Review: Circa 1850

I've been wanting to do a review of Circa 1850 for a while now but just never the the time and the motivation (nowadays it's always Phone vs. Computer) so I'm doing this just now (4 months after I took these photos). Anyway, I love their concept and menu. It's a must-visit for any self-respecting gastronome in the city. We only have a few restaurant of this caliber in the city (and Bourbon just closed recently--I can still hear my heart breaking and my stomach growling) Read on for a more comprehensive review that mostly depends on my ability to recall vivid memories.

My first visit was last December when Globe peoples invited us for lunch and the CDO bloggers recommended Circa 1850. As I thought, it's a relative of Sentro 1850 which is one of the oldest, most reputable restos in the city. Circa is located at the foot of Tune Hotel along the highway between MUST and Centrio Mall.

The interiors, as you can see, is awesome and unlike any in the city. I love how mechanical everything looks, evened out by the roundness of the chairs and dishes. The place utilizes alot of natural light but I assume it to be well lit even at night because of the abundance of tiny lightbulbs on the ceilings. Its ambiance is similar to that of a cafe, people are talking. Mostly business people come in but friends and occasionally families are not hard to spot either.

Oh, look! Even their menu is organic (half kidding, half serious--refer to their tagline "Deliciously Natural"). The crew took on a defensive stance when I laughed at their menu (which was on ordinary bond paper), claiming that it was still temporary. Nonetheless, I had quite a laugh that only stopped when I saw they've got quite the Italian menu and Italian makes me serious (my stomach is mostly Italian, alright?)

Here we find a glimpse of the bar/kitchen. More of that later. In real time, I was on my way to the conference room. Oh yes, bricks. I love bricks. Any place with bricks wins me over. Bricks intermingled with wood, concrete and steel, executed beautifully. Needless to say, they're bagging the "Best Interiors in Town" award from me.

The conference room provides privacy and adequate lighting. I really enjoyed chatting up new blogging friends in here. It provides privacy and such. You don't need me to explain what a conference room is so let's move on..

This looks like a bar of some sort. They're really busy and don't look like they had time for an interview (on second thought, I don't have time for an interview)

I just got here. From class, so uniform! And brick walls (for which I have natural affinity).

The food was enjoyable--the pasta delectable and the meat remarkable. I wasn't there to review so I didn't take notes so I might have forgotten details now. What I do remember is the panna cotta. The mango one tastes more like matcha than the actual matcha but it was soft and nicely executed.

Meanwhile, I really enjoyed the interiors (as I said) so here's just some more photos of that. I do look forward to having more of them (by then, I'll bring my notebook) so I can better review them. For now, let's just think of this as my interiors spazz-fest wink wink