Thursday, June 02, 2011

cel vs. food: elbert's steak room

During my visit to Manila last month, I had the pleasure of paying a visit to Elbert's Steak Room, an elegant establishment tucked in a nondescript building in Salcedo Village. Finding the place proved to be a bit of an adventure, as I breezed right past the third floor and ended up on Sagittarius Building's rooftop! It was worth the trouble though as Elbert's Steak Room is definitely paradise for a carnivore like myself.

In addition to the beautiful meal, I had some lovely company. Hosting our little group was Liza Ilarde, the eternally chic editor-in-chief of Style Weekend who is also Elbert's wife. Also joining in on the steak massacre was Katrina Holigores, editor-in-chief of Expat Travel and Lifestyle Magazine and one of my all-around favorite people in the universe. Liza and Katrina were my former colleagues back in my publishing days at MEGA.
Every steak order at Elbert's Steak Room comes with a soup and salad. As if our meal wasn't sinful enough, the soup that night was a delightfully rich French onion soup. We assured ourselves that if we had our two glasses of red wine, we would be fine. According to Katrina, red wine is a vasodilator and would help our steak fat-laced blood slither through our veins despite the overindulgence. So getting our drink on was a good thing, as long as we kept it to two glasses of wine. What Liza and I wanted to know was, how big is this glass that studies speak of? I could totally deal with it if were the size of, say, Jules' beloved Big Joe or Big Carl.

But I digress. The point of the evening was to indulge in some delicious meat, and that we did. I followed Liza's example and ordered a rib-eye while Katrina went with the filet mignon. I had planned on going all out with the porterhouse but after the heartstopping salad of foie gras and grilled eel that I had the night before at Opus, I feared for my cholesterol levels. The rib-eye turned out to be just perfect. It was cooked a beautiful medium rare with the outside nicely seared and the inside juicy and still rosy—just the way I like it. The meat was nicely marbled with fat and oh-so-juicy. It didn't stand a chance.
There are too many places in Manila where meat gets mercilessly cooked to a dry pulp so I can certainly appreciate the value of having a legit steak room like Elbert's where one can get a properly cooked steak with good wine. Prices for steak dinners run from P1800-2900 (approximately $49-67) but for the quality of meat served, I think it's only fair. The next time you feel the need to show a steak who's boss, I recommmend paying Elbert's Steak Room a visit.



Elbert’s Steak Room is located at 3/F Sagittarius Building III, 111 H. V. de la Costa Street, Salcedo Village, Makati City 1227, Philippines

2 comments:

TJ Ramos said...

Thanks for the tip, Celine =) I'm always on the lookout for great steak. Might check out Elbert for my monthsary =)

You may want to try Myron's too. Love their steak as well =)

(By the way, thanks for inspiring me with your 30before30 project. I still visit it often.)

Do check out my blog when you have the time http://celebrationoffirsts.blogspot.com

celine said...

Thanks for the comment, TJ! Elbert's Steak Room would definitely be a great place to celebrate a special day. I'll have to check out Myron's the next time I come visit.

Thank you too for following 30 Before 30! I'm on a bit of a blogging break on 30 Before 30 but I hope to start writing on it again soon!

Lovely blog you have! I will dig deeper over the weekend when I have more time to browse ... for now, back to the saltmines!

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