Gino's Brick Oven Pizza — Restaurant in Makati

Food was a big letdown. Went to the Rada branch with a group of friends with high expectations as it was recommended by a friend. To be fair, the service and atmosphere were both excellent. The staff was accommodating and the ambiance was pleasant, but I wouldn’t choose to dine here again unless it happened to be especially convenient.

I appreciate that the pasta was handmade, and while the salted egg pasta was good, it's not quite worth going out of your way for. We ordered several white sauce pastas-- stuffed chicken, salted egg, bacon parmigiano, carbonara, and lemon mushroom, among others. They all tasted quite similar, with the salted egg pasta being the only one that stood out flavor wise. Is it unreasonable to expect them to taste a little more different from one another?

The pasta was cooked al dente, which I personally found fine, but a few people in our group felt it was slightly undercooked, even by al dente standards.

One friend ordered the pesto pasta, which came in 4 large square lasagna sheets layered together?. While the staff did ask if we were okay with it being served that way, none of us expected it to be just four big sheets cut into squares. It felt more gimmicky than thoughtful and felt awkward to eat. It also had FAR too much olive oil and I say that as someone who regularly makes olive oil–based pasta at home. It felt poorly balanced. TBH, if they had a more typical pasta shape (spaghetti, fettucine, orzo, farfalle etc) and a little less olive oil this might have been my favourite dish.

The biggest letdown was the pizza. The taste if made well would be fine/good, but one of the pizzas I tried was soggy and excessively oily, so much so that the toppings and sauce slid off even when I folded it. Another slice I tasted was burnt to the point of bitterness, and not in the pleasant, charred way you'd expect from a brick oven.

Staff and waiting time were great, and PHP400 per individual serving felt fair given the quality of ingredients, but honestly,, the way the food was made didn’t live up to expectations. Overall, it was underwhelming. I wouldn’t go out of my way to come back, though I’d give it another shot if I happened to be...

The place is small and clean and on a busy weekday, they're jam packed. They still require vaccine card for dining in so make sure you at least have a soft copy with you. Street pay parking is an option if you're bringing a car but there are also pay parking in the area. Their menu is composed mainly of different flavors of pizzas and pastas. The serving of pasta is just enough for one person but the pizza is good for 2 to 3 persons. The serving of food was fast, it took about 5 minutes only from the time we ordered to the time our salad was served.The service is also quite good. The price I would say is very reasonable for the serving knowing you are getting quality food. Just don't expect it to be shared especially if one is hungry. Here's what we ordered:

House Salad: 5/5 - The dressing is light, it's like you will only taste a hint of the balsamic dressing on the greens and the caramelized walnuts compliments the whole experience. It can be shared but I think the serving is really just for one person.

Carbonara: 5/5 - This one is really good. It's prepared like how an authentic carbonara is made. Not saucy and just the right amount of bacon.

Pesto Pasta: 5/5 - The fazzoletti pasta is a different take on this classic pasta recipe. First time eating it lime this but this is by far one of the best pesto pasta I have tasted. The pesto sauce is so good with the white cheese I used the crust of the pizza to get it all from the plate. The fresh arugula also gives it a wonderful bitter crunch.

Aglio Olio Pasta: 5/5 - My wife loved how the simple taste of the garlic with light olive oil on an al dente pasta was prepared like it's a complicated process. This one is a very simple pasta but somehow, the chewiness of the pasta and the parmigiano-reggiano brings it to a different level.

Salami Pizza: 5/5 - I love the thin, soft, chewy pie with burnt underside and crust that you only know will come from a brick oven. Perfect combination of tomato sauce, parmesan and white cheese. This one is highly...

GINO'S

My first time here was for a family reunion and the second time, a double birthday celebration with our community Art group.

The runaway favorite was the Four Cheese pizza ( mozarella, ricotta, blue cheese, parmigiano). However, they scrimped a bit on the blue cheese. Or was there even some ? Their dough is excellent, soft and chewy but much too thick around the sides. I want my pizza with toppings that go all the way to the edge. Nevertheless, it was delicious.

Others that we tasted were Bianca Verde ( cream base with greens) and Prosciutto (tomato sauce base) .

Their House Salad with Burrata is a must, though quite pricey. It must be because of the large ball of fresh burrata, cow's milk cheese made from mozzarella and cream, which went perfectly with the mixed greens. However, the dressing was a bit sweet for my taste. But that is very Filipino, "everything is sweet" 😂 , as what visitors say. I must admit, though, that I do crave for sweet spaghetti from McDonald's or Jollibee from time to time.😂

For our pasta dishes, we tried the Aglio y Oglio and Mushroom Parmigiano , reasonably good but not unforgettable that you'd crave for it in the future. I liked the consistency of the pasta itself, somewhere between al dente and "chewy."

However‼️ the first two were swimming in oil (or butter?), which did not go to waste since we added parmesan, chili and some Spicy Honey ( a signature condiment of Gino's) and dipped our leftover edge-crust in our concoction.

Carb overload. 😂

To cap off the meal, dessert was a chocolate birthday cake brought in from another store. And yes, it was totally acceptable , no corkage fee 😂. The waiters even sang along with us. Only in the...