Nono’s at the UP Town Center is still in its soft opening phase but the service is polite, prompt and well-sorted. The comfort food-centric menu is laden with thoughtful flourishes.
We started our early dinner with the Fried Truffle Cheese Wontons, which were nicely-shaped, properly crispy on the outside and filled with cheesy goodness inside.
The mozzarella and cheddar filling had an agreeably smooth texture and a gentle, mild taste in what proved to be a good starter. I’ve always considered truffle oil as a contrived ingredient, and the use of this “oil” in the wontons didn’t add anything apart from perhaps a few more pesos to the price. The nuts and drizzled honey were a nice addition, something out of the ordinary in a typical “savory” wonton. Come to think of it, this was a glorified cheese stick.
It was when the Homestyle Fried Chicken and the Classic Bolognese were laid down on our table that we realized, much to our unintended amusement, that we actually ordered kiddie party mains.
Good fowl. The batter wasn’t oily. Agreeably light and crispy, if in need of a few pinches more salt. The deboned fillet was juicy, nicely complemented by the tasty and peppery gravy. The gravy made the chicken complete. I wouldn’t have enjoyed the dish as much without it. There were three cuts of corn and three rolls. Shouldn’t there be three chicken pieces as well? The restaurant may need to ditch the bread (which seemed to be made in-house) and the corn altogether to drive the Php 565 price down.
The semi-soggy pasta could be faulted to noodles that were cooked less than al dente and thus couldn’t hold their own against the ragu. The Bolognese was the weakest dish among our orders.
Two out of three ain’t bad at all. Next time we need to save space for the cakes, and should also already expect the meal prices to be higher than usual.
