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Driving down Elliot Road the other day, Pere and I noticed that Sonoma Chicken Roasters had gone out of business and been replaced by a Guamanian restaurant called Island Roots Guam Cuisine. I made a mental note, and decided to give the place a visit soon. Soon came sooner rather than later. Today, Moody and I headed there for lunch.

The interior hadn't changed much from when the place was the Sonoma Chicken Roasters. It had the same bright, clean interior with lots and lots of space, the only real change being the addition of island memorabilia adorning the walls and counter. We were promptly greeted at the door and seated at a table right in between two other tables of diners. This seemed a little odd given that the place is huge and was otherwise empty. Before we had even sat down, our waiter asked if he could bring us anything to drink. Not having had a chance to look the menu over, we both ordered waters.

I think it's hard to say that Guamanian cuisine has a distinct identity of it's own. Given it's location (lying in the Pacific between Japan/Korea, Hawaii, and the Philippines), it borrows heavily from those countries as well as Spain and Mexico. The menu at Island Roots reflects this with dishes like lumpia, pancit, and adobo (Filipino); kalbi and bulgogi (Korean); and Spam musubi from Hawaii. Before we had a chance to look the menu fully over, our waiter returned with our waters and asked if we were ready to order. A few minutes more, and we were.

We started things off with an oder of the lumpia. They came out piping hot and were well fried. The sauce was tangy sweet and offered a nice balance to the meat and veggie filling. For entrees, Moody went with the chicken adobo while I had the Portuguese sausage with fried eggs. Moody's adobo was authentic Filipino and contained several pieces of chicken thigh and leg still on the bone, with skin as well as two scoops of red rice. When Moody asked the waiter what red rice was, his reply was that it was just more flavorful. I think it would have helped if he had mentioned that it was colored with annatto. Moody said the adobo was very good, although there was a fairly high ratio of scraps to meat. The Portuguese sausage plate I had was really tasty. The sausage was nicely grilled, and went perfectly with my over-medium eggs. The annatto in the rice gave it a nice orange color (more so than red), and the rice had good flavor, although I wasn't able to determine where it came from (perhaps bacon?) as annatto is relatively flavorless. Next time, I'd like to try out the Spam musubi. I also hear they have Poke on the weekend, a Hawaiian favorite of mine that I'd like to try their rendition of.

Overall, the meal was decent, and I would definitely recommend Island Roots - especially to Filipinos who find the options for authentic Filipino dishes in the valley to be lacking. I would, however, like to see Island Roots work on their service. I know it's a family run business, but there's just no excuse for lax and uninformed service these days. Given the large size of the restaurant, and the relatively emptiness of the place during the lunch rush, I have to wonder how long they'll be able to stay in business. If Island Roots is going to survive, they are going to have to polish things up a bit.

On my first night back in the Philippines for business, my co-worker Adam and I headed over to Greenbelt 2 to check out the restaurants. After walking up and down the row of restaurants, checking out the various menus, we decided on Mezze Restaurant and Bar, a small plates restaurant I had seen on previous trips to Manila, but had never tried.

All of the restaurants in the Greenbelt area are tastefully modern in their decor. Mezze was fairly empty when we arrived, with only two other small groups having dinner. We were a bit early, so the lack of a crowd didn't worry me. After being seated, our waiter brought by the menu. The page of small plate dishes was pretty extensive, and reflected a wide variety of ethnic dishes (Spanish, Greek, Mediterranean, Filipino). We decided to stick exclusively to the small plates, and ordered up a selection for our meal which included patatas bravas, a croquetta sampler, a gambas sampler, spanakopeta (note the generally accepted spelling should be spanakopita) , stuffed squash blossoms, salpicao, and a Mediterranean sampler called hors d'oeuvre mezze. The waiter asked if it was ok to bring out each plate as it was ready, which we agreed would be a good idea.

First up was the hors d'oeuvres mezze, consisting of hummus, baba ganoush, and a roasted pepper dip served with toasted pita chips. The hummus was unremarkable, as was the roasted pepper dip. The baba ganoush, however, was an excellent standout. It was much smoother than most baba ganoush I've had, and it had an excellent roasted eggplant flavor.

Almost immediately after the first dish arrived, our waiter returned with a large plate full of spanakopita, topped with parmesan cheese. The phyllo was light and crispy. My first bite, however, was also my last. In addition to spinach and feta cheese, Mezze also stuffed their pies with basil, which added a strong bitter taste to what would otherwise have been decent spanakopita. Basil isn't typically an ingredient in spanakopita, and a little might have added an interesting twist to the dish, but Mezze went overboard with it, ruining the dish completely.

The third dish to come out was the patatas bravas, consisting of crispy fried potatoes with herbs and a garlic-mayonnaise (ajo) sauce drizzled on them. These were great. The potatoes were perfectly browned and crispy as advertised. The ajo sauce added a nice balance to the potatoes, providing some additional moisture to the starchy potatoes.

After the potatoes came the croquetta sampler - two each of croquettas tres quezos (three cheese), croquettas jamon (ham), and croquettas chorizo (sausage). The three cheese croquettas contained swiss, edam, and cheddar cheese. They were steaming hot on the inside, and very cheesy. The cheeses blended well together, making it hard to identify the individual flavors. The ham croquettas also had mushrooms and truffle oil. The ham and mushroom went well together, but I couldn't taste the truffle oil. The third croquetta was stuffed with three types of sausage, bilbao, barbacoa, and pamplona. This was by far the best of the three, with the sausages really adding a nice punch to the croquettas.

Our next dish was another sampler. This time, it was shrimp. Four small bowls containing shrimp swimming in various sauces were presented to our table. They were shrimp in coconut curry, shrimp sauteed in spicy chili, garlic, and olive oil, shrimp cooked in pesto, and shrimp in crab caviar. The curry shrimp were good, but the other three varieties were not as exciting - it tasted as though the shrimp were undercooked. Further, the sauces overpowered the shrimp. A few more shrimp in each dish, or less of the sauces would easily solve the problem.

The second to last plate we ordered was squash blossoms stuffed with chicken sausage, and mozzarella, then breaded and deep fried and served with a romesco sauce. The breading and frying was well executed, but unfortunately, the chicken sausage had an overly livery taste that proved too distracting.

Our final dish of the evening was the salpicao oriente - sauteed pork tenderloin with garlic and spring onions. The pork was succulent and flavorful, although a bit salty. That's typical for salpicao, though, so I thought it compared well to other salpicaos I've tried.

All in all, our meal at Mezze was ok, but not spectacular. It started off fairly well, but there were enough poorly executed dishes spread throughout the meal that I probably won't be coming back during my next visit. There's definite potential in the menu, so I do hope that the chef comes to the same realization and makes some adjustments in the future.

Before heading to Singapore last week, I had dinner at Red, a restaurant in the Makati Shangri-La hotel. I've eaten at Red twice now, and both times it's been excellent. What impresses me most about Red is the artistry with which they prepare their food. I have been served some of the most creatively plated dishes I've had.

Since I never got around to blogging about my first meal at Red, I'm going to combine my two visits into a single review, but I'll mainly be talking about my most recent visit.

On both visits, a loaf of freshly baked bread with two butters was brought to the table almost immediately. The bread was still hot which made the accompanying sun-dried tomato and herbed butters spread easily. The crust was nice and crisp, without getting crumby and making a big mess when cut. The inside of the bread was dense enough that it wasn't spongy, yet not to heavy. I liked it a lot.

The first time I was at Red, I tried the Red Appetizer Three Ways. The three ways consisted of seared fois gras with caramelized mango, crabcake with mustard aioli, and a "salad of buffalo mozzarella and tomato. All three of the appetizers were excellent. The tomato salad was particularly interesting. I've made this type of salad tons of times before, but Red's presentation made theirs more interesting. Basically, they sliced a peeled tomato in half and inserted layers of mozzarella and basil in between each piece, then reassembled the tomato. This wasn't overly fancy, but it really looked (and tasted) nice.

On my current visit, I was really tempted to get the Red Appetizer three ways again, but I went with the Scallop with Eggplant Timbale instead, in the interest of variety. The eggplant had a nice char to it that gave it good flavor that complimented the scallop nicely. Of the two appetizers, the Red Appetizer Three ways wins.

After the appetizer, my waiter brought out a nice berry sorbet as a palate cleanser. This is a nice touch that I always appreciate, but most restaurants just don't do anymore.

For my entree, I went with the saddle of pork with Gorgonzola. It was accompanied by roasted potato discs and mixed blanched vegetables. The saddle turned out to be a huge chop with a nice big bone curving up. This may have been the thickest cut of pork I've ever seen. It was perfectly cooked, and completely juicy throughout. It's easy to overcook pork, so I was glad to see that this piece had come out so well. With the Gorgonzola, it was fantastic.

On my previous visit, I had the grilled duck breast with gigs, pomelo chutney and smashed sweet potato and rice paper. I ordered my duck rare, but I was a little disappointed when it arrived. The meat itself was rare, but the skin on each piece of breast was very chewy and a bit too fatty. I prefer it when the skin's a little crispier, but this can be tough to do while still keeping the meat rare. The pomelo chutney was a nice accompaniment to the duck. You don't often see pomelo (similar to grapefruit) in the US, so I was appreciative at the opportunity to have the ingredient as part of my meal.

Red has several desserts that look worth trying. On my first visit, I saw they had a frozen blood orange souffle and knew I just had to give it a try. I ended up thinking it was ok, but not nearly as good as I had imagined it would be. I love blood oranges, but the souffle just didn't have enough orange flavor to make me say "wow!"

Since I didn't need to try the souffle twice, I decided to give their bento box dessert a try. I figured it would afford me the opportunity to try small bites of a couple different desserts on the menu. Was I wrong. When the bento box came out, it was a huge square lacquered box containing what looked to me like four full sized desserts. There was vanilla ice cream over some sort of cookie, which was ok, but nothing special. There was also Red's famous chocolate verona cake. The cake was moist and very chocolaty. It was served over cherries, which made it a little too sweet for me, but it was still nice to have a few bites. The next dessert was a piece of cheesecake with mango. I liked the cheesecake, but it didn't stand out from most others I've had. What was most impressive to me was the last dessert, which was a small plate of fresh fruit with a spun sugar basket full of sorbet sitting on top. At first look, I thought the sorbet was probably lemon. It was close, but something tasted different. I couldn't place what it was, so I asked the waiter if he knew. He didn't, but went back to the kitchen to ask the chef. When he returned, he informed me that it was an olive oil sorbet. As it turns out, it was a combination of olive oil and calamansi, a small lime popular in the Philippines which is what I originally thought was the lemon I tasted. I told the waiter that I absolutely loved the sorbet and that it was one of the best that I had ever had. He went back to the kitchen and gave the chef my compliment. When he returned, he had another dish of the sorbet, compliments of the chef. Even though I was completely full, I somehow found room to finish off the second dish of sorbet.

I have two regrets about the two meals I've now had at Red. The first is that both times I've eaten there, I've dined alone. I much prefer to share meals with people as when I have dining experiences like the ones at Red, I love to share them. The second regret is that both times I didn't have my camera with me. As I mentioned, the plating at Red can be quite impressive, and it's a shame I don't have any pictures to show off. Oh well, perhaps on my next visit.

For Catherine's birthday, Pere and I took her and Moody to Zest Spirited Dining for dinner. We had been meaning to try Zest for a while, and Catherine's birthday provided the perfect excuse to go.

When we arrived, our table wasn't quite ready yet, so we decided to have a drink at the bar and look over the menu while we waited. Pere had a Sapphire and tonic, Moody had a Crown Royal Manhattan, and Catherine and I both went with the Zest Fresh, a specialty martini made with gin and citrus crush. The Zest Fresh was pretty good. Nice, smooth, and tart.

After about 10 minutes, our table was ready, and the hostess walked us across the fashionably designed main dining room into a smaller, more intimate back dining room. The location was great because it was away from the hustle and bustle of the large and open main dining room yet it wasn't at all hidden out of the way to the point you felt isolated from the rest of the restaurant. Once seated, our waitress stopped by and dropped off menus as well as a wine list.

The ladies were in the mood for white wine, so we went with a bottle of Luna Pinot Grigio. I also asked for two of the eggplant cheesecake appetizers. I had previously read about the eggplant cheesecake at Zest, and was dying to give it a try. Anticipating how good it might be, I decided we would need two orders to split.

While we waited for the wine to arrive, two more servers showed up. One had water for the table, and the other a plate of lemon and lime slices, which he would place in your water glass upon request. I think it's little touches like this that don't cost the restaurant much at all, but have the potential to really set a restaurant apart.

When our waitress returned, she poured the wine, and brought us a basket of bread. She also took our orders. Catherine ordered the osso buco. Both Pere and Moody went with the domestic lamb shank, which I originally was going to order as well, but once I knew Pere was having it (and I'd get to taste hers), I opted for the rainbow trout, which also sounded interesting.

The wine was good - crisp and slightly fruity, but otherwise unremarkable for a pinot grigio. The bread was good too. There was no butter, but there was olive oil, which went well with the bread's firm texture and crispy crust.

A few minutes later, our eggplant cheesecakes arrived. At first glance, it looked just as you would expect a piece of cheesecake to look. I took one bight and I was hooked. It had almost the same consistency as regular cheesecake, but it was completely savory. It's made from cream cheese, eggplant, eggs, and basil, and topped with a roasted garlic tomato sauce. I swore it also had goat cheese, but I may be wrong. In any case, it was simply amazing. I think this has to be one of the best uses of eggplant I've ever come across.

All entrees come with a house salad served table side. The salad server asked if we would like any mixins included with the basic greens and house citrus vinaigrette. Choices included gorgonzola cheese, pecans, dried cranberries, and oranges. I took all four. I enjoyed the salad, but Pere found it to be a bit too sweet for her taste. She's not a big fan of fruit/sweet ingredients in salad, but I am!

It didn't take long for the food to arrive once we had finished our appetizers. The pace at Zest was steady, but not at all rushed. As I mentioned, Pere and Moody both got the domestic lamb shank. It came wrapped in grape leaves and had been braised in a Syrah tomato sauce and was served over fusilli. It sat on a goat cheese cream sauce with sun dried tomatoes, artichokes and fennel and had another side of "grape feta relish". The lamb was fall off the bone tender (as it should have been from the braising) and had my mouth watering with each bite. I'm a fennel freak, and I really appreciated the balance it added to the dish.

Catherine had the osso buco which was served with a vegetable mirepoix in a Grand Marnier citrus sauce on smashed potatoes. It was also very tender and perfectly cooked. I had a taste and liked it a lot. So much so, that it'll be a toss up between the osso buco (I want to eat every last drop of the marrow from the bone) and the lamb shank.

I saved the description of my entree for last. I was in the mood for something lighter, so I had the rainbow trout which was pan fried with a citrus breading. It came served on crab spinach with a gratin of yukon gold potatoes and was topped with an oyster mushroom and vidalia onion sauce. A hand full of grilled asparagus with chive orange aioli rounded things out. The dish really came together for me. The trout was nice and crispy on the outside and very moist on the inside. The asparagus were especially good having picked up some nice carmelization from the grill. All in all, I was very happy with my choice.

Even though we were all completely full from the meal, we couldn't end the evening without something sweet, so we opted to split the chocolate caramel fondue flamed with Grand Marnier and served with fresh fruits and sweet cakes. When the fondue arrived, it came complete with a small birthday candle. When our waitress presented us with the dessert, she wished Catherine a happy birthday, then told us that the dessert was on her. This was a very nice touch. Normally, I wouldn't order chocolate fondue for dessert as this is something we do (rather well) at home, but it made sense since the four of us wanted to split something. The fondue itself was okay, but not nearly as amazing as everything else we had. It was almost anti-climatic.

I'm very happy I finally got around to visiting Zest. It's the type of restaurant I'd love to have in my neighborhood. If it weren't so far away, I'd definitely make myself a regular there. As it stands, though, it's worth the drive, and I do see myself making the trip out there much more often.