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Pasto at Eastwood City Walk.

There was a time a few years back when we had to hang out at Pasto (El Pueblo branch) almost everyday because one of our friends worked at the Ortigas business district. I remember ordering coffee then, but I realized I’ve never ever tried their pasta. So for dinner, I decided to visit the Eastwood branch for my two-week spaghetti diet.

Pasto’s Polpette (“spaghetti with Italian meatballs in our homemade tomato sauce”) sounded as basic as it could get, which was what I wanted, so I gave it a try. It was worth 215 bucks plus their service charge.

Pasto's Polpette.

Now, it’s not that I’m faulting Pasto for something I’m about to say, but I think I have to point out that I eat a lot, thus I like huge servings for my meals. And so when my food was finally plopped down on my table, I already knew it wasn’t going to be enough. (Okay, maybe I’ll fault Pasto; after all, I don’t see what makes it so different from other restaurants in the same area.)

However, what the meal lacks in volume, it kind of makes up for in taste. It was good, and I guess what makes this one special are the meatballs: they’re just so damned tender that I thought it was going to break up in mouth without me having to chew it down. But it was good. Really, really good. And they had five of those on my plate.

The tomato sauce wasn’t that thrilling; I dare say that Fazoli’s sauce was better (and when it comes down to it, a lot cheaper, too). Not thrilling, but good, nonetheless.

I also ordered a ripe mango fruit shake to complete the experience (115 pesos plus service charge).

Mango Frullati.

The verdict. Not worth the price. Sure, the spaghetti was good, but you could get something better (in taste and volume) at some other (uh, cheaper) place. For all this, I give Pasto’s Polpette a 5 out of 10.

For more than 200 bucks, you could do better.

(The Spaghetti Journal is a two-week long hunt for the best good old spaghetti recipe at the Fort Bonifacio area and Eastwood City, where the author works and lives, respectively.)