door for us, and we stood in the 'lobby' for around a minute waiting for someone to appear. During that minute, it fully dawned on us that service was clearly not okay. We contemplated on whether to leave the place, but we wanted to try out the food, and besides there were other customers in the joint, so it couldn't have been that bad.

after we were seated by a slightly nervous waitress ( i wonder why she was nervous), we looked over the menu. I forgot how they described their food, I think it was fusion but still with a touch of familiarity. Comfort food in other words, served in a 'fusion' wrapper, if there's such a thing. We ordered Gone Green, and something with beef and angel hair pasta (i forgot the name of the dish). The food is good. Sort of makes up for the service, which isn't really crappy, just more like undermanned.

Gone Green was good, pasta with pesto sauce and cream mushrooms and bacon. Not too rich, with hints of garlic and cream to leave a yummy taste in the mouth. Reminds me of CPK's pasta, though not as rich. My friend said it reminded her of Piadina's pesto cream pasta, although Petra's version was more yummy and less 'green' for me. The beef was okay, soft and juicy, but slightly 'tasteless' for the Filipino palate. You know us, we love salty and sweet food. We don't normally go for the bland beef flavor. We pour seasoning in everything we eat! This beef tasted good, but it tasted even better with lots of dressing and Lea Perrins sauce. The angel hair pasta that went with it, on the other hand, was blah. It was plain angel hair pasta, with neither dressing nor sauce. It was pasta boiled in water, and...that's it. No sauce. No oil. No nothing. I guess it was meant to be sort of like rice -- a plain alternative to match the beef viand. Anyway, the beef and the pesto pasta was great, so I'll forgive the angel hair pasta fiasco.

Prices were reasonable, not too expensive but not too cheap either. Dishes usually cost 250, I think dessert was 100+, refillable ice tea was 60+, fruit shake was 60+, and softdrinks 55+. Servings are good for one person, but you can still share if you want to. There were two of us and we shared two dishes. Ambience-wise, it's okay, the interiors had nice chairs and wall designs, but I was really bothered by the misplaced bar and cash register machine. The bar (where the cash register was) was hidden in some corner nook, thus making it difficult for the waiters/waitresses to view whoever was coming in the front door, in fact making it difficult to view anyone else in the dining area. Okay, I maybe just making excuses for their crappy service.

Anyway, the food's great, so that about makes up for it this time. Will I go back next time? Yes. Hopefully we'll be able to try the other dishes on the menu. Yum.

Value for money: ***1/2 (out of 5)
Taste: **** (out of 5)
Service: ** (out of 5, well the waiters weren't rude)