Galileo Enoteca, Mandaluyong

I love quaint, unpretentious places that surprise you with how good they truly are. There aren't many holes-in-the-wall that try to really go beyond people's expectations and elevate the standards that we have gotten used to.

You see, it's ironic. Filipinos are hard to please, but we let too many things pass.

Anyway, Galileo Enoteca is just that quaint, unpretentious hole-in-the-wall. Get off the main road and take a turn on a backstreet in a questionable neighborhood and there you will find Galileo Enoteca.

Inside, you'll forget where you are. The interiors are great. The place is quiet and cozy. The ambiance is so relaxing.

Surely Galileo Enoteca is no five-star restaurant. Service is bad, and inventory is not reliable. Nonetheless, I enjoyed my food and my night, and I will definitely go back.

Yes, I will go back to try their cold cuts and fresh mozzarella cheese. When we went there, they had no other kind than pasteurized mozzarella and one type of meat. Just imagine what went on in my mind when we tried to order Cheese Platter and Cold Cuts Platter, which are both on the menu, and I was told they only had one type for each.

If you're wondering, they refresh their stock of fresh mozzarella every 3rd week of the month, according to the lady server I asked on our way out. It doesn't last long, though.


Anyway, they serve complimentary bread while you wait for your order. We were hungry, so the plate was wiped clean right away.



We got a garden salad with tuna flakes. We were 99.9% sure that the tuna was taken from a can of Century Tuna.



I've forgotten what this pasta is called. Apparently, it had shrimps. Four, I think. No more than that. And I budgeted them very well throughout my meal. I wish they would extend their generosity.

As for the flavor, I liked it very much, although it was a bit subdued. The shrimps and noodles were cooked spot on, too.



Although my boyfriend loved this salmon steak dish, it confounded my taste buds. Its strange sweetness threw me off a bit. It tasted like sweet Christmas ham to me. The serving, though, was very filling.

I liked my pasta much more. I could have that again.

The best part of the night? The bottle of wine we got from their selection. It looks like a wide selection but there weren't much variety when we were there. A lot of the items on their wine list weren't available.

We chose an affordable semi-sweet red wine. Loved it. The flavor was perfect for me. It wasn't very astringent, and there was still bitterness. It tasted as if "semi-sweet" meant "less-bitter".


Total damage? About P1,500, including the bottle of wine. No service charge.

Not bad, I must say. You just have to be lucky enough to visit at a time when their stockroom isn't bleeding empty. Also, be patient because the service is slow, and the servers often disappear on you for several minutes.

I hope the owners and management fix these problems, because the concept, the place, the food and the wine are working doubly hard to pull them up. I want to go back only for the cold cuts and fresh mozzarella, really. After that, if the service and inventory still haven't improved, I probably won't dine there again. I can always have wine and pasta elsewhere.

If it weren't such a special night, I couldn't have had as great a time.

Galileo Enoteca is located at 80 Calbayog Street corner Malinao Street, Mandaluyong City. It's quite near Shangri-la Plaza, but on the other side of EDSA, in-between Shaw Boulevard and Boni Avenue.