Sweet Talk - one fine dining place

Pssst. Let me tell you something... I stumbled upon a "sweet" surprise yesterday when my best friend from college and I met up today for a late afternoon snack. We needed to catch up on each other as we haven't hooked up for the longest of time.

Things are so much different now and so unlike in college and in the years after. We were still fancy-free then and could go out anytime we liked with nary a thought of how things would be in the home front as we still lived with our parents. But now, as homemakers ourselves, any social plans can only be made after adjustment are made on our donestic duties (e.g. ensuring that dinner would be ready when the hubby comes, children are fed and tutored, etc.). Yes, we still are fancy, but not that free anymore.

So there we were at the Tacloban Convention Center, a fast growing dining hub, and decided to try a restaurant that showed much promise from the outside. Far from its name, "Sweet Talk" serves anything but desserts. It's menu consists of pizzas, pasta dishes and sandwiches. No rice meals around here. At first glance the items look pricey as nothing goes below 150php for a single order, except for the beverages of course. But not to worry for the budget-conscious diner, they have big servings and an order of a plate of any pasta dish is good enough to share. A pizza priced at 185php-up can satisfy the hunger pangs of three people.

Finding some of the pasta items unfamilar and not feeling adventurous at that time, we had carbonara, something we easily recognized. It was more than filling as between the two of us. Verdict: four thumbs up. The sauce was a little on the sweet side, but just an eensi weenie bit. Perhaps this was due in part to the rich milk and cream that was added to it. The pasta noodles was cooked just right, soft but not sticky. Bits of bacon and ham and a sprinkling of mushrooms added spice and a certain tanginess that went well the slight sweet taste. Its one of the best carbonara I've had. The trick here is in the sauce, real creamy and the pasta was full of it.With drinks, our bill was only Php220.00 with no service charge. Now that's what I would call reasonable.

Looking around I felt transported to one of those dining places in Greenbelt. Finally, a place whose food matched the calibre of that hard to quantify criterion of any restaurant, its ambiance. When we asked who the owner was, it figured, Jose Karlo's interiors was just as tastefully done in rich wood colors. It's restrooms are clean and is beautiful enough to lounge on. If the carbonara is any indication, then the food here is definitely a must try.

With an almost perfect view (the shanties does obscure the waterfront), fine food, elegant interiors and reasonable prices, what's there not to like about "Sweet Taste"?