Weekend Trip - Venice Pizza/McKinley Grand Canal Mall and Lunch Uncle Cheffy's

We've been having some adventures in the city since Friday.  We rode the Double Decker bus going to SM North last Friday. Today, we went to Venice Piazza and McKinley Grand Canal Mall. I took some photos.

This is the courtyard. There's a tiny bridge on the left. It's always busy with people taking photos. The whole place is modeled after old buildings in Venice. 

This is the canal. It's actually long and big. It's beautiful and much better than the canal at Marina Bay Sands. The gondolas here are also more beautiful. 

The gondolas are not yet functional but I'm pretty sure they will rent it out. 

The whole place has a nice ambiance. It's a perfect place to spend a weekend afternoon in with friends or family. The shops are not yet open and there's still a lot of construction going on so people come here mainly for the ambiance and to take photos. A mass was also being held when we got there. 

This is the ceiling of the Piazza. The whole place is full of restaurants. The second floor houses the fast food joints. It also has Posh Nails, Fix and a spa. 

The canal is of course, at the Grand Canal Mall. Both malls are connected to each other. 

We had lunch at Uncle Cheffy's in Venice Piazza. On the sign, it says that they have the best barbecues in town. I was intrigued. 

Here's what we ordered:

This is the Uncle Cheffy's Favorite pizza. It looks "kawawa" really with just a handful of toppings. I ate it Dear Darla style, putting the greens and tomatoes in the center and rolling it up. It was super thin and for me, that's the only way to eat it. The pizza itself is bland but the salad added some flavor to it. Love the alfalfa sprouts. I keep forgetting to buy me some at the grocery. 

This is the medium order of calamares. Kuse and Uncle Cheffy are connected and you can order from both menus. The calamares is from Kuse which offers Filipino food. The calamares was okay. It lacked salt so it needed a dip. It came with a sweet and sour dip. When I tasted it, I thought vinegar would be a more suitable partner but the vinegar they gave us was blah as well. We had some leftovers and I'm going to "fix" it later and serve it with Sukang Pinakurat. 

Finally, some U.S. beef ribs (250g) which also costs 250 pesos. This was bland. The sauce on top can only do so much. It needed some salt and pepper. It also needed a good marinade. The salad greens had a drizzle of vinaigrette which was salty and sour. The baby potatoes were also drizzled with the same. My husband and I shared everything. The little one didn't want to eat. He was cranky and sleepy and wanted to chase the pigeons in the courtyard. 

The restaurant is small but it can accommodate several tables inside. There's also an al fresco dining area but it was too hot and windy outside. We were there early but come lunch time, a line started to form outside, probably because it was the only place serving Filipino food and the orders were for sharing. 

Our bill was a little over 800 pesos. I gave my PWD card but I only got a 48-peso discount. The food also came out surprisingly fast, less than 5 minutes. In 10 minutes, our order was complete. We won't go back as the food lacked flavor. They have an ongoing promo of all you can eat calamares and baked/fried chicken and another dish for only 199 pesos per person. I guess that's why it's so popular. The medium calamares also costs 199. The pizza was 200+. We also ordered bottomless ice tea and Pepsi. 

Check out my next post about Robinsons Selections.