One of the cuisines I have yet to appreciate is French food. There are not a lot of French restaurants that I know of in Manila and France is far away. What comes to mind though are escargot, pate, fois gras, confit, cheese, pastries, macaroons, wine and chocolates! The Nostalia Lounge with French Chef Jerome Cartailler are having a Paris-themed menu until the end of this month. J couldn't get over the appetizers while I delightfully munched on the mains and a bit of dessert ;)
The Brasserie Parisienne Menu only features 5 select soups and appetizers. One of them is Nostalgia's yummy signature Onion Soup baked with puffed pastry!
I loved the crisp warm Camambert cheese balls with the citrus drizzle.
Then I finally tried Escargot willingly haha. Nostalgia's version comes in the form of six baked snails in garlic butter with some form of salted pesto on top.
The Fois Gras creme brulee with truffle is definitely an acquired taste. J liked it and was impressed with the buttery texture.
The Salad Gourmande with shaved fois gras, french beans, pulled duck confit, cherry tomatoes and greens was a hit in our table. According to the exotic expert J, the dish had very generous portions of duck and the flavor was so well balanced he could eat this all day.
There were seven entrees from red to white meat. You can check out the Sea Bass with sea salt crust, the garlic Lamb Confit (cooked for 7 hours!), deboned Pork Knuckle,
this grilled boneless Spring Chicken,
the Salmon Fillet with green lentils,
the Chicken vol au vent (tender creamed chicken and mushroom pieces in a puff case)
and the dish I liked most - the Beef Skirt with shallot sauce. For the sides, you better try their gratinated potato ;) The one in the picture below is the French fries with truffle and there's also mashed potato and parsley potato.
For dessert, we tried this beautiful and delicate Chocolate mousse (dark),
the layered Mille Feuille (soft puff pastry with creme filling),
the house made Creme Caramel (close to leche flan)
and the unexpected combination of Poached Pear with hot chocolate sauce and vanilla ice cream (yum!).
I've dined quite a lot here in the recent years and this particular theme is probably one of my awaited cuisines to come out of Oakwood's kitchen (since Chef Jerome is French). It was a great dinner filled with conversations and happy moments. It was a collective effort to first try out food outside our comfort zone (exotic by my standards) then a more familiar homey selection (I didn't know these are also French food haha) for the main course and a sweet spread to end the night. So go ahead and try this week's Parisian theme a la carte menu at Oakwood Manila's Nostalgia Lounge! We might just see each other there for our second round hehe.
Restaurant Details:
6th Floor, Oakwood Premier Joy~Nostalg Center Manila
17 ADB Avenue, Ortigas Center, Pasig
Open Mondays to Sundays
