Thursday, August 28, 2008

Fat Michaels, Makati


Apparently this place has been around for quite some time, but this was the first time I had been here. Fat Michaels is a quaint restaurant located in the Evangelista are (Makati). Its an old house converted into a restauarnt with seating capacity of around 30 people max (or maybe even less) The place is decorated like an old house, with old books, silk scarves hanging on the lights and even a mini slot machine. The menu is written on blackboards hanging by the wall.

The place is named after the owners son, Michael. I've heard that many people come to eat here. Its a must to make a reservation since there are very few tables.

As for the food, its quite simple food but well prepared and very affordable. We were 3 and we ordered practically the whole menu since we wanted to try everything..For starters we had the taco salad bowl.. a taco converted into a salad. Quite tasty and a bit spicy.

Fort the main course we had the ff: NY Steak, Grilled Pork chops, Fish fillet, Lamb and Paella. What I liked most was the lamb which came with brown 'garlic' rice. The Pokchop was also quite tasty although a bit dry (probably because the slice is just too thick (2 inches approximately)



I was quite impressed with their paella. It had egg, peas, string beans, red pepper and a type of sausage. Very tasty and cooked just right (not too wet and not too dry). Their paella is better then some I've tried from so called "spanish" restaurants in Manila. Aside from this one they also had black paella in their menu but we just had too many dishes in our table already.

For dessert we had coffee/chocolate cake and Pancake a la mode. The chocolate cake was quite dry so we didn't really touch it after the first bite, but the pancake a la mode was probably the best dessert in their menu. Thick pancake with lots and lots of butter and syrup, with a big scoop of vanilla ice cream on top. What made this really good was that the pancake was toasted/crunchy on the outside but very soft on the inside, plus the loads of salted butter and syrup they used.

For wine, we had a 98 Les Pagodes de Cos, from St. Estephe. Wine was very good and went well with the meats but it would have been better if they had bigger/better wine glasses.

I would recommend this place if you want to have a simple/home cooked meal, and if you are on a budget, this place is perfect. The owner/chef is also very friendly.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hey, M.

Did you get your '98 Pagodes locally? From Terry's or Mike Lopez's shop?

I've had it once before and liked it. Pagodes, together with Les Forts de Latour, are my favorite 2nd wines from the Médoc.

Best,

N

Miguel said...

Yes got it locally from Terrys. Cost was around 3,500 I think. Ia lso liked it very much.

Unknown said...

looks like a good find... will try this one soon... thanks for sharing...

Miguel said...

No prob. Let me know how it goes once you try it.

Anonymous said...

heard that customers who ate here got robbed recently. maybe, the owner should hire security guards. my friends told me that i should try the food and wine here at fat michaels. they said it's superb! i'm kinda having second thoughts about it because of security reasons...we'll see.