Va Bene Pasta Deli

As someone who loves pasta, I have always wanted to try Va Bene Pasta Deli after seeing it being featured numerous times as one of the best Italian restaurants in the metro. It's original branch is located on the second floor of a gas station in Makati, but since I don't usually frequent that city, I didn't really have the chance to drop by. Luckily, they opened a branch at the BGC Cinemas so I was able to finally try it when my boyfriend, Martin and I attended the Great British Festival. 

If the many Best Restaurant awards on their wall are not enough to convince you of how amazing this place is, then their food definitely will.  

While waiting for our food to arrive, they served us a complimentary appetizer of bruschetta to be topped with a mixture of tomatoes, olives, capers, olive oil and cheese. These are just a few simple ingredients but I have no idea how they were able to make it taste so incredible. The flavors were perfectly balanced - sweet tomatoes, tart olives, with the salty cheese. I have never had tomatoes taste that good. If they can impress me with just tomato salsa, you can just imagine how delicious their other dishes are.

I was so excited to try their Organic Eggs Tagliatelle which I once saw be featured on a TV show. It has portobello mushrooms, white wine cream sauce, and truffle oil. I am not kidding when I tell you, this pasta is what dreams are made of. It's so good that when we finished the pasta, we were still literally scraping off the leftover sauce off the plate. The sauce is so creamy without being too heavy. The tagliatelle is perfectly al dente, and it's thickness allows it to hold enough sauce. The mushrooms add a subtle earthiness and meatiness to the dish, and of course the truffle oil just adds that touch of luxury to the dish. If you can only try one dish from Va Bene, make sure it's this dish. It's easily one of the best pasta dishes I have ever had (and I've eaten a lot of pasta). 

Unfortunately, they weren't serving pizza when we went there so for our second dish we had their potato gnocchi. I made the most of the opportunity because I really like gnocchi but not a lot of restaurants serve it. Their version is cooked with gorgonzola cheese which is a bleu cheese, arugula and wild nuts. The gnocchi were so soft and pillowy, and the strong, distinct flavor of the gorgonzola makes the sauce more interesting than any other cheesy cream sauce. 

Va Bene Pasta Deli is definitely one of the best restaurants I've tried when it comes to the pasta. Nothing I've tasted comes close to how delicious the Organic Eggs Tagliatelle was. They have certainly set the bar high with the quality of their dishes. It's definitely a must-try if you're on the hunt for some incredible pasta dishes. 

*Edit: A few weeks after going there for the first time, we went back and had their Black Ink Tagliolini and Massimo Pizza.

Another one of their pasta best-sellers is the Black Ink Tagliolini so while I was so tempted to just have the Organic Eggs Tagliatelle again, I decided to try something else. Good thing I did because I found this dish to be so unique. Since it has Black Ink in it's name, I thought the sauce would have squid ink. To my surprise, the ink is actually incorporated in the noodles, making the pasta black which I found to be clever. The texture of the seafood, especially the squid, was not rubery. The marinara sauce brightens the flavor the tomato cream sauce. I would recommend this if you want something a lighter pasta dish. 

We also had the Massimo pizza which is topped with mozzarella, ricotta, capers, black olive pesto, italian sausage and prawns. I liked the combination of the toppings especially since I love cheese but I wasn't fan of the crust. It was not the pizza crust that I expected because it was thick and had a foccaccia-like texture. It wasn't the usual thin, crisp, chewy pizza crust I'm used to. If you like your pizza the same way as I do, I would recommend to just stick to the pasta dishes.