OAP: "Lime 88, Street Food na Pina-Sosyal"

Home About 2009 Awesome Calendar

« Opus Restobar, Metrowalk | Home | An Intimate Champagne Brunch with connoiseur Jerome Philippon »

Saturday, August 18, 2007

Lime 88, Street Food na Pina-Sosyal

Save to del.icio.us | Digg This | Email this post

I must admit, we had second thoughts of going to Lime 88. It appeared like any one of those inuman place in Mandaluyong and we don't want that especially we have Aidan in tow. We saw bikers who lived in the Mandaluyong area, patronizing this place. Sometimes, you might see Mac Mac Cardona or some of the basketball players eating here because they say, they just live nearby.

One of the reasons I agreed to do a taste test of what Lime 88 has to offer, is because of Chef Archie Val Juanta. He worked as senior chef in M Cafe and currently a chef in Paseo Uno, Mandarin Hotel. He will soon be the corporate chef of Hagen Daz, Max Brenner, Olivers, Tea n Therapy and Blue Steak and Bistro, Trinoma. Given that credentials and the ambiance of the place, you can only expect excellent food at very affordable prices.

Daryl, Earl and Chef Archie Val Juanta -- Owners of Lime 88, Mandaluyong

Chef Archie decided to convert his lola's ancestral house (these days anything old is called ancestral for sossy effect) into a restaurant. It serves Filipino Street Food with a twist or "pina-sosyal" as he would call it. It is a very interesting concept where I can bring my visitors to an authentic street food experience prepared in a clean and nice way but of course, nothing beats the original.

I will always remember to not judge a restaurant by how it looks but by how the food would taste like. I'm going back to Lime 88 for sure and I do hope the place remains to be a secret. We almost tasted everything in the menu and this was the first time we had such a wonderful taste test experience.

Lime 88 serves a fun menu, check this out. Let me know what do you think are the most interesting one...

The heavy rains these days ruined the al fresco ambiance of Lime 88. They have limited covered areas. Since it is an old house, there's really nothing fancy about how it looks.

The living room is converted into a billiards place where you can play for P100/ hour.

We stayed in a private room inside the house. You can reserve this if you want some privacy and air conditioning.

Lime 88 Menu
Appetizers, Salad, Skewers, Poultry, Meat
Noodles, Pizza, Dessert, Seafood, Sandwiches, Drinks

Baked Oysters (P120) Hollandaise Asian Style, Wilted Kangkong -- The oysters come from Roxas City and my dad loved it. It would have been better served hot.

Balut in Red Wine Sauce (P120). Au Jus, duck eggs, butter. It started to get interesting when they serve balut. This is the place where I can bring my company visitors to try exotic stuff like balut. It was awesome if you like Balut.

Deep Fried California Maki (P150). Guimaras mango, Kani Sticks. I like the maki with the pork belly ala sisig inside it as the main ingredient. These are the white stuffed makis in the front.

Curried Fish Balls (P120). Red Curry, Coriander, Thai Chili. Fish ball sossy style P15 for each ball -- not bad. I like the thai chili twist to this. Maybe, they could consider serving authentic fish balls ala shabu shabu style with the same sweet and spicy sauce you can find on the streets. That's what my wife misses!

Quail Egg Tempura (P60). Soy mirin glaze, sinamak. I loved this specially with the soy and sinamak sauce. Although we know that each egg is high in cholesterol as compared with the regular sized egg.

Assorted Tagaytay Greens (P110). Sinamak Vinaigrette, pop nuts. This was boring and healthy but my mom liked it.

Green Mango Salad (P110). Coriander, Nuts, Thai Chili. This is the best salad they have to offer. The mango was not that sour and in fact it is the sweet buro kind of mango. This one taste like the Thai catfish salad minus the catfish. Gone in a minute!

Caesar Salad (P120). Pork Crackling, Salted Egg. I love the choice of chitcharon and the itlog na pula for this caesar salad. Only thing is the vegetables appeared to be soggy, other than that, it was a good combination.

Grilled hito (P120). Fermented Rice, Steamed Vegetables. Standard... but they sure know how to grill a hito. The buro and sinamak were very good complement to this grilled dish. My mom insisted on this hito and she was satisfied.

Green Mango Stuffed Grilled Tilapia (P120). Thai Chili, Sinamak. This one was grilled to perfection with the sweet green mango stuff inside.

Creamy Garlic Tuyo Pastas (P120). Extra Virgin Olive Oil, White Wine, Chili Flakes. This was our Favorite!! It was a little bit heavy and creamy but the gourmet tuyo brought this pasta to life every time you take a bite.

Street Style Barbecue Plater (P160). Chicken feet, ears, skin, chicken intestine, peanut sauce. Sossy Isaw and Sossy Pig ears serving... in Sinamak and the yummy peanut sauce. Perfect for the barkada pulutan.

Street Style Baby Back Ribs (P150). Barbecue Sauce, Mashed Potatoes. When we saw how big it was, we commented that it was such a good deal to order it at P150 only. The problem is the meat was cooked hard and we did not even bother to finish this.

Osso bucco style Kare Kare (P180). Beef shank, peanuts, grilled vegetables. This is another favorite as well. It is like eating kare kare with a tasty thick sauce, full of meat, and with a Barrio Fiesta bagoong. Highly recommended!

Street Style Pizza (P190). Longaniza, Tuyo, Kesong Puti. The combination of the ingredients were perfect but the pizza was soft and soggy, needs improvement. At P190, it is better to order the other dishes.

"Sossy Scramble", Dirty Ice Cream Tempura (P100). Lambanog shooter, tsokolate-eh. We must admit, this is the first time we have tasted Scramble that you can only in the streets of Manila. It was OK but it was quite interesting to have this for dessert.

Churros con tsokolate-eh (P120). Tablea, cinnamon, berry lambanog. We did not like it because it was so deeply fried and the chocolate was diluted.

M Cafe's Casuy Langka Sansrival (P800/ Box). We immediately recognized this when they served it because Rache was raving about M Cafe's sansrival. This is not in the menu but you can order it if you call in advance. We loved this and at at last, we can now order it at an affordable price. I suggest that you call Archie (+63 916 783 8876) directly if you want to order this. Call 3 days in advance to order the whole cake.

License to Chill (P60). Vodka, Melon liquer, Pineapple Juice. The cocktail drinks are also worth raving about.

Chef Archie and his culinary team. Thanks for the wonderful evening! We will surely go back with our friends :)

Lime 88. Street Food with a Twist
160 San Rafael St. Mandaluyong City, Philippines
Phone: +632 533 7515
Mobile: +63 916 783 9976
Email: juanta_kulinero@yahoo.com

Driving Directions:
Go to the Mandaluyong circle and turn into the street with Tapa King in the corner. Turn right when you see China Bank on your right and you should be able to see the Lime 88 sign from China bank. Lime 88 is on your right side.

anton signature