Saturday, April 03, 2010

Me and Mr. Jones

Finally was able to grab a seat inside Mr. Jones (who is Mr. Jones anyway?), an upscale diner located along restaurant row in Greenbelt 5. The smallish restaurant only has around 8 tables in airconditioned comfort; more seats are available outside, if one doesn't mind the heat and a rather strong pair of misters (no not bouncers; I meant machines which spray water mist to cool the air through evaporation; end of science lesson) which instead of being pointed skywards, is tilted towards the tables and diners (yummy, finely misted dirty water in your food!). If you are like me and would prefer indoor seating (where it is cool and dry), make sure you either arrive early (11:30ish) or later (after 1pm).

Have had two meals in Mr. Jones and the dishes ranged from good to great. The green salad is a huge bowl of mixed, unusual greens, topped with soft boiled egg, orange slices, olives, grapes, feta cheese, walnuts, and parmesan cheese shavings, served with what I think is a honey balsamic vinaigrette. This was yummy; had it two days straight and still liked it (best salad I've had in a long time). I and my dining companion had the salad split into two; but even this portion size was substantial. If you aren't too hungry, half of this salad would make a fantastic light lunch. In this first meal, we also ordered the bacon-wrapped meat loaf, again split into two. The portions served to us, even halved, were substantial. The meat loaf was moist, but lacked a certain oomph. It was good, but could have been better. The slab of ground meat was served with a mound of mashed potato, baby carrots and haricot verts (green beans, pardon my french).

My second meal (which was exactly 25 hours later) I and another dining companion had the same salad (well, she hadn't tried it and i liked it still), tomato soup, and taco. The tomato soup was thick and creamy (with the addition of cream); it came with a grilled cheese sandwich; the soup alone would have made a satisfying light lunch. I found the soup a tad salty, but not to the extent that I couldn't slurp it down. It was a nice touch that the soup contained alphabet-shaped pasta. The taco was gigantic; a huge quantity of rice, black beans, tomato, onions, cheese, lettuce enveloped by a crispy taco shell (which I think is made by the restaurant; had that homemade quality, which is good). One has the choice of fish or beef; we had beef and what a lot of beef! Whole chunks of grilled steak! The taco was served with tomato and onion salsa, pickled jalapenos, and sour cream. Owing to the impending mess, I always eat my taco salad-style (which just means you break up the taco and mixed everything together, doused with liberal spikes of hot sauce). Yum!

The price points per dish is rather steep (from P300 to P500) but serving sizes are huge. I strongly recommend sharing; splitting with your friends also means you get to try more dishes! For both meals, i spent a shade or two below P500. Service is excellent and the wait staff knowledgable and helpful.

Mr. Jones is my current favorite in Greenbelt 5 (also known as the great wasteland; so many restaurants, so many bad and overpriced). I will certainly be back for more; in both visits, i failed to sample dessert owing to the huge size of main courses. The milk shakes (served to the other diners) look fantastic; the breakfast selection also seems inviting (I spent minutes reading the description for a five-stack lemon ricotta blueberry pancake).

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