Alba Restaurante Español — Restaurant in Makati

RE-VISIT - REVIEW UPDATE

Disappointed this time as alcachofas had lots of tough outer skin which should be removed first so you don't need to remove from your mouth and put on the plate. Manager kindly Brought a second plate which was better but still 10 % very tough outers. Probably they get from a jar but should remove this - not good chef skills to serve artichokes that are chewy 🤷🏻‍♂️ they should know this

Paella was mediocre. Should have a burnt base - the MOST important and tasty part - it's called the 'socarrat' in Spain. This had none

Overall a tasty vegetable paella but too greasy and oily by far - and no essential socarrat, so not a proper paella

Service still good, but food not inspiring - afraid as basic cheffing skills are missing. Manager was engaging afterwards and took onboard my comments. Hope they make some improvements 👍🏻

ORIGINAL VISIT REVIEW

Excellent service and nice food (just a little over-salted - chef a regular smoker maybe? That's the usual reason)

Nice atmosphere with live band

I enjoyed it and...

Been here a few times this is not my first. Previous times where fine, the paella was decent.

Today I went, ambience was not bad they had guitar band playing. Went here as Filling Station was too busy to accommodate

1. Sopa de Marisco - poor to average in taste taste sort of like it’s from the tin. Do not order this it’s not good. I don’t think the seafood is fresh probably frozen if not from the tin

2. Croquetas - these where the best thing but not ground breaking or anything special: maybe half of what it taste like in Spain but for double the price

3. Fried chicken. They used old chicken not fresh chicken: mang inasal would have been better at a cheaper price.

It’s always so dissapointing in the Philippine’s. You pay high price expecting good quality and you get garbage.

You pay small price for food sometimes it’s a lot better. I wouldn’t waste your money here maybe the chef is lazy or their using a kid to cook the food and they don’t retain their long standing chef or another theory they don’t let the chef spend much money on good quality...

You cannot judge the quality of Spanish cuisine restaurant, until you taste at least one paella in their house, and this place is the example!

This place, the atmosphere, the food, the drink, is amazing!

I was here after meeting from business trip, and it was worth it. Although the serenades band sing mostly in English, their songs -specially country road- get me in my heart ❤️

The sangria with fruits can be better, but this is maybe because I was used to drink more sweet than what i tasted here.

Their wines however was really good enough to drink together with both appetizers and main dishes.

For this, I ate paella negra (black paella, made with squid's ink) and paella valenciana (valencian paella, spanish traditional). Both were so delicious that I wished I could repeat.

If you're in Manila, Philippines -either for business or for fun-, and want to taste a Hispanic cuisine aside of Philippines' (I ate before, you won't regret it, I guarantee!), this...